Some keen-eyed spy photographers have managed to snap these shots of the upcoming Porsche 911 (991) Turbo model. Now that the focus has shifted away from the 911 GT3, which debuted at Geneva last this month, the next car to complete the 911 (991) quota is the Turbo.
The pressing question is; however, will it be able to dethrone its arch-nemesis, the Nissan GT-R as the king of all-wheel drive supercars? If you’ll recall, back in 2007, the Japanese car was so famously engineered to outgun the 911 Turbo, and it has been incrementally upgraded year after year to keep it that way. So what has Stuttgart done to hit back with the new one?
Very little is known about the 911 Turbo at the moment but the new car is expected to develop as much as 410 kW and most seem to think it will debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show, later this year in September.
Spy prototypes of the car having been doing the rounds lately and these undisguised shots seem to suggest the Turbo is fairly late into its development regime. The turbocharged and all-wheel drive model needs little introduction to most of us with petrol thumping through our veins, but looking closely at these pictures we can clearly see the wider rear stance, wider track and downforce inducing spoiler paired with an integrated rear diffuser.
In the outgoing 997 generation, the 911 Turbo is some 44 mm wider than the regular Carrera and the same will be true for the new 991, as confirmed by these pictures. The rear bumper also features additional cooling vents on its haunches to keep the forced induction engine cool. We can also see that the 911 Turbo has a unique exhaust design compared to a common or garden variety 911 Carrera.
The rumour mill seems to suggest an advanced tri-turbo setup could be a possibility, with the addition of the third turbocharger aimed at further improving response. But that’s not all as an uprated ‘PDK-S’ dual-clutch gearbox may be in the works. A conventional manual is unlikely to feature in the range after the PDK-only 911 GT3.
All we know is this Porsche 911 (991) Turbo better have at least four-years of development crammed into it to keep it on par with the evolutionary Nissan GT-R. Let the battle recommence.
