The Moment Switch - The 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo

 

            “Be in the moment”… a cryptic, mildly annoying phrase, something your spiritually-inclined friends propose as a cure after they’ve nagged you into admitting how stressed-out you are.

         And just what does it mean, anyway?  Well, not to be too cryptic or spiritual, but its what an athlete means when he talks about being “In the zone” – that fluid, synchronous flow of motion, nerves tingling, muscles and reflexes working so smoothly it looks to the fans in the stands like the guys down on the court are reading each other’s minds.  Top athletes live in the zone for hours at a time.

         For the rest of us, “the moment” is that random instant during which you’re immersed in immediate sensations and all else fades from your mind.  It’s that five-second daydream after getting a big check in the mail; the electric tingle up your spine after the first shot of tequila; that dizzy dance of desire and regret the first time you kiss a new girl after breaking up with the old one. 

         All of us experience ‘being in the moment’ now and again, and it’s certainly a cure for life’s blues, but you can’t live that way all the time, so what we need is a switch that lets us turn that feeling on and off.
 

         And here it is; the so-new-it-isn't-even-here-yet 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo and TurboS.  True fans might want to break into a chorus of "Happy Birthday," as this will mark the 40th for the fabled Porsche Turbo Model… not to mention that this year is the 50th anniversary of the marque itself.  

The Porsche Turbo is the car that, all those years ago, helped make possible the concept of having a 'moment switch' in your garage; the acceleration was so sudden and violent that strong men paled and many a reasonably good driver slid backwards into many a guardrail.  Things are all much more civilized now – though whether that's a good or bad thing is a matter of personal taste and insurance premiums.
 

This latest version gets its moment switch capabilities from a 3.8-liter, turbocharged 6-cylinder engine under the hood (the hood behind the driver).  520 horsepower (or 560 in the S model) used to be a magic number, a swooning, fall into immediate lust number.  Perhaps not so much now that you can get a Camaro with 580 horsepower, but still impressive – 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds and a 196 mph top speed, or 2.9 and 198 for the S.
 

Keeping fairly good drivers out of the guardrail is a new all-wheel-drive system, active rear steering and adaptive aerodynamics (translation: a cool spoiler that pops up when you get to really hustling, and something they call an 'inflatable' front spoiler… we'll hold judgment on that one until we see it work). 

 

The press kit trumpets that the new 911 Turbo will turn a lap on the Nürburgring North Loop, which means nothing in Palm Beach beyond the fact that this thing handles like it's on rails, and the only way you're likely to crash it is into the back of someone while you're looking at the latest stock report on your iPhone.
 

The 911 Turbo comes with a 7-speed PDK transmission, which means it's an automatic, but you can shift it.  No clutch, though; there are no manual transmission models on offer… at the start, anyway.  And none needed, unless you're a Tea Party purist when it comes to shifting for yourself.

Additional information is sure to follow as we get closer to showroom availability toward the end of the year.  In the case of Palm Beach, that means crossing the bridge and venturing over to Braman Porsche, but the pure pleasure of driving a car this good will be worth the trip.  Just be sure to bring along somewhere between $148,300 and $181,100 (for the S).

Even swaddled in the insulating amenities, software and mechanical systems that would smother the soul of lesser machines, the essential character of the Porsche 911 Turbo shines through.  This is far more than just transportation, though it’s that, too.  This is the ‘moment’ switch, engineered into a form designed to wait patiently for you in the garage until life piles on one thing too many and then…..