Latest from Top Gear
Top Gear
7 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo Driving, Engines & Performance
Driving What is it like to drive? The chassis and suspension are identical to the standard Taycan and the estate is only 15kg heavier. And since we're talking about 2,310kg of mass, that weight difference is beyond negligible. So aside from the rear glass being further away in the rear view mirror, there's not much change for a driver to detect. Treat with extreme scepticism anyone who says the handling is more tail-happy because that 15kg extra mass is mostly over the rear axle. Advertisement - Page continues below Noted. Is this very much a sports estate then? It is. The Cross Turismo is a fairly racy crossover, and this is a fairly racy estate. However, the Cross Turismo is more languid, has detectable pitch and dive which we think actually suits the role of an estate car better. The Sport Turismo is slightly harder, sharper and more immediate. It has lovely steering and is immaculately behaved through corners, doing a very impressive job of disguising its mass and maintaining impressive body control over rough surfaces. Certainly crisper to drive than an Audi RS6. Does this only apply to the GTS? It applies to the GTS most of all, since this is – and probably always will be – the sportiest machine in the range. Not that other Sport Turismos drift that far from the template laid down by the GTS though. One thing about the GTS: it's the most rear-biased Taycan. Because of how the motors work, the GTS shuffles a greater proportion of torque to the rear axle than even the Turbo S. In fact as far as it can, it'll only send power to the rear axle, activating the front motor as it gets close to the fringes of grip. Advertisement - Page continues below Can you feel it? Not on the public road. But the Sport Turismo is a very well-balanced car. You'll get some understeer if you really hurl it along, but on the whole it grips tenaciously and behaves neutrally at the limit. You can up the ante with the Sport Turismo as well: £6,939 buys you the Dynamic Package that, alongside adjustable suspension, brings Porsche's phenomenal Active Ride technology which works to keep the body level no matter the forces working on it. It really impressed us in the Panamera, but the even lower centre of gravity here means it's not something we would consider a must fit. Same applies to the £7,230 PCCB ceramic brakes (which have gone almost £1,000 in the last four years). At least rear wheel steering is now standard, and helps give Taycans fitted with it crisper, more immediate turn-in. How's the powertrain? More polished than just about any other electric car out there, but where electric motors are concerned those margins are small. The background fake engine noise is actually pretty decent and the calibration of the throttle is brilliant – gives you faith in the car no matter what mode you're in or where you're driving. The GTS, as with all Taycans, is an effective deliverer of speed (0-62mph in 3.3secs, 100mph in 6.9secs – a whole second faster than the pre-facelift car). But that's with Launch Control's overboost function or keeping the push-to-pass button pressed. The rest of the time instead of 691bhp you have to make do with 597bhp. Don't stress. It's more than enough to put the hound in the boot on red alert. Highlights from the range the fastest 700kW Turbo S 105kWh 5dr Auto 0-62 2.4s CO2 0 BHP 938.7 MPG Price £163,200 the cheapest 320kW 105kWh 5dr RWD Auto [Revised] 0-62 4.8s CO2 0 BHP 429.1 MPG Price £89,200 the greenest 440kW 4S 105kWh 5dr Auto [5 Seat] [Revised] 0-62 3.7s CO2 0 BHP 590 MPG Price £97,570
Top Gear
7 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo Price & Specs
Advertisement Title 0-62 kWh BHP Range (Comb.) Price 440kW 4S 105kWh 5dr Auto [5 Seat] [Revised] 3.7s 105 kWh 590 £97,570 440kW 4S 105kWh 5dr Auto [Revised] 3.7s 105 kWh 590 £97,200 320kW 105kWh 5dr RWD Auto [5 Seat] [Revised] 4.8s 105 kWh 429.1 £89,570 320kW 105kWh 5dr RWD Auto [Revised] 4.8s 105 kWh 429.1 £89,200 515kW GTS 105kWh 5dr Auto 3.3s 105 kWh 690.6 £119,200 515kW GTS 105kWh 5dr Auto [5 Seat] 3.3s 105 kWh 690.6 £119,570 700kW Turbo S 105kWh 5dr Auto 2.4s 105 kWh 938.7 £163,200 649kW Turbo 105kWh 5dr Auto 2.7s 105 kWh 870.3 £136,200 700kW Turbo S 105kWh 5dr Auto [5 Seat] 2.4s 105 kWh 938.7 £163,570 649kW Turbo 105kWh 5dr Auto [5 Seat] 2.7s 105 kWh 870.3 £136,570 You might like
Top Gear
7 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
