On March 10, 2011, David “The Bullet” Smith Jr was shot out of a cannon, he flew nearly 60 metres and reached a speed of 120km/h, currently holding the claim to the world record.
During his exhilarating flight he would have coped with stresses of up to 9G as he plummeted through the air. It’s an experience that most wouldn’t choose, or be able to comprehend. I however, now have some inkling into his world, after a weekend with the astonishing all-electric Porsche Taycan Turbo and specifically its Launch Control.
Step one, click this AED650,000 machine into Sport Plus mode.
Step two, fully depress the brake, then fully depress the accelerator, it’s now your car tells you ‘Launch Control Activated’ and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Step three, release the brake and then hold on tight as the universe slams into fast forward and you are thrown back into your seat, gripping the steering wheel for dear life.
Physically, the two electric motors that give this machine life are generating up to 500kw of power, the equivalent of 680 horse power, hurtling you onwards so fast that in 3.2 seconds you’ve passed 100kph. Emotionally, through a potent cocktail of adrenalin, endorphins and sheer exhilaration, you are weeping with joy, laughing in a way you haven’t laughed since you were a child.
The Taycan isn’t just a sports car, it’s a time machine. Experience Launch Control and you are right back riding Space Mountain at Disneyland for the first time, you are Michael Knight pressing Turbo Boost in Knight Rider, or Starbuck launching his Viper fighter in Battlestar Galactica.
What makes this sensation akin to Mr Smith Jr’s flight is the smoothness of the acceleration. There isn’t the lag as fuel is injected, pistons fire and gears are worked through, instead the two ‘permanently excited’ electric motors (one on the front axle, one on the rear) deliver power instantly and silently. So much so that accelerating above 100km/h is still that same seat-slamming experience. On the racetrack the Taycan can get from 100km/h to 200km/h in a mere 7.4 seconds.
This makes the Taycan incredibly agile, the delay between thinking ‘I want more speed’ and the machine giving it to you is only limited by how fast the synapses in your brain deliver the message to your foot on the pedal. It’s like Clint Eastwood’s Firefox (though you don’t need to think in Russian – Millennials look it up on YouTube).
.jpg?41mW36oT)
The Porsche Advanced Cockpit in the Taycan is characterised by pioneering technologies
There’s been much talk about whether the Taycan’s launch control can outpace Tesla’s ‘Cheetah mode’, with common wisdom being that Porsche just sneaks it, but on an engineering front the German marque takes all prizes being able to repeat that blistering speed over and over again without rest, not the case with its American rival.
The difference was put to me this way when I took the key to this machine: “Tesla is a technology firm that built an electric car, Porsche is a sports car maker that put all its heritage and knowledge into building its electric creation.”
While this speed is impressive on the track, on the road it gives you the ability to skip away from peril in a heartbeat. Indeed while test driving, having properly indicated to turn left at a roundabout, two oncoming trucks ploughed straight through (probably too busy gawping to stop) and would have sided me in pretty much anything else, but the Taycan was able to surge past danger with just a whisker of pressure on the accelerator.
The time machine effect isn’t just isolated to launch control, just being sat behind the steering wheel and watching and listening is a thing of joy, it is having your mind blown away as a child watching the original Tron, and you almost feel like you are piloting a light cycle. The silence is captivating, as you drive you actively listen to the stillness as it’s mesmerising.
If you want a little accompaniment you can of course switch on the Electric Sport Sound (this is a requirement in Europe so that pedestrians can hear the car coming). With this switched on, inside it sounds like an orchestral choir is in the back just humming along, getting more animated as the power is increased.
.jpg?Jtsl8hX7)
Mechanical buttons have been almost entirely replaced by digital ones
Of course, while this car has pretty much driven out of my childhood movies it does need to live in the real world, and in a part of the world not quite set up for electric motoring yet. Dubai to its credit has already started down the path with charging stations at petrol stations, malls and the like, and still currently there is zero cost to charging your Taycan up at a public facility if you can find one.
But the reality is that charging isn’t as big a deal as you’d think. The Taycan has a range on a fully charged battery of up to 452km (depending on how it’s driven) and during my weekend that range hovered around the 400km mark. What might surprise though is how easy it is to charge at home, you can simply plug it in to any three-pin socket.
This is going to take you about nine hours overnight to charge from empty to full and cost you around AED15. Of course, if you were seriously buying this car you would have the ultra-fast charger plumbed in to your garage to speed that process up.
For some this idea of charging at home rather than filling up on the go might take a little change in habits, but anyone living in the suburbs using services such as Cafu are already well-used to this fill up at home ethos.
Other practical touches are stitched into the Taycan, including the ability to lift the ride height up to mount kerbs, into garages, or tackle steeper speed bumps.
And, in terms of luggage space the Taycan comes with nearly 450 cubic liters of space, split between a decent boot that can take a set of golf clubs or suitcases, and one at the front (with the electric engine now along the bottom of the car) that’ll take a quick shop etc.
There are 100 other things I could write about this car, in terms of performance or technical engineering, but the most important that hit me was the sheer joy of the Taycan Turbo. For any petrol heads who said electric cars could never provide an emotional, moving experience, Porsche has delivered an incredible rejoinder.
And, if this is where we start with electric performance motoring then the science-fiction geek of my childhood can’t wait to see where we go on this journey.
The stats:
Top speed: 260 km/h
0 – 100 km/h: 3.2 seconds
0 – 200km/h: 10.6 seconds
Overboost power for Launch Control: up to 500 kW (680 PS)
Maximum torque for Launch Control: 850 Nm
Range: 383 – 452 km on a fully-charged battery
Follow us on
