1974 was a busy year for the world. The president of the USA resigned, Muhammed Ali beat George Foreman in The Rumble In The Jungle, and Porsche brought us the first boosted 911.
To celebrate 50 years since the 911 was first turbocharged, there is of course a special edition. It’s imaginatively called the 911 Turbo 50 Years, and 1,974 examples will be produced.
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So, your spotter’s guide. It’s adorned with vinyls inspired by the Porsche 911 RSR Turbo as shown at the, um, 1973 Frankfurt motor show. The paint is called ‘Turbonite’ and is splashed onto the engine cover, fuel filler cap and even the Porsche badges.
Open the door and the puddle light projects a turbocharger graphic onto the ground, which you’ll sound very cool explaining to people. Inside, there’s more tartan than Jackie Stewart’s sock drawer, many ‘Turbo 50’ logos and more ‘turbonite’ touches.
What you don’t get is any extra boost, bigger turbos, or more power. The car is basically your regular 992 Turbo S: complete with a 3.7-liter flat-six which (let’s face it) is hardly short of power. It develops 641hp and 800Nm of torque, which is deployed to all four wheels via an eight-speed twin-clutch gearbox.
There’s a standard sports exhaust, torque-vectoring diff and 10mm lower adaptive suspension thrown in. And how’s this for progress? This version of the 911 Turbo completes the 0-100kph sprint in 2.7 seconds and goes all the way up to 324kph.
The original ‘930’ Turbo as it was codenamed made do with 260hp and 330Nm – okay, that was a lot in 1974, especially for a car with all the weight in the wrong place. It took 5.2 seconds to reach 100kph and theoretically topped out at 250kph, but no-one could ever verify that because it also went from zero to a ditch in 5.3 seconds flat.
Scary car, back in the day. And yet over five decades the 911 Turbo has evolved into the elite all-weather any-occasion supercar. With a big boot, space for four, and the performance to lay waste to a Lamborghini if provoked. Happy birthday, Turbo – here’s to the next 50 years.
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
