Which Porsche 911 Turbo is the best? This question is almost impossible to answer as each generation has its advantages and disadvantages. What we can answer though is which Porsche 911 Turbo is the fastest in a drag race. Thanks to the team at carwow, we have the opportunity to see each generation of the 911 Turbo ride with each other in a drag race. So while we may not be able to answer which 911 Turbo is the best, we at least soon know which one is the fastest down a runway.
From the Porsche 930 Turbo all the way to the 992 Turbo S, the carwow assembled a range of all seven generations of the 911 Turbo. Porsche has been building the 911 Turbo trim since 1975, when the 930 Turbo debuted with Porsche’s first use of turbocharger technology.
The Porsche 930 Turbo started development in 1972 and debuted in 1975 after Porsche’s experiments with turbocharger technology for motorsport applications in the 1960s. During this period, turbochargers were an exotic addition to engines. Porsche originally built the 930 Turbos for homologation purposes and planned a production of only 400 copies to homologate the Porsche 935 race car. The 930 Turbo quickly became a favorite among enthusiasts, who promoted Porsche to work on a larger production of over 1,000 vehicles.
The Porsche 930 Turbo was powered by a 3.0-liter turbocharged flat-6 engine that produced 256 horsepower (191 kilowatts) and 243 lb-ft (329 Newton-meters) of torque. The power was transmitted through a 4-speed manual gearbox that carried the power to the rear wheels.
As time went on, Porsche continued to develop the 911 Turbo into the current generation 992 911 Turbo S. After seven generations of ever-increasing performance and capacity, the 992 Porsche 911 Turbo S represents one of the highest performing vehicles ever built by Porsche.
The 992 Porsche 911 Turbo S is powered by a twin-turbo 3.7-liter flat-6 engine that provides 640 horsepower (477 kilowatts) and 590 lb-ft (800 Newton meters) of torque. This powerful flat-6 is paired with Porsche’s PDK 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. This fast-shifting transmission conducts power to all four wheels via Porsche’s four-wheel drive.
This juxtaposition of the new Porsche 911 Turbo with the original shows the impressive leap in performance of the top Porsche 911 over the last 47 years.