It’s difficult to say with certainty, but the 2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S is probably the fastest road car in the world. Sure, there are cars that are more powerful, faster in a straight line, have more grip and are quicker around corners.
In the real world though, I’m not sure anything can deploy its available reserves with such efficacy. In anything low-slung and exotic you’d be backing off for bumps so as not to tear the front spoiler off.
In anything rear-wheel drive you’d be cautious on the throttle lest the rear wheels are overwhelmed; in anything track-focused any variation in road surface – dirt or moisture – would have you hesitating in case the semi-slick tyres lose purchase.
The 911 Turbo S does not concern itself with such trivialities. Regardless of the road or conditions, it is a four-wheeled rocket ship, goading the driver to keep up and exploit its extraordinary capabilities.
As is typical for Porsche, exterior changes for the 992.2 facelift are relatively mild. I’m not sure the front is as handsome as its predecessor – you may disagree – but the classic dark-green-over-tan spec of this press car is ace.
There’s enough carbon to make an aerospace company blush. Inside it’s pretty standard 992.2, including the now purely digital instrument display, infotainment and lots of leather, especially as there has been some liberal box-ticking when it comes to the options list.
And this brings us to the question of money, at which point you might want to sit down: the base price of the 992.2 Turbo S is $577,300 plus on-road costs. On the one hand, this is absolutely reasonable.
If you put the 996 Turbo S’s $348,700 ask from 2005 into the Reserve Bank’s inflation calculator, it will spit out $622,000 in today’s money, making the current model look relatively good value.
On the other hand, it’s an increase of more than $100,000 over its predecessor and the options lift the as-tested price of this press car to $683,880 (plus on-roads). This is now an extraordinarily expensive car.
Substantial changes have taken place under the skin, including the first twin-turbo version of Porsche’s new hybrid powertrain. The flat-six engine has shrunk from 3.8 to 3.6-litres, with a longer stroke and smaller bore.
The compression ratio has increased from 8.7 to 9.2:1 and the turbochargers are smaller. That means better response, but pure engine power has actually decreased from 478kW/800Nm to 471kW/760Nm.
Add the hybrid system, however, and outputs increase to 523kW/800Nm, the latter now available from 2300-6000rpm rather than 2500-4000rpm in the 992. There’s a beautifully circuitous harmony to the 911’s electrification.
The new turbos use electricity from the 1.9kWh battery pack as well as exhaust gases to spin up the compressor wheels, but can also feed kinetic energy back into the battery.
A 60kW/188Nm electric motor in the gearbox not only aids propulsion but operates as the starter motor and alternator, which along with electrically driven air conditioning eliminates the traditional belt system.
It also provides space for the DC/DC converter, inverter and lithium-ion battery. The 400-volt hybrid system operates the electro-hydraulic active anti-roll bars, part of a suite of chassis enhancements that include all-wheel steering and ridiculously huge carbon-ceramic brakes.
420mm front discs with 10-piston calipers and 410mm rear discs with four-piston calipers, feature. Front rolling stock remains 20 x 9.5-inch rims with 255/35 tyres, but the rear rims are now a half-inch wider at 21 x 12.0-inch with 10mm-wider tyres measuring 325/30.
The bad news is that the combination of the bigger wheels and hybrid system has led to an 85kg weight gain. That’s quite impressive given the hardware installed, but it also means the 992.2 Turbo S weighs 1725kg unladen, a point we’ll return to later.
The hybrid system makes itself known immediately, the engine firing into life the instant you press the button with almost alarming speed. It’s also evident in the way it smoothly accelerates the car both from standstill and when overtaking.
That’s when you realise you are swiftly gaining speed with seemingly little throttle input. In other respects, the 911 Turbo S experience has changed little. The steering is about perfect in its weighting, for instance.
The ride is firm but just on the right side of acceptable for long-distance comfort and there’s enough tyre roar to need to turn the stereo up when cruising at highway speeds.
When you find an appropriate road to give the new Turbo S its head you quickly discover it’s not so much a car as a teleportation device, transporting you from one spot to another without any real concept of what happened in between.
The performance claims provide a clue to this. Porsche states 0-100km/h takes 2.5 seconds (-0.2 seconds over the 992). Zero to 200km/h takes 8.4sec (-0.5 seconds).
Given when I performance tested the last version, it clocked 2.58 seconds to 100km/h and 8.46 seconds to 200km/h, there’s strong evidence to suggest these new claims are equally pessimistic.
Perhaps most laughably of all, Porsche claims the new car’s top speed is 322km/h, but as redline in sixth equates to 365km/h, I don’t see how a car of the Turbo S’s potency isn’t reaching at least 350km/h.
The previous Turbo S took a moment to build boost and then shoved you in the back with a violence that felt like the car was doing a wheel stand. Electrification has smoothed out delivery to the point the power ‘curve’ looks like the hypotenuse on a dyno graph triangle.
You float in your seat under hard acceleration, and the revs rise so quickly that you’ll frequently clatter into the rev limiter in second, especially as it feels a little short. There is the occasional slow-speed jolt and it feels unusually conservative on downshifts.
It’s the car’s only real weakness. The brakes have the stamina of a Kenyan marathon runner and can almost stop your breathing, there’s enough grip to virtually suck the road markings off the tarmac, but possibly the Turbo S’s most surprising attribute is how playful it is.
It will happily rotate under power and the Sports ESP setting is lenient enough to require significant counter steering and leave thick black lines on the road on corner exit. It’s like discovering the Bengal tiger you’ve come across in the jungle just wants to play fetch.
The front end will chase cambers, too, the steering writhing in your hands, so this isn’t some locked-down car that just drives itself. But if this ultimate 911’s expressiveness is its most surprising attribute, possibly its most impressive one is its harmony.
Despite nuclear power and performance, the chassis is up to the task and no one facet of the car exerts dominance. As such, it rarely feels stressed or flustered. Its only dynamic shortcoming is a weight figure that’s getting to the very upper limit of what you’d want.
There’s exemplary control but driven hard on a bumpy road you can feel there is a lot of mass that is needing to be contained. Top of the list for the next generation should be reining this in.
This is an extraordinary car. As was the previous generation, but there felt to be an element of diminishing returns, a GTS being incredibly rapid and having a smoother, more engaging power delivery.
The same could be true now, for the hybrid GTS is even more potent – 3.0 seconds from 0-100km/h – but the Turbo S now has basically the same delivery, only turned up to 12. Or 15. Ally this to the looks and provenance of the Turbo badge and you have a monster.
It might now be swimming in the same financial pool as the likes of the Ferrari 296 GTB, Lamborghini Temerario and McLaren 750S, but you have the knowledge that, in the real world, you’re probably driving the fastest car of the lot.
You can find out more on the Porsche Cars Australia website, or by talking to your local dealership. To get a low rate finance quote, talk to Australia’s best reviewed car finance broker; Credit One. To see a great range of vehicles for sale, check out OnlyCars.com.au.
Our test vehicle was provided by Porsche Cars Australia for independent review purposes. Exhaust Notes Australia has not been paid to review this vehicle.
