My kidneys are going to hurt every time I see a picture of Porsche’s top-spec electric sedan now.
The 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S is officially the “third-quickest” automobile that Car & Driver has ever tested. “Only the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Lamborghini Huracán Performante beat it to 60 mph in our testing,” wrote Connor Hoffman in a review that went live on C&D’s website today.
In the publication’s independent testing, the Taycan Turbo S did 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and cleared a quarter-mile in 10.5 seconds at 130 mph.
Hot. Damn.
“It feels that quick,” commented our own Brad Brownell, who has ripped a launch control pass in the Taycan Turbo S. “Mind bendy.” Indeed. That kind of acceleration in a daily drivable road car is downright preposterous. I think I could spare another second to 60 mph in exchange for more than 192 miles of range, but nobody asked me because I’m not about to drop $186,350 on a car anyway.
Still, what a time to be alive.
DISCUSSION
These are incredible numbers from a stock turbo. My guess is, with an aftermarket tune, and a larger turbocharger, this car might do two seconds, flat. I’m not sure how much these turbos are tuned for low-end, off the line torque, but my gut tells me with a quarter mile time like that, they have to come on boost fairly high.
Some of the 911 Turbos have a boost peak feature, where they can sustain 24+ psi for short periods of time, before settling down at 16-18 psi. I forget the name of it, but it sounds like this is a feature they’re using. It shouldn’t hurt the longevity or reliability of the engine though.
This is yet another example of how turbochargers really can be a "replacement for displacement", not matter what the Mopar guys say.