Porsche Taycan, until now the central claimant for the best electric sports car in the world that money can buy, that is, outside the extreme worlds of the electric hypercars where it is hard to say about any of them that it is "routine". But on this court, at least in terms of performance, there has been a player who has been hitting and delighting all the manufacturers in this field for several years now - they call it the Tesla Model S in the Plaid version.
Now, with the unveiling of the Taycan Turbo GT with the "Weissach" package that takes Porsche's products a few clicks towards the edge, the madness. This is the first time they touch an electric car from the manufacturer, and the result is appetizing. The praise, which includes the cocktail of weight reduction and adding horses, raises the output of the electric engine to a combined 1,033 hp in normal mode and up to 1,108 horses when it is in "boost" mode called attack here for two seconds. It is definitely a time frame beyond which it is a lack of responsibility.
Low altitude flight:First drive in a Tesla Model S Plaid
In terms of weight, it sheds 75 kg compared to the Taycan Turbo S it is based on, part of the diet comes from the use of carbon fiber parts and part from giving up electric operation for systems such as the cargo compartment door, for example.
And with the Weissach package, another 70 kg are shed by canceling the rear seats and using carbon fiber front seats, removing sound insulation materials, canceling one of the two charging ports, a manual opening mechanism instead of electric, lighter sunshades, and a simpler multimedia system than in the regular model. Suspension and braking are handled by new tuning, ceramic brakes in the front, aerodynamics package, the car floor is divided with air ducts and Pirelli P tires designed for powerful electric cars (R ELECT).
And what does it do for fun? In terms of performance, the car stops the clock at 2.3 seconds in a 0-100 jump, and with the Weissach package, you save another 0.1 seconds. For speed enthusiasts, it will still be slower than the 2.1 seconds of the standard model S Plaid. The maximum speed is 305 km/h, here too the S model will continue to distance itself with its maximum 322 km/h.
But there's a twist in the story here, if you are still people of numbers and less feelings, the GT Turbo recorded a time of 1:27:9 minutes around the Laguna Seca track in the United States, 2.4 seconds faster than the S Plaid model. It circled the Nürburgring track with a pre-production version of the model in 7:07:55 minutes, the fastest four-door car on the track. These are 17:45 seconds faster than the S Plaid model which held this record until then. This power and capability comes at the cost of reducing the range to 555 km compared to the maximum range of the standard Taycan which is 678 km.
The range is not the only price to sacrifice on the way to the extreme electric driving machine of Porsche, there is also the financial price. While the price of the Model S Plaid stands at NIS 646,000, in Europe the starting price of the Taycan Turbo GT is around 240,000 euros.
If you want such a car in Israel, it will have to be done by special order and the price is expected to be around NIS 2 million. Well, at least you can say that the cost of fuel will be much lower.