TRACTION REPLAY

With a staggering 701bhp, the 992.2-generation 911 Turbo S is the most powerful production 911 there's ever been. It also promises a return to the all-round brilliance of the best Turbos

- by JOHN BARKER PHOTOGRAPHY by MARK RICCIONI for PORSCHE

AS THE PRESS CONFERENCE UNFOLDS AND MORE details are revealed, there's a growing feeling that the 911 Turbo is getting right back to its core values. It started moving that way in 2020 with the first 992-generation Turbo S, after a number of years when the Turbo was quite hardcore, a quasi-GT2 if you will, the product of a company rattled by the arrival of the Nissan GT-R.

When the GT-R landed in 2008 it offered similar specification, performance and practicality to the Turbo for half the price - and provocatively set a Nürburgring lap time for the Germans to chase. And chase they did. But the monster under Porsche's bed is no more, vanquished not by the Turbo but something more mundane: more stringent European drive-by noise regulations.

The 911 Turbo's pivot back to its traditional values continues with the 992.2 model, a designation that suggests a routine, midlife revision but is anything but. Essentially, Porsche has fitted the hybrid running gear of the 911 GTS but uprated to Turbo S levels, lifting power to 701bhp and creating the most powerful production 911 ever.

So out goes the 3.8-litre engine of the previous Turbo and in comes the GTS's 3.6, but with a pair of smaller, electrically assisted 'eTurbos' rather than one big one, further enhancing response. Regardless of engine load, the moment the throttle opens, the eTurbos' integral motors, sitting on the shaft between compressor wheel and turbine, spin up to deliver boost, preventing lag. Then, on a closed throttle, they are driven by excess exhaust gases and act as wastegates and generators, feeding power back into the hybrid battery.

As in the GTS, there's an electric motor incorporated into the PDK gearbox, putting energy directly into the four-wheel-drive system, with up to 370lb ft of torque delivered to the water-cooled differential of the front axle. Unlike its obvious rivals, the 911 offers no EV-only mode: the hybrid system is there purely to enhance performance.