911 Turbo S Is Best in Automatic Mode, Teaches Huracan, Artura Some Quarter-Mile Manners

Courtesy of Carwow’s German-oriented YouTube channel, the race opposes a naturally aspirated V10, a twin-turbo flat-six, and a hybrid dual-turbo V6. It is also a faceoff between all-wheel drivetrains and rear-wheel electrically-assisted muscle. The event occurred at a track in England (all three cars are right-hand drive, and the license plates are from the UK).

The Porsche is the 911 Turbo S – the heaviest of the bunch – and stands against a Huracan Performante and an Artura. On paper, the German is not the bookies’ favorite, with “only” 650 PS and 800 Nm (641 hp / 590 lb-ft), and a bulk of 1,640 kilos (3,615 lbs).

The iconic Stuttgart sportscar relies on the company’s bullet-proof engine design: six horizontally opposed pistons (displacing 3.8 liters between the top and bottom dead centers) and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Needless to add, the transmission is Porsche’s twin-clutch, blitz-fast shifting PDK.

Even the four-wheel traction doesn’t give it the hypothetical edge over its counterparts since the Huracan Performante has the same tire-smoking architecture. The Italian is slightly low on power (631 hp / 640 PS) and seriously under-torqued: 443 lb-ft / 600 Nm). Also, there’s one less gear in the Huracan’s go-fast assembly (the Italian sports a seven-speed auto Direct-Shift Gearbox).

The Lambo’s official weight is 1,382 kilograms / 3,047 lbs – but those are Italian units of measure that don’t account for the car’s fluids – fuel, lubricants, and coolant. Even so, it would barely go over 1.4 tons, so it’s a lot slimmer than the 10-hp-more-powerful 911 Turbo S.

To make the race as uneven as real-world-encounterable possible, the third car lining up at the start is a McLaren Artura. It has the smallest engine of the three – just an 8,500-RPM-screaming three-liter Vee-arranged six-pot.

The ICE jewel fires up 585 PS / 577 hp and 585 Nm / 432 lb-ft. An axial flux electric motor adds 69.9 kW (93 hp/95 PS) and 166 lb-ft (225 Nm) of torque. After drawing the line, we end up with 671 hp (680 PS) and 531 lb-ft (720 Nm).

The Seamless Shift (Derived from Formula 1 cars technology) transmission sends everything to the back wheels of the 1.5-ton light McLaren. While it is a particular disadvantage, the rear-biased McLaren has the instantaneity of electric torque to shoot off the line.

And that’s what it does immediately after the start signal on the standing quarter-mile race – but not before the Porsche. The German teleports off the line and takes the lead ahead of the hot-on-its-heels McLaren and the sagging Huracan.

Not at all satisfied by its immediately-asserted dominance, the Porsche pulls away for the rest of the race – and the Lambo only falls further behind. The launch control failed the Italian bull, so a rerun is mandatory. And utterly useless – the outcome is identical.

Daniel Hohmeyer – the German carwow YouTube host – has rattlesnake-like reaction times, and his Turbo S crosses the line after 10.2 seconds. The hybrid comes in second at 10.5, and the Performante completes the podium with a 10.8-second grade.

The Lambo’s 5.2-liter V10 shows its free-inducted might in the 50-mph/80-kph rolling start (with the gearboxes in their least sporty setting). Suddenly, the Italian supercar remembers that it celebrates six decades of ultimate performance and punches hard.

It still isn’t enough to beat the Porsche, but they cross the line hand-in-hand, with the McLaren close behind. The second race – with the most aggressive shift mode engaged – is a jaw-dropping failure from the Porsche. The Huracan walks away from the others while the McLaren sticks with its third step of the podium.

The order is reversed when the third roll race concludes. With drivers doing the gear-shifting manually, the McLaren claims the top spot, while the Porsche makes a fool of itself and comes last. In conclusion, if you want a high-performance supercar, get a Porsche 911 Turbo S and keep it in full-automatic rapid-fire mode.