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By Jonathan Crouch

Can any car be deemed a supercar if you can use it every day? Jonathan Crouch ponders the devastatingly rapid yet wholly untemperamental 992.2-era Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 63

Porsche's 911 Turbo S can humble virtually any stratospherically-priced supercar you care to name to terms of real-world usable performance. It was always fast but in this 992.2-series 3.6-litre T-Hybrid form, that speed is more accessible. So it's not only one of the most technologically advanced cars ever built, it's also one of the most exhilarating. In short, another engineering master-class from Porsche.

Backgroundword count: 227

Give Porsche £200,000 or thereabouts and it will hand over the keys to one of the fastest and most capable cars in the world. It's called the 911 Turbo S. Now that's a lot of money to the vast majority of motorists, but when we're talking about cars that can hurl themselves from a standing start to 62mph in just 2.5s and return well over 200mph, it's actually quite reasonable. Porsche of course, was one of the very first manufacturers to adopt Turbo technology - with the famous 'whale tail' 3.0-litre 930-series 911 Turbo model of 1975, which offered what today seems a relatively paltry 260PS output. Generations of much faster 911 Turbo models followed. For the 21st century's third decade though, Porsche reckoned it was about time that this uber-fast 911 flagship derivative should have a change of heart. Sure enough, the 992-series car was announced in early 2020 with an all-new engine, the 3.0-litre flat six from the ordinary 911 Carrera but bored out to 3.7-litres and fitted with symmetrical VTG variable-geometry turbos. It was available with either 580PS - or a jaw-dropping 650PS in the faster Turbo S form that most chose. That S version is now standardised for this 992.2 model, which gains the 3.6-litre T-Hybrid powertrain from the 992.2 GTS model and with 711PS is the most powerful production 911 to date.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 218

So what might the fastest-ever 911 be like? The stats from the new GTS model-derived 3.6-litre T-Hybrid flat six powertrain seem promising (the 711PS total output is a significant 61PS greater than the earlier 992-era model), though the 800Nm torque figure is the same. So it's not surprising that if you flick the drive mode from 'Sport' into 'Sport Plus', the 2.5s 0-62mph time is just 0.2s faster, en route to a similar 200mph top speed. Unlike with some other performance models in this segment, this electrified powertrain can't be plugged in. Instead, there's a 1.9kW battery driving an electric motor connected to the shaft between the compressor and turbine wheels in each turbo. This enables the turbos to spool up more quickly than before, delivering more punchy throttle response and awesomely quick point-to-point performance. Additionally, the battery feeds an electric motor in the reinforced 8-speed PDK auto gearbox, further improving throttle response. What else? Well there are now wider 325mm rear tyres to better put down the 4WD system's traction. And bigger brakes with standard carbon ceramic discs. As with other 992.2 911s, rear-wheel steering's standard. And there are cross-connected electrohydraulic active anti-roll bars that now activate quicker. All of which contributed to a lap time that was a full 14 seconds faster around the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

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