New 2017 Porsche Carrera / Carrera S goes turbo

“With this car, it is possible to use it for all-day use, or you can go to a race track and have a lot of fun. It’s a typical 911,” he says.

Turbocharging the 911 Carrera hasn’t exactly turned it into a shrinking violet. Schöllhorn makes a valid point about how each subsequent generation of Porsche’s sports car has moved the game on. “You have to remember that the 959, which is 30 years old now, had the same power and speed as this car," he says. "The next car which reached that level was the 996-generation 911 Turbo. And now this 911 Carrera S has the same performance.”

It’s not all about performance. The switch to turbocharged engines, allied with some pretty nifty powertrain innovations and increased efficiency of auxiliary components, make the new engines up to 12 per cent more frugal than their forebears. Although such figures are unlikely to be foremost in a prospective 911 Carrera owner’s mind, it’s a useful increase nonetheless.

This is just the start of Porsche’s grand plans to roll out turbocharged derivatives, but on this evidence it’s not necessarily the end of the world. After all, there’s potential for extracting more power from the turbocharged engine than the naturally aspirated forebears, so it’s safe to say Porsche’s future could include some suitably unhinged machinery.

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