Why the Turbo is he best long distance 911

Spent some of the month careening around the place in a Porsche 911 Turbo. I have never liked forced-induction 911s as much as their cheaper, lighter, better sounding, more responsive normally aspirated stable-mates, but I wonder if I’ve been looking at them from an unfair perspective. Since Turbos are the fastest 911s of all, the temptation is to view them as the most sporting. In fact they’re the least.

Instead, the 911 Turbo is a businessman’s express. It’s the only 911 I’ve driven capable of making you forget you’re in a 911, which, if all you’re doing is tooling along a motorway at 80mph, is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually quiet and comfortable and were it not for the tyre roar on certain surfaces, and the fact that porsche has still yet to get around to fitting a DAB radio even on a car with a six-figure tag such as this, it would make the perfect long-distance companion.

Even the fuel consumption is far better than you’d expect: on a gentle 120-mile troll up to London it did 28mpg and I’d like to meet another 500bhp car capable of that.

It made me realise how well suited the new 991 generation of 911 will likely be in the long distance, continent-crushing role of the Turbo. The extended wheelbase and quieter and more comfortable suspension will all play to turbo-specific strengths, while the 991’s chief weakness – its electric steering – will be far less irksome in this least sporting 911.