Porsche Trots Out Taycan Turbo GT–Its Most Powerful Car Yet!
Porsche rolls out mad Taycan Turbo GT; destroys Tesla EV records.
Porsche has responded to Tesla’s Plaid taunts with the most powerful model in its history in the week of the 75th anniversary of launching its first cars in Geneva in 1949. Starting at $231,995, the wild new 1019 HP Porsche Taycan Turbo GT gets a radically tuned chassis and powertrain and is even available as a two-seater.
The first electric car from Porsche’s GT division, the new Taycan Turbo GT is among the fastest four-door cars on the market. It has already smashed Tesla’s EV lap records set at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and set a new standard EV mark at California’s Laguna Seca racetrack.
The Turbo GT swaps the regular Taycan’s rear motor with a silicon-carbide inverted device that reduces energy losses as the transistors switch from the on to off state. This allows for 300A greater 900A maximum current to significantly boost maximum power. Fueled by the regular 96 kWh Taycan battery, driving range is about 340 miles.
Taycan Turbo GT Can Deliver a Handy 1019 Horsepower
Launch-control starts see peak power briefly spike to 1019 HP. The Turbo GT’s two-speed gearbox furthermore gets a new gear ratio and modifications to support up to 988 lb.-ft of torque, and to propel the car to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds. A special Weissach package drops that to just 2.1 seconds.
Tesla reckons that its Model S Plaid does 60 mph in 1.99 seconds. That is however less the dreaded one-foot rollout, which Tesla subtracts in its tests. Which means that the Model S Plaid will reach 60 mph in about 2.3 seconds without that rollout advantage that Porsche does not use.
Producing 70 more HP than the tri-motor Tesla Model S Plaid for that two second spike, the Turbo GT develops a regular 777 HP. An Attack Mode push-to-pass function inspired by the Porsche 99X Formula E car delivers 900 HP for 10 seconds at a time. Top speed is 180 mph, or 190 mph for the Weissach package. A specially calibrated Porsche Active Ride suspension brings ‘almost perfect connection to the road’.
Carbonfibre Lashings Slash Taycan Turbo GT Weight, Sets Records
The Taycan Turbo GT is also 165 lbs. lighter. Thanks to carbonfibre lashings in the B-pillars, bucket seats and forged lightweight 21-inch wheels. The soft-closing trunk is gone, the ceramic brakes are 4-pounds lighter. Another 150 lbs. lighter, the Weissach kit ‘eliminates equipment not required for track driving’. So goodbye rear seats, mats, and sound deadening and hello fixed carbonfibre wing and lightweight glass.
All of which has conspired to see a street-legal Taycan Turbo GT lap the 14.1-milke Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 7.55 seconds. That’s a full 18 seconds quicker the Model S Plaid Track Pack’s old record. The Turbo GT has also lapped Laguna Seca in 1 minute 27.87 seconds on road tires. A second off an Unplugged tuned Tesla Model S Plaid on race rubber.
“This is as extreme as the Taycan can feasibly get,” Porsche Taycan development boss Kevin Giek explains. “You could go a bit further if you used race tires and throw out more weight. But then it’s not street-legal anymore.” The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is available to order now, ahead of deliveries ‘starting in the coming months.
Images: Porsche