Yeah, nothing bad to say about this one. Sorry. It is going to be a pretty boring story.
Maybe check out Ben's review of the Surface laptop this week instead. Or something interesting from The Economist. Sorry again.
My wife, who is not easily impressed by cars, called the Porsche Taycan GTS a “perfect car”.
She’s right.
The only issue with it is that I have to give it back. Oh, and it costs $255,800.
So, first, the technical details. It has a 440kW motor and goes really fast.
Secondly, the cabin. It is really comfortable and feels like the unholy marriage of a supercar and a couch.
Porsche has an often-bewildering number of variants to its models. The GTS sits in the middle of the all-electric Taycan series. The 240kW “entry” model is $183,300 and the super-fast 460kW Taycan Turbo S is $381,900.
Each car can get more power with Porsche launch control, with the GTS leaping to 440kW and 850Nm of torque, getting it from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.7 seconds. Top speed is limited to 250km/h.
On the open road, the GTS becomes a sleek greyhound. (Image: Supplied)
It will accelerate its 2295kg bulk from 80km/h to 120km/h in 2.1 seconds. It is the king of fast overtaking. The average slow driver is left with just the sense of something whooshing past and then a wide electric red light across the back of a car disappearing into the future. I was told it felt like being overtaken by an alien spaceship. Warp speed, captain.
You’d just never know what the car is capable of when you're driving around a city. As a commuter vehicle, it is a well-behaved Labrador puppy. On the open road, it becomes a sleek greyhound (although one that knows how to turn a sharp corner).
In the pitifully short time I have it, I take a drive up State Highway 16 from Auckland to Wellsford at night. Given the lack of traffic, I am able to push it, erm, a little, and although I use Sport mode, there is no need to go all the way to Sport+ mode. Or brake.
It has a stated range of 504km, and its 800-volt architecture means you can recharge its 93.4kWh battery super-fast – just 22 minutes to 80% full on a supercharger.
The heads-up display is a thing of beauty. It shows the speed. That's it. No other nonsense. Having just come out of a Mercedes that attempted to publish the Book of Job on the heads-up display, I deeply respect this restraint.
The GTS sits 14mm lower than the standard Taycan, but air suspension means it can lift as needed at low speeds, and then remember where it needs to do this using its GPS. This is a welcome feature on most top sports cars with air suspension now.
This is the type of car that encourages me to chuck in my day job, sell the house and move to Europe to drive around on autobahns at ludicrous speeds all day.
It is also the sort of car that drives me to write an unseemly short article because there’s not much to say past, wow. Buy it if you can.
The Taycan features an analogue clock. (Image: Supplied)