From Bond's Aston to the Tumbler: these are your favourite movie cars ever
Question of the Week Other appearances include the most adorable Beetle and of course, Eleanor Skip 2 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Advertisement - Page continues below Probably more a question of whether Wiltshire can deal with the Tumbler. Abby's up next: 'If I take the time-travelling DeLorean from Back to the Future , I can just keep going back in time to pick up all the cars I want. Easy.' Want another smart answer? Here's what MJCGT500's father said: "In a world with rising sea levels, there's only one car for the job. Forward-thinking from 1977 means you can look suave in your Lotus Esprit, but a few buttons later you can find yourself in the comfort of your submarine cruising down Oxford Street." You might like AllTorqueV8 has, predictably, gone V8: 'Right off the bat, the Ford Falcon XB/GT from Mad Max . That car is pure filth. I don't care if the supercharger doesn't activate at the pull of a lever; I'd want it in there for show. And with everything going electric, it would feel even more true saying it's the last of the V8 Interceptors. A piece of history..." Siddarth G then commented: 'I'm surprised no one has picked Eleanor from the Nicolas Cage version. I know muscle car enthusiasts deride it, but I grew up on that movie, and it's a real childhood dream car.' Advertisement - Page continues below Know what else taps into those distant memories? Samarkand Tony's option: 'Herbie. A self-driving car that's not just a few driver aids and a load of marketing. That or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.' This week's final entry comes from N328KF, who said: 'The Aston Martin DB10 from Spectre is my all-time favourite. The design foreshadows the current Vantage, but leans more toward elegance than anger. It's a shame a design that gorgeous didn't make production, but at least the Vantage has some of its DNA.' Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
Top Gear
7 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo Interior Layout & Technology
Interior What is it like on the inside? A 405-litre boot that expands to 1,171 litres with the seats folded means two things. It's actually shrunk about 40 litres during the facelift and is about two-thirds the size of equivalent estates from Audi and Merc. You do notice. The tailgate's slope limits load capacity and the boot is actually quite narrow. Don't forget about the area under the nose though. Another 81 litres and just the place for the bulky cables. Advertisement - Page continues below There's more. Although this can be partially alleviated by raising the air suspension, elderly relatives aren't going to enjoy dropping down into the low seats – conversely, elderly dogs are less likely to need assistance into the boot and if you do wreck the 0.25Cd drag factor with a roof box you should be able to access it easily. But yeah, for good or ill, a roof height of 1,392mm (100mm lower than an RS6) does mean this is a low-slung car. How is it for those in the back? A bit dark and lacking in legroom. The front chairs are big and dominant in your view, but the Sport Turismo does at least benefit from an extra 36mm of headroom compared to the saloon. Two people will fit, the third will complain. And you'll be able to hear them because it will come as no surprise to learn that this is a very quiet and refined car. It's beautifully built and attractively designed and laid out inside. Advertisement - Page continues below Does the driver have the best of it then? Emphatically. It may be an estate, but this is still a Porsche - it's all about the driver. The GTS comes with Race-Tex Alcantara upholstery as standard. Have it, it's great. Lovely driving position, small, tactile steering wheel, you sit low and feel snug. On the whole the screens are good to interact with. The dash display is operated logically via the steering's clickwheel, while the twin-stacked central screens don't bury things too deep in the menus. Which means less jabbing to disable the speed bongs and lane keep. And you'll want to do that as Porsche's lane keep isn't that impressive. Can you have paddles? Funny you should ask, because yes, post-facelift you can now option paddles in a Taycan. No gearbox obviously, they're there to adjust the regen braking. At last. Until now Porsche has always insisted braking should be done with the brake pedal, but has now relented. And charged you £394 if you want it.
