The new 911 Turbo is a relative bargain

It’s the 911 Turbo, but without an S in its name, and it’s in the showrooms now. You can’t really put a fag paper between the new entry model and the S on performance – and with the signature rear wing and side air inlets most people won’t be able to tell the difference anyway. Your bank manager will though: the new Turbo comes with a price £22,000 less. Here is a car that redefines the term “entry-level” model.

The 3.7-litre flat-six appears here with 580PS (572bhp), which is 40PS up on the previous generation Turbo. Torque is also up (by 40Nm) to 750Nm, while the motor has also lost its overboost limiter, which Porsche says adds a bit more response when you floor it from low revs. No surprise then that the new car matches the old Turbo S for performance.

When Porsche says this is the first Turbo to get from 0-62mph in under 3.0 seconds you’d better believe them, for Stuttgart’s acceleration claims are like death and taxes in being absolute certainties in life. The official 0-62mph sprint time is 2.8 seconds, along with a top speed of 199mph. Spend the extra £22k on the S model and you can get to 62mph a scant one tenth of a second quicker and be able to drive down the autobahn 6mph faster.

So not a great deal in it then, and in other ways the cars follow the same design and mechanical template. There’s the same muscular and wide-bodied look and the same new LED light signature, but with detail differences most obvious around the rear especially with the four-pipe sports exhaust available on this model for the first time.

No Turbo would be complete without rear spoiler and air scoops ahead of the rear wheels, and the new model offers a fresh take on both. The wing is variable and larger than before, while the inlets now draw in induction, rather than cooling, air. You can get the Turbo as either coupe (£134,400) or cabriolet (£143,560).

The Turbo shares the 992-gen proportions that centre on a wider front track (up 42mm) and new wheel set-up of 20-inch fronts, and 21-inch rears, that are at the heart of this model’s handling rebalancing. It’s all-wheel-drive with advanced traction management, and comes with eight-speed PDK transmission.

You of course get a luxury, fully featured 2+2 cabin though without some features included as standard in the S; it would take an anorak to spot them though. You can spend big on options – sports suspension, design packs, active anti-roll stabilisation and ceramic brakes – but then you can do the same with the Turbo S (our test car was £172k worth). One thing you do not have to pay extra for is typical Porsche efficiency, with WLTP fuel economy of 22.6-23.5mpg, equivalent to 271–284g/km of CO2.

A new champion of the 911 range? Maybe – at least until the more track-orientated versions arrive. Now they will be worth waiting for…