That curious new Porsche Taycan with a wing you’ve been seeing zipping around the Nurburgring in 7min7sec has a name. It’s the new Taycan Turbo GT.
Basically, it’s a range-topper above the Turbo S aiming to make life awkward for the Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air Sapphire. It’s now been revealed in full, and it’s terrifyingly fast. Even if you drive a Plaid.
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Power? 1,108hp. Acceleration? 0-100kph in 2.3 seconds. Lap time? It’s just been hurled around Laguna Seca raceway in 1min27.8sec. That’s five seconds faster than the previous electric lap record (help by the Model S). It’s barely half a second slower than a McLaren Senna around the fearsome Californian track.
TopGear.com was there on the ground when the record was set, and then had a stomach-emptying passenger ride with certified bonkers racing driver Lars Kern at the wheel.
The car itself is probably more subtle than you might expect. It looks…like a Taycan. There are new air curtains at the front, forged wheels and lighter ceramic brakes, a token slab of carbon fiber on the B-pillar, and a new ducktail spoiler at the back. Visually there’s little sense you’re eyeing a car with not far off TWICE the power of a Carrera GT.
If that’s a little disappointing to you—and you’d like your Turbo GT to announce its digestive tract-bothering speed with a little more gusto—then for the first time on an EV, Porsche will sell you one of its Weissach Packages.
This upgrade deletes the back seats, replacing them with a carbon fibre bulkhead. It swaps the ducktail for a fixed wing good for 140kg of claimed downforce. Lashings of carbon fiber are liberally applied and the result is 70kg of weight savings.
At a claimed 2,290kg, the Turbo GT Weissach is by no means a light car. And Porsche reckons it’ll be a rare niche option, as the majority of customers will want some back seats. But there’s going to be at least a few folks who want to shave an extra tenth off the 0-100kph run. And the Weissach Pack does it.
Naught to 100 in two-point-two seconds. Hope your stomach is as robust as your wallet.
Prices will likely crest the £180,000 (P12.75 million) mark without too much bother, and the Weissach Pack with many carbon trim pieces will be the first £200k (P14.167 million) Taycan. Porsche says it will be built in ‘limited numbers,’ perhaps betraying that this is something of an unknown. A toe in the water. The big question you might like to sound off on in the comments is this: Will Porsche fans really queue up to buy a hardcore track-focused EV like they do a GT3 RS or 911 S/T?
More photos of the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT:
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
