Porsche 911 Turbo S v McLaren 12C: Road, Track, Drag Race. -- /CHRIS HARRIS ON CARS

the new Porsche 991 turbo has become so expensive especially in Turbo S guys that it kind of warrants comparison with other very expensive very fast cars so we've bought a McLaren along so a bit of road a bit of track and then a drag race how good is the new 911 the latest 911 shape lends itself pretty well to the turbo treatment of wider rear arches and more gaping intakes than a basking shark the gt3 legend has grown so fast over the past 10 years that the turbo has been rather forgotten but for using everyday and travelling at silly speed it's always in with a shout the new model is bigger than the old 997 we tested earlier this year power is now 560 at six and a half thousand rpm torque is a twin turbocharged 516 foot-pounds with 553 on overboost I call turbo since the 993 it runs full-time four-wheel drive this S model is kind of designed to avoid having to option up a normal turbo so the PDK transmission is standard as are the ceramic brakes 410 millimetres up front this is one of the heaviest 911s ever made it's sixteen hundred and eighty kilograms it's also one hundred and forty one thousand pounds which means it's potentially open to some very serious competition for that kind of money wouldn't you actually want a real supercar something to show the world just how miniscule your torture really is something like your McLaren the list price of this McLaren is something north of 190,000 pounds but you can probably buy one for a good deal less than that if you wander into the McLaren dealership today and in the world of supercar finance deals 30 grand is the same look pint and a pie whereas the Porsche uses a normal aluminium and steel shell the 12c has a trick carbon tub it weighs over 200 kilograms less and it has 625 horsepower it has less torque than the Porsche 443 foot-pounds burn it'll come to be top 200 miles an hour but perhaps the funkiest thing of all about the yellow car is that the roof comes off I asked for this car at short notice McLaren couldn't source a coupe a and offered a spider you sure I said the Porsche is a coupe a it's just a stiff and only a little bit heavier you'll be fine they said I'll have that type of confidence so which would be better at angle C circuit okay peeps you know the form by now let's drive the car straight and then let the car move around a bit and try and find out what this mp4-12c now called the 12c is all about I'm not sure a supercar has really caused so much conjecture and lack of agreement amongst people since well ever I've never really sat on the fence in this car I like I like what it stands for I'm frustrated by some of the issues that McLaren has had with the car and I feel sorry for some of the owners because they've been frustrated but there's no denying that the engineering in this car is compelling so 625 horsepower not that much weight a carbon tub a double clutch gearbox and I've got all the systems okay the talk is immense you have to manage the entry speed otherwise you get quite a little understeer we're in track setting so them everything is very flat at the moment kriste if you carry too much speed into the turn and back off it will oversteer it's not the nicest lift or focus there either third gear that's really fast now what are we doing under 20 something braking hard for the hairpin break - superb / stop the car come back in yourself from hairpin that feels good little bit of oversteer on the exit you have to be quick when it comes otherwise you're in trouble remember this guy's an open differential and it's very complicated cross-linked hydraulic suspension system it's got the whose attraction in grape still and the noise okay it's kind of fake but it's pretty good for my exciting feel alone through that fast left-hander air break popping up behind me this really is a weapon this thing suspicions that it's a bit synthesized that you're not quite in control it doing something meat corner sometimes I wonder if a modem in the car doesn't sort of phone Ron Dennis and say wrong it's a small brand man cocking about your car do something about it it's mighty fast though and I do feel connected to it but I've used it in a sort of McLaren II way if that's the way to put it now what happens start to let it move around well it'll play the yobbo it'll play the oboe but you have to be quite careful with it that opens this means that it's not quite as predictable as you hoped it might be and of course in conjunction with two turbochargers quite a lot of lag as a bit of guesswork goes on but you know what I still like it I still think it's a really interesting alternative to a four five eight and it's fast it's much quicker than a four five eight in a straight line I don't know where other magazines get their figures wrong but for I'm sitting this thing feels like a step on in terms of performance the 2014 9 9 1 turbo s is that what you call it I don't know it was 2013 at the month as far as I'm concerned 560 horsepower 516 foot-pounds of torque this thing but the turbos being quite a funny car for the last few generations hasn't it lacking a bit of personality particular the 997 version but incredibly capable so it's a road car but I'm driving on track because it's so fast on the road you can't really tell anything about it without going to jail what do we got then well we've got this very clever rear steer system that's the thing that dominates it for me because the car just feels so particularly on initial turns initial steering application than you'd expect because it just goes if we were on the circuit I find it really really gratifying I just love the fact that I turn the front of the car and I mean into the corner strangely actually makes it feel lighter on initial turn it than the McLaren despite the fact that it's a lot heavier it does flatter to the Z slightly because once you get through that initial turn phase the front axle slightly goes actually I can't handle that you do get a little bit of understeer at that point you can peel off the throttle and you end up with like that a bit of an oversteer there's more personality in this powertrain than the last turbo s is as well we've got a lot more intake noise they've tried really hard with that we've got no sort of my sort-of papi exhaust note and the load of overrun chatter as well that I really quite enjoy know this is a much more interesting 911 Turbo the last car I think it's also insanely fast it doesn't feel an awful lot slower than McLaren straight line but will decide the winner of a particular battle later on in the video as ever the turbo is four-wheel drive but it's kind of you know a rear biased four-wheel drive so you give it a hope to go and you get these massive great big drifts from nowhere and it feels English feel very natural doing it my one proviso is that for some reason when I give it a hoof now when I get to five mouths are yet again pop up I've heard this all day I mean this is about the most irrelevant piece of commentary about the man 11th or both performance that you could get but if I'm mid-drift there's something going on if I get the car loaded up it gets to 5,000 rpm and it sits there it allow me to do it for about 3 seconds it feels like and then something cuts in the ECU and another light comes on the dashboard I've got all the systems switched off that's the way it happens it's a pointless I know but I've always thought Porsche didn't do that kind of rubbish that's not a Porsche style trick I'm running the car with all the systems off at the moment but there's so much going on here you've got Sport Sport+ which are adjusting all your flippin throttle settings and everything else you've got adjustable down because we can talk through some more events and of its Road behavior but come on I'm sitting compared to the previous 911 turbo this is better on road and it's better on track excuse me on the road while the port is just sublime the more time I spent in it the more it felt like a huge improvement over the 997 version despite being too wide for UK roads it's actually easier to place because the rear steering had so much agility it also hides the car's mass it feels like a 1,300 kilogram machine to drive and it's just so fast the motor is awesome traction and grip are insane the suspension is subtle enough and we all know just how fast these things are point-to-point but now there's some decent intake noise to enjoy too amazingly the McLaren with its dampers running soft is the better riding car it's a freakishly calm machine on the street considering it'll do 200 miles an hour the low scuttle gives a panoramic view out and the driving position is low and suggestive but it doesn't give the same confidence as the Porsche there's more turbo lag you can't just scoot out of damp second gear corners or out of thought but then again it's so much more will event and for this sort of money isn't that what people need this is quite an interesting drag race this one 625 horsepower of British two-wheel drives supercar vs. 560 horsepower of German technology with four-wheel drive both cars have double clutch gearboxes I mean who can call it who can call it and we're away Porsche has got a leap off the line and it's gone but watch this now ha ha ha that is immense but McLaren has got so much but we're all doing our through 50 miles an hour it's at about 120 we got it so zero to 120 I reckon support of the even Stevens but then now we're putting 175 180 180 185 of 190 by three nice six like a Baba $196,000 in the slowest macaron you can buy that is quick that is proper quick notice I didn't do much talking at the beginning cuz it's so shocking the Porsche takes it off the line but it's only by about three quarters to a length of a car maybe a length of a car it shows that the traction of this McLaren given its two-wheel drive is remarkable oh my god you know going fast in a straight line isn't very exciting but when you start doing the thick end of 200 it's quite exciting victory for the Macau of course the numbers back up the visuals the Porsches traction advantage is much shorter live than expected it does thirty in one point 360 and three point two and one hundred and seven point nine seconds but the bridge is beginning to disappear by then it has hit 30 and one point eight sixty and three point seven and a hundred in seven point six it's one of the fastest cars we've driven all year and above 100 miles an hour it crucifies the Porsche what surprised me most about this new turbo was how much I grew to enjoy spending time in it the 997 was a car to respect not to adore and that wasn't really good enough given the money involved but the 99 one has a much more defined personality but reveals itself the more you drive it it's also the fastest and most complete all-weather performance car I've ever driven which must count for something but you can't help but feel the person who owned a Turbo S would really miss the drama of a machine like the 12c it's not quite as usable but you could live with it every day and when it's dry that power is addictive the Porsche is the better more complete car and can justify its new increased price the McLaren remained one of the most exciting usable supercars on sale