Top Gear
7 hours ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Here are a pro driver's tips for surviving the Nürburgring 24 Hours
Interview Overtake quickly, avoid eating a currywurst beforehand and hope for luck. Lots of luck Skip 15 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Sven Mueller is a 33-year-old, Mainz-born racing driver who was competing in karts from the age when most of us were still in nappies. He then traded paint in both Formula 4 and 3, before signing as a Porsche works driver and racking up a string of trophies - including the 2016 Porsche Supercup and Carrera Cup. He's also done a fair bit of racing in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), which comprises various four, six and 12-hour races at the Green Hell. He's won multiple events over the last three years, priming him to take on the infamous Nürburgring 24 Hours this weekend. Advertisement - Page continues below Mueller will be representing Falken Motorsports - you know, the team Irish drift sensation James Deane burns rubber for - and he'll be seated in a Porsche 911 992 GT3 R. Its water-cooled flat-six gains carbon manifolds, butterfly intakes and a tweaked central exhaust, sending its output up to 558bhp. It's also supported by a bespoke traction control system and a motorsport-grade carbon fibre clutch. It all sounds very dandy. But behind the no-doubt brilliant engineering, just how daunting is the N24 for the person in the seat? Over to you, Mueller. You might like SM: Yes. The track itself is difficult, but you also need to manage traffic and keep the level of risk as low as possible to survive. As for the car, there's so much elevation change and kerb riding. To complete 24 hours without stopping or having a technical issue, it's why we do so much preparation with the NLS races. And that's before we even mention the weather: it's 25 degrees and sunshine at one end, and it could be a hailstorm at the other. Finishing is such a huge achievement in itself. You aren't just combating tiredness and avoiding costly errors, but you need luck. Without luck, you won't win the N24. Back in 2019, I was leading the race with three hours to go, and then I had a differential issue, caused by some debris puncturing a tyre. A tiny bit of debris on the track. It goes to show the fine margins in winning or losing at the Nürburgring. Advertisement - Page continues below It's one of the biggest talking points at the 'Ring, because you can gain or lose as much as 20 seconds sometimes, depending on holdups. You have to get past as quickly as possible. You cannot wait one or two kilometres until there's a long straight, because there are far too many cars on the track, of different classes and strengths, so you're never far from traffic. At the end of every corner, you have to choose if you're going to go right or left and stick to your decision. It also helps that when your teammates come in, they give you some idea about which cars on the field are willing to let you go past and which aren't. Some drivers are on their own without any guidance, and therefore cannot look into their mirrors regularly. You sort of just have to go for it and hope the approaching car doesn't close the door. But the issue here is that if you're too pushy, you've got a high risk of damaging the car. You need to be strong enough to survive, but not aggressive enough to crash. Because if you're quick for four or five hours straight, and then you lose five minutes in the pits because of an issue, your position is gone. Just how bad is visibility at night? Really poor, as you can imagine. We're lucky with the 911, because Porsche lights tend to be good. Other drivers in the paddock sometimes say that, if they've got a Porsche behind, it blinds them. To get around this, some manufacturers tape up the back screen of the car so that lights and flashes from obstacles behind don't affect them as much. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. There are so many elevation changes and blind corners, and light obviously cannot go past the apex and the exit of a corner, so that's why having good vision and a comfortable line of sight is so important. Another issue a lot of people don't realise is the smoke. When we go past BBQ sections such as Brunnchen, it's very thick and you think it might be a patch of fog. How do you prepare yourself for a stint? I don't have any weird rituals, if that's what you mean. I look at the onboard video of whichever teammate is currently racing, and assess all the circumstances: how are the conditions? How is the field spread out? Where could we gain time? Are there any particular wet spots to be aware of? Doing this makes me feel ready and helps me understand how I can just head right out and be as quick as I can be. If I can assess these things before getting in the car, then it's just a matter of acclimatising to the tyres and level of grip. OK, no weird rituals. Any weird foods then? You can't have a currywurst two minutes before a stint, that's for sure. Jokes aside, nutrition is important. We have plain water supplies in the car, a litre's worth to last us for a stint, and that's more than enough. You can't just drink when you want either; it's only when you get up to certain sections that aren't as technical or corner-heavy. Put us in your shoes: how does a flat-out lap feel? Your heart rate goes up like crazy as soon as you set off. Within two or three kilometres, you're reminded why the 'Ring is the best track in the world. The corners come at you thick and fast, the forest is right up against you, and you're constantly trying to calculate how to overtake people and push the car to go faster. Eventually, you settle into a rhythm and start to flow. Your pace is consistent, and each corner comes together beautifully, one after another. There's no feeling quite like it in this world when that happens. Images: Falken Motorsport
