FIRST LOOK- Porsche Taycan Turbo GT – Smashes Tesla’s Lap Record AGAIN!

Who on earth climbed out of a Taycan Turbo S and thought that needs to be faster? Apparently someone did. Welcome to Porsche's fastest accelerating car ever, the Taycan Turbo GT. And Porsche is so confident that its new 1,100 horsepower EV can break the street-legal electric car lap record around Laguna Seca that it invited us along to watch lap-time hero Lars Kern have a crack at it. The target? 1 minute 32 seconds set by a car from this neck of the Californian woods. Yep, a Tesla Model S Plaid. Place your bets. So the Turbo GT annihilates the Tesla by almost five seconds, posting a 1 minute 27.87. And that was on his second attempt. Using a rather fetching purple example, Lars had already got the crowd going earlier in the day. Okay, so I've collared the man at the moment. Lars, congratulations. Thank you very much. That's some stellar driving. I wanted to ask you, because EVs have a habit of making me feel a bit sick when I go fast in them, tell me about the demands that this puts on your body. I mean, at the end of the day, it's just, for me, it doesn't really matter where the power comes from. If it's like from electric motor or from combustion engine, you can always have more power, if you ask me. So we already spoke about that, that even the car, the chassis, everything's so good, it could take even more power. But for me, yeah, not a problem. Pretty impressive car. But you don't feel like, you know, when you drop down into the corkscrew or something, do you feel like your stomach turn over? No, because you're so tense. It's like, yeah, you're not moving an inch, so you're like, just going to wrestle the car around. Yeah, I am. Really cool. And around here, when you've got a 90 second lap or a little bit less than that, it's pretty short. Tell me which corner is the critical one for most lap time? The corkscrew? No, the left-hander before corkscrew. Oh, I see. Over this little crest and then it's this fast left-hander uphill, because you have to get it right. Other than that, you miss the run towards corkscrew. For me, that's the key corner. Cool. And I noticed that lastly, we almost missed your lap time, because you went out, did one outlap, and then the lap record was always the first flying lap. Is that just because the tyres don't last? I mean, we figured out in the prep already that the difference between the first and the second lap, it's like a tenth or two. And now we're talking really small margins, and this is already enough. But we did like 28. Look at the tyres now, they look still brand new. So, as soon as they cool down, you can use them again. It's just surface temperature, it's just really high. Because, I mean, 2.2 tonnes put a lot of energy into the tyres. And how many laps could you do on one charge, do you think? On one charge? The charge is not really an issue. The problem is the battery temp and the engine temp, or like electric engine temp. So, normally we always did three flat out. This worked. And then the fourth, you would have lost power. But if you do cool downs in between, you're going to see when we do the taxi rides, you can push a lot. Right. Yeah, this is what I'm worried about. It's not just enough to watch it go by quickly. He's going to take me out for a passenger ride. Please be gentle. No. Before that, let's have a close-up poke around the new Turbo GT, see what it's all about. Right then, this is worth a few quid then, isn't it? Now, the official Laguna Seca lap record car. And this has got the VISAC package. So, obviously, you've got your flicks down here. You've got the fixed rear wing at the back. But I wanted to show you in here, because this has got... Phew, it's unlocked. This has got a few extra little details. They've had to put this steel roll cage in to comply with the rules here at Laguna. And then that's added all this weight. So look, it's missing all this trim, all these trim pieces down there. They've just desperately tried to take the plastic off to save some weight. And then check out the GT3 RS-style steering wheel, the extra knobs and buttons and modes and the paddle shifters, so you can easily access the attack mode. That was what Lars, the driver, wanted. He wanted the attack mode, the boost at his fingertips for the ultimate lap time. Right. Let's go and have a look at normal one. OK. Now, given this is the first time we've actually had a good look at an undisguised Taycan Turbo GT, here's your spotter's guide to see what's actually new, starting with new front splitter. They've done a lot of aero work down the front, actually, because you've got these curtains as well. 80 kilos of downforce at the front when you have the VISAC package. This has also got forged wheels and they've even updated the carbon ceramic brake package to save 2.2 kilograms. Carbon fibre fetishist, you get a carbon fibre B pillar. And actually, we should have a look in here, because on a normal Turbo GT, you get back seats. I forgot to mention on the VISAC package, you don't. Now, the VISAC car is the one you've seen doing the lap, and that has the big fixed wing instead of the standard car's carbon fibre ducktail. And of course, you get a Turbo GT batch. Now, you might be thinking, well, that's not a lot of changes. There's a lot more underneath. We all predicted the Turbo GT would be the first triple motor Taycan, following the template of the Tesla Model S Plaid and the Lucid Air Sapphire. But Porsche's engineers said they got the results they wanted, sticking with a dual motor layout. The front motor is a Turbo S carryover with new software, but the rear motor is lighter, more powerful and connected to a revised gear ratio in the two speed transmission. It develops up to 1100 brake horsepower in the 10 second attack mode and will launch from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds or 2.2 with the 70 kilo lighter VISAC package. And that's without any drag strip preparation or one foot rollout. Range is acclaimed 344 miles, around 50 miles less than a Turbo S. And that really asks you the question, doesn't it? How much do you need a car that's quicker than a Turbo S? How much do you need to go from 0 to 125 miles an hour in 6.6 seconds instead of 7.7? If you're a speed merchant who'll only settle for the Turbo GT, as standard you get Porsche's latest active suspension which completely erases body roll, brake dive or acceleration pitch and it makes being a passenger totally relaxing, right? It's just two guys just going for a leisurely drive. That's what you think. Oh god, I'm just glad I'm strapped in so tightly. And we're on cold tyres now, we can say that if it gets a little bit lively. Yeah. All the traction control is off? Yeah. All right. We want it lively, do we? Yeah, absolutely. You want to show off, then you'll be my guest. Right then, let's see what this Turbo GT can do. Oh my, it feels airable, man. Turn one, nail to the apex there. How's the brake feel? Perfect. Oh, you would say that, you've been paid by Porsche. This is not driving, this is teleportation. A bit of front-end push there, then a drift on the way out. Yeah, definitely tell there's more power going to the rear than in the standard Turbo. Just the traction out of the corner is tight. I mean, I really enjoyed lunch just once today, I don't need to see it again. Drive what he's doing here. You know, the reaction times that you would need for this. Apologies for my lacklustre commentary, which hardly did Martin Brundle proud. I couldn't decide between watching Lars's lightning-fast, mesmerising reflexes, or just looking out the window and trying to concentrate on the view outside. It's a very, very eerie experience being in a machine that's going this fast, but making almost no noise. Final quarter, let's feel the over-boost coming out here. That was a 1.29, so even that with a passenger on board is a sub-90 second lap. You're absolutely crazy. I don't know who needed a faster car than a Taycan Turbo, but you're going to need a very, very strong stomach to deal with the sort of thing that this thing can pull off. There we go. Survived Laguna Seca, didn't get Laguna Sicker. Appreciate it. Right, where's the toilet?