CARS I PEOPLE I SCOOPS I MOTORSPORT I ANALYSIS – THE MONTH ACCORDING TO CAR
THE BEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
With no electric-only range and a tiny battery, hybrids come no milder than the second-gen 992 911. Folly or genius?
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The date is 30 July 2021. Three men stand grinning for a selfie at Porsche’s development centre in Weissach, Covid masks draped around their necks, corporate gear conspicuous by its absence.
The three are Michael Roesler, the director of the 911 at Porsche, Clenn Giebenhain (project manager for the 911) and Jörg Bergmeister (handy wheelman, Porsche development driver), and the relief on their faces is palpable. They’ve just fired up one of the most significant cars in the long history of the 911 and it works straight out of the box… brilliantly.
This is a car that, for decades, has been characterised by a refusal to bend to popular thinking. And yet Roesler and pals have seemingly followed the trend by creating a hybrid 911. However, you’ll be pleased to hear that this is not just something that wears the 911 badge and adopts the look – it also feels like a 911.
On the basis of our passenger ride in the new car, 911 loyalists should be able to embrace this latest technological update. Just as the 911 went from air to water, naturally aspirated to turbocharged and manual to PDK to keep it evergreen, so hybrid has the potential to do the same.
It comes as part of the facelift that turns 2018’s 992 into the 992.2. For the moment, the only updated models are the Carrera GTS (running the T-Hybrid system) and the Carrera, which doesn’t get the hybrid but instead continues with an updated version of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo six. Crucially, the Carrera starts at £99,800 in the UK, so Porsche can still claim you can slide into a 911 for less than £100k. The GTS, which starts at £132,600 in coupe form, has a choice of rearor all-wheel drive. There are also Targa and Cabriolet versions.
This is not a hybrid focused on economy. Instead, Porsche is aiming for maximum performance advantage, with minimal weight gain. There is no electric-only driving – that’s been possible on some other Porsches, including the 918 Spyder, but the company is not inclined to mess with the character of the 911.
So what we have is an all-new 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine with two electric motors – one in the turbo, between the compressor and turbine wheels, and the other – a conventional permanent-magnet unit – at the rear of the PDK gearbox.
An in-turbo e-motor is an idea we have previously seen from both Mercedes and Audi. Here, running in an over-sized single turbo, it provides up to 30bhp of assistance, spinning at up to 120,000rpm. That may not sound like a big power
