Daily Slideshow: Porsche Goes Turbo: Good or Bad?

There's no one else quite like Porsche

Porsche's longest-running nameplates make up some of the best-loved sports car icons in automotive history. You can imagine why fans would be reticent at the thought of their classic lineup having their vintage natural aspiration powerplants phased out in favor of modern turbochargers. Some claim the industry-wide trend of using turbo to replace the traditional displacement engine tarnishes the sense of raw catharsis felt while driving -- the very reason many people are attracted to sports cars like Porsche in the first place.

At the same time, with their consistent history of quality and obsessive design, Porsche is exactly the type of company you would want to be involved in a trend that has, for better or worse, completely dominated its naturally aspirated counterparts. The question isn't so much whether Porsche going turbo is "good or bad," but whether they can bear the tide and successfully translate the feel of their iconic cars across to the new era. 

What is most important in a sports car?

Turbocharger technology tends to be blown up in something more than it is by the layperson. The fundamental idea behind it is actually quite simple. By adding a turbine to the car's exhaust system, the air is forced back into the engine's combustion chamber, creating a bigger blast without the necessity of a bigger engine. With the possibility of matching power with a turbo-aided smaller engine, a car can use smaller engines. The benefits to a car's handling and efficiency are more than enough to outweigh the glories of an ultra-high revving NA, but the feel isn't going to be the same. Many within the muscle car community (particularly in the United States) view natural aspiration as sacrosanct, especially in the case where the engine is being miniaturized. The list of benefits to fielding a smaller engine sounds great on paper, but pure specs neglect that raw, pure, organic, unfiltered and ultimately natural feeling of driving sans turbo. 

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An industry-wide trend for going turbo

A turbocharger kit makes the engine more efficient; it also refines the feeling of driving itself. Refinement is a big plus in the case of a family crossover. It becomes a heated question when you bring it into the realm of sports cars. People will have differing opinions on what they're looking to get out of a car. Those who like slick handling and shiny specs are quick to embrace turbo. The vintage purists, on the other hand, are left feeling alienated.

Porsche isn't in a position within the industry where they could neglect turbo technology-- even if they wanted to. The benefits to specs are too significant to work around. What's more; the environmental emissions regulations in the EU make turbo efficiency a must if they want to keep playing. 

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Porsche has been working with turbo for a while

Porsche's early work with turbochargers remains a showcase of how bloody powerful a car can get when a turbo rig is installed at no compromise to the original engine itself. Giving an already-maniacal flat-12 cylinder engine a twin-turbo treatment, the Porsche 917 race prototypes were extremely powerful; the engines were so beefed-up that the rest of the car arguably had a hard time handling it. These efforts culminated in a little classic you might have heard of, the 917 Spyder. In its racing variant, the Spyder could rate horsepower in the ballpark of 1200. That's worth bearing in mind in case you had the idea that turbo makes cars too refined. To be fair, going without refinement can practically make them too powerful.

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Improvements in technology bode well for the turbo adaptation

High-revving engines are desired for their responsiveness. By contrast, turbochargers were long-known for their difficulty in keeping up at high-rev. This would make some performance designs a choice between low-rev torque with turbo, or the full naturally aspirated experience, pros, and cons alike. Technology has nonetheless gotten better on the turbo end; such as it is, reports of McLaren running turbo at 7000 RPM are not exaggerated; any much higher than that tends to be pretty extreme even by NA standards.

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A noise complaint isn't always unwanted.

It's generally accepted that automotive engine noise will gradually fade as the industry embraces EV powertrains and smaller engines. While quiet cars mean less noise pollution (particularly in densely-packed city centers) there are a few cases where the quiet's not so welcome. You may have heard that quasi-common argument that quiet cars will increase the likelihood of hitting pedestrians if it's harder to hear them coming. The issue of authenticity and catharsis also comes into play; is a hot sports car or motorcycle really so cool if there isn't the engine roar to accompany it? Harley-Davidson sought to remedy this issue with their upcoming full-electric bikes. The same question certainly comes up for a classic nameplate like Porsche. According to Porsche themselves, there's no need to worry about the sporting roar in their turbocharged 911s. While there's more to a driving feel than sound, this does show that they're going out of their way to keep the naturally aspirated spirit in place.

>>Join the conversation about All the Porsche models getting Turbo right here in the Rennlist Forum.

Porsche for posterity.

All things considered, Porsche is doing a great job of adapting. Despite how toothlessly modern the situation can come across in light of such a turbo-weighted lineup, Porsche has always been the company that preserved their sense of personality over the decades. Also worth mentioning is the recurring word that the latest models are fantastic. Of course, they're not exactly the same as they would be, but the quality and meticulous care are still there as much as ever.