Page 62 - Motor Trend (May 2020)
P. 62
FIRST TEST/TRACK TEST
The Porsche Taycan Turbo S Launches Into Our Record Books
t isn’t often we set records at the drag- the same weight as a Jeep Gladiator
strip, but we did when we tested the Rubicon) was already traveling 4.3 mph and
Iall-electric all-wheel-drive 2020 Porsche achieving 1.0 g in longitudinal acceleration.
Taycan Turbo S. By a mere 0.04 second, it I was experiencing free fall, as if stepping off
became the quickest (in time) and fastest (in the ledge of a building—but horizontally.
speed) battery-powered electric vehicle in In fact, after 0.8 second, in less distance
MotorTrend’s history of testing. than the car’s own length, the Taycan was
In the process, it became the third- traveling 19.6 mph and reaching its peak
quickest Porsche and 12th-quickest of any longitudinal acceleration of 1.11 g. Like
vehicle from MotorTrend’s decades of quar- Superman swooping down to save falling
ter-mile instrumented testing of production Lois Lane, it was exceeding the gravitational
cars. It even bumped a (991.2) 911 Turbo S force of a free fall. That 1.0g-plus sensation
down a notch. How quick and how fast? was sustained all the way up to 40.3 mph,
where it began to slowly wane. Even when
Launching the Taycan Turbo S is the it reached 60 mph in a near-record 2.4
The Taycan’s 94-kW-hr lithium-ion battery same as any other modern Porsche: seconds (and less than eight car lengths),
Select Sport+, stability/traction control
pack must be at least 75 percent charged, can be on or defeated, press the brake the Taycan Turbo S was still pulling 0.75 g.
and its temperature should read at least pedal firmly, press the accelerator to
80 degrees F in the instrument panel. the floor, then release the brakes. BAM!
Selecting the Sport Plus drive mode ensures It’s been my honor—and thrill, really—to have
launch mode is available, which ups the been the dragstrip test driver for 11 of the
motors’ combined output from 616 to 750 quickest cars on our Top 15 list. By the 0–30-
hp (but torque remains unchanged at 774 mph times—how we gauge how well a car
lb-ft). Acceleration did not vary measurably launches—the list shows they fall within 0.6
if the traction and stability controls were second of one another (0.9 to 1.5 sec overall).
engaged or in performance mode, but my What’s interesting is that each McLaren
best run had traction control disabled. (there are four in this group) launched like
a McLaren: a little soft at first, then they
accelerate like an NHRA Super Street Class
One-tenth of a second (0.1) after releasing car, which would require aftermarket axles
its brakes, the 5,109-pound Taycan (about and a rollcage with an altered floorpan.
