If you're looking for a quick stock car to take to a quarter mile drag race, you can do a lot worse than a Porsche 911 Turbo S. The way the German sports car launches, in particular, has become the stuff of legends.
Watching it in action has us wondering how Porsche is going to improve it a few years down the line when the new model will be due? Is there anything humanly possible left to do for the engineers to increase the car's performance, or will they be forced to turn to the dark side (also known as "electric power")?
With such a huge halo around it, it's easy to forget the Turbo S has a smaller sibling that's not exactly slow itself. The Turbo S shares almost everything with its brother, apart from the power output. Instead of the 641 hp you get in the S, the standard Turbo only squeezes 572 hp out of the 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine.
The all-important transmission, however, is identical, so point the 911 Turbo at any distant point and, after a very short time, it'll be standing on top of it. It gets the same outstanding launch but, as the second race in this clip is going to prove, it doesn't necessarily need to use launch control to beat its opponents.
Speaking of competition, the 911's rival for the day is the sublime BMW M5 CS. The Bavarian sedan is quite possibly the best M car you can buy right now if what you're after is performance. And fun. And quite a fair dose of practicality, actually. It's the complete package, and then some.
Thomas, the half of the Throttle House duo driving the Bimmer for this race, genuinely said it is the best car in the world at the moment, and while he is a known BMW fan (and owner), you can't claim something like that about a car that isn't at least in with a shout of deserving that title.
Why isn't it racing the 911 Turbo S, then? Well, the S has more power, but then again so does the CS compared to the Turbo. The Porsche is also lighter, but the real deciding factor has to be the price - the Turbo S is much more expensive than the M5. However, you'll need to watch the clip to find out what the real reason for this match-up is.
Unlike other races, winning isn't everything. Instead of being crowned king, the car that defeats its opponent is instead entered into a race it can't possibly win - one against a 1,000 hp Mercedes-AMG E 63 S. "What's the point, then?", you might ask. And the answer is, "your entertainment".
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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