#13: 2012 Porsche 911 Turbo S
911 Turbo S
You knew it was coming, folks: That long, swooping teardrop rear end capping a beautiful German machination of power. Those timeless, arching fenders and aeroplane front fascia jutting its chin gracefully. It’s the Porsche 911. But not just any Porsche – it’s the 2012 Turbo S, a perfect rendition of a timeless design that manages null to 60 in just 2.6 seconds.
This luxurious forced induction variant of the 911 sports 530 horses and 516 torques under its rear hood. All that juicy torque is made available at a sleepy 2,100 RPM, which means you can mash the pedal immediately following basically any gear change and risk tearing your face off. It takes quite a bit of boost to manage this lag-free acceleration, so Porsche pumped up the regular Turbo’s PSI from 11.6 to 14.5 for the S.
If you’d hadn’t guessed by now, plenty of exotics tie for 0-60 times, so cars on this list must exude performance otherwise. Let’s see why the Turbo S makes for such a grand track car. For starters, Porsche included some rather advanced tech to make the Turbo S feel like an extension of your hands: Dynamic engine mounts, brake-based torque vectoring, ceramic brakes, launch control, twin-disc clutch
(mated to an automatic trans, sorry third pedal fans), flappy paddle shifters, carbon ceramic brakes, upgraded front-end suspension, and actively changing suspension damping that drivers say make the Turbo S feel like a mid-engine car. All this performance is enough to not only get the Turbo S to 60 in 2.6 seconds, but to push it around the Nurburgring at a respectable 7:37 with a top speed of 195 MPH.
But for all this track prowess, the Turbo S is still a proper touring car with loads of comfort features, confusing infotainment options, and an ECU that tries to “learn” your driving habits and adjust every vehicle parameter to your liking (though Sport mod disables all this in favor of a hard, fast, high-spooling profile).