Channel: THE DRIVE

Views: 1,419,629

Rating: 4.8211923 out of 5

Keywords: porsche 911, 911, 991, turbo, turbo s, carrera, mclaren, mp4-12c, 12c, f1, spyder, spider, track, test, review, drag race, lap, chris harris, drive, automotive, Porsche 997 (Automobile Generation), Drag Racing (Sport), Cars

Id: JyPLNtdqpJ8

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 27 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/jordy_wd]

Biggest surprise from this video was the sheer size of the 911, it's massive compared to the McLaren. Great video from Chris and the team as always.

[u/Abominati0n]

Upvote all the Chris Harris Videos.

[u/[deleted]]

wow, the over the right should shot looking out the windshield is great. it really lets you feel like you are in the car and really get a feel for how fast it is, unlike watching from the outside like in a turn where speed doesnt translate well to the eye.

i want more reviews to have that kind of angle in their videos

[u/[deleted]]

458 over both

[u/[deleted]]

I love the porsche, I'd probably take it over the McLaren

[u/Lexdb]

/Drive is the only channel that I allow youtube to inform me about by mail. Reason should be obvious.

[u/furioapb]

Got to say I love the look of the 911, can't wait to see what the GT2 version will look like, probably be one to buy!

[u/RPLLL]

I've got to say I like what Porsche did to the headlights. I've grown tired if imitation Audis.