Read this in amazement: seven iterations of the Porsche Turbo series have gathered around for a quick shoot-out. Six are driven by famous racers; the seventh gets a surprise guest. A hint, he’s also involved with Porsche motorsport history. The winner of this family affair drag race is entirely expected, but as they say, it’s the journey – not the destination.
While having names like Mark Webber’s or Neel Jani’s involved with the stunt means there’s a certain level of competitiveness to be expected, in the end, we really think there are no losers in this race. Following the normal order of things, the original 1975 Porsche 930 Turbo crosses the finish line last.
But since Porsche brought to the fight seven models from the series, it was only logical for this to happen. Still, just driving the original certainly is a win in itself. So let us get the winner argument out of the equation – the 2020 Porsche 911 Turbo comes out on top.
It doesn’t really matter, though, because given a chance, just about any Porsche fan would happily trade places with any of the losing drivers. We don’t even want to fill in the shoes of Olaf Manthey (the first-ever Carrera Cup champion) because we set our sights on the 1991 version.
Just to see how (high-performance) cars evolved over a period of 45 years, the original 930 Turbo sports a 3.0-liter flat-six with a single KKK turbocharger, showcasing a total of 260 PS (256 hp) and leveraging a sprint to 62 mph (100 kph) in 5.4 seconds.
Jump all the way to 2020, and the 911 Turbo brings to the table no less than 580 PS (572 hp), which is more than twice the power of the original. The acceleration time, meanwhile, hasn’t been slashed in half – but it’s also not very far from it at 2.8 seconds. And in between them, another five Turbos that hit the tarmac with just as much gusto!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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