HAGERTY's Taycan vs 911 review - by Henry Catchpole

[Dee]

The comparison should be Panamera vs Taycan, same weight, same kind of car.

Nürburgring lap times:
'23 Taycan Turbo S (20,8km): 7:33.35
'20 Panamera Turbo (20,8km): 7:29.81

And for comparison:
992 Turbo S: 7:17.30 and there's your answer it's just silly to compare a 911 to a Taycan.
Don't even look at the times of the 911 GTx's , those are almost a minute(!) faster...

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nürburgring_Nordschleife_lap_times

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[Avantgarde]

Yeah, I would disagree with you there. My GT4 cornered much more capably that my Taycan. Speeds where the Taycan wants to under steer into the weeds, the GT4 just sucks down into the road. There is a sweeper near my house that I could easily take at 125 in my GT4, that gets scary at 90 in the Taycan. The Taycan is a great car, but even Porsche can’t defy the laws of physics.

So you are comparing a GT4 to Taycan to make your point (that somehow taycan is very distanced from other porsche line-up, which is not true). Do you think you a GT3 would feel similar to a regular 911? Why compare a GT car

 

[Avantgarde]

I have a 992 Turbo S and a Taycan GTS. On the back roads they're closer than folks want to admit, and I doubt anyone that is dug in will stop denying that. I haven't tracked my Taycan so I can't say how it compares there, but for your weekend drives it's really really impressive what they did with the Taycan.

Not sure why people take small differences out of proportion like this. Makes it confusing for new comers. "They are completely different cars" OMG what is this exaggeration. I never owned a 911 but experienced them, owned a Cayman for long years and now a Taycan. Yes Cayman was more nimble when pushed to the limit but they feel amazingly close to me in most on-road driving scenarios, which is the most amazing part about Taycan because heavy, panamera like cars usually don't have that type of steering feel even in soft driving and give away their boring character right away. When I had the Cayman I also had a Cadillac escalade company car, an they were truly completely different cars. If there is a scale of Porsche-sportiness feel from 1 to 20. and If i score Cayman at 1, Taycan would be a 2, a macan would be a 6 a panamera would be a 7 and an Escalade would be a 20. I ignored Taycan for long time thinking it is just an "electric panamera". The first time i drove it I was like "this is almost a 4 door electric cayman". For anyone considering, please test drive. I can assure you they are not "COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" cars. Very similar feel.

 

[Dee]

I can assure you they are not "COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" cars. Very similar feel.

It all depends what your definition is of "car feeling".
A Panamera doesn't have such a low CoG so it will drive differently.
Same for the Cayman/911 (as in mid/rear engined) or any other Porsche (ride height etc).
Also, your "rotation point" is completely different cuz of the longer wheelbase of the Taycan so either your "car feel" is ignorant or you just don't drive on that limit where it does matter.
Don't take this as an insult but "car feel" is as subjective as taste and smell.
Laptimes are objective.

 

[TDinDC]

Not sure why people take small differences out of proportion like this. Makes it confusing for new comers. "They are completely different cars" OMG what is this exaggeration. I never owned a 911 but experienced them, owned a Cayman for long years and now a Taycan. Yes Cayman was more nimble when pushed to the limit but they feel amazingly close to me in most on-road driving scenarios, which is the most amazing part about Taycan because heavy, panamera like cars usually don't have that type of steering feel even in soft driving and give away their boring character right away. When I had the Cayman I also had a Cadillac escalade company car, an they were truly completely different cars. If there is a scale of Porsche-sportiness feel from 1 to 20. and If i score Cayman at 1, Taycan would be a 2, a macan would be a 6 a panamera would be a 7 and an Escalade would be a 20. I ignored Taycan for long time thinking it is just an "electric panamera". The first time i drove it I was like "this is almost a 4 door electric cayman". For anyone considering, please test drive. I can assure you they are not "COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" cars. Very similar feel.

Hate to po

It all depends what your definition is of "car feeling".
A Panamera doesn't have such a low CoG so it will drive differently.
Same for the Cayman/911 (as in mid/rear engined) or any other Porsche (ride height etc).
Also, your "rotation point" is completely different cuz of the longer wheelbase of the Taycan so either your "car feel" is ignorant or you just don't drive on that limit where it does matter.
Don't take this as an insult but "car feel" is as subjective as taste and smell.
Laptimes are objective.

Also, it is not at all surprising that someone who came from a Cayman would not notice as much of a difference as someone coming from a 911. And the differences between the vehicles manifest themselves much more the harder you push them. Drive both cars at 1/10, and they will probably feel darned near identical. Most sane and intelligent people do not push their cars past 3 or 4/10s on the public roads. The differences are not all that great even at 4/10s, but you can start to feel them. I would venture to say that the differences start to really become apparent when you are at 7 or 8/10s or above. Nobody should ever do that, but some of us do. And most of the time that you think you are pushing 9/10s, you are probably pushing 9/10s of your own talent but maybe only 7/10s of the car's capability.

But massive weight with very low cog and even distribution across axles (i.e., 50/50) certainly feels very different than much, much lower weight, slightly higher cog and rear weight bias (i.e., 37/63) to me, without admitting how hard I occasionally push the cars or how biased I am by an overinflated sense of driving skills (and therefore overestimation about how hard I am pushing the car).

 

[Avantgarde]

"car feel" is ignorant

your "car feel" is ignorant

Or maybe I am well aware of the nuances you are talking about but have a lot more fidelity in scaling the differences between vehicles, and providing a balanced view, instead of calling every single vehicle on earth "completely different cars" no matter how small or big the differences are. My porsche-feeling: The unique ease and willingness of the car to change direction, the lightness of the front end due to the lack of an engine, creating exceptional turn-in. The exceptional precision and control feel of the steering with absolute zero dead-zone, which gives you the ability to position the car with millimeter precision on the road. Absolute maintenance of composure after back to back opposite changes in direction. The aggressive low feeling of center of gravity, an entire passenger space pushed WAY down between 4 wheels that are over-streched all the way to the corners, in a way you don't nearly experience in any other "sporty sedan", creating the feeling that the entire mass of the car is tied to a rail in the ground with a rubber band. The combination of all these making you simply enjoy the driving experience even when you are not driving at the limit. That's the feeling what makes you look forward to driving a car on a curved backroad even if you are not planning to spend the night in jail. I am sorry but that's NOT how a Panamera feels (even though it is also a great vehicle), not even close and that's not how many other "sporty sedans" feel as much as you try hard to make people believe the Taycan simply belongs to this group. It just doesn't.

 

[Avantgarde]

I saw someone posted this top gear track time list today and it reminded me this whole “is taycan a sports car” debate…

 

[Domy69]

I think that Porsche has succeeded very well with the Taycan so that a 4-door 2.3 ton car is compared by many people including the professional press with a 911. I am 100% ok it is not a race or GT car but yes it is a car that provides a sporty feeling and real driving pleasure

 

[kempez]

I think that Porsche has succeeded very well with the Taycan so that a 4-door 2.3 ton car is compared by many people including the professional press with a 911. I am 100% ok it is not a race or GT car but yes it is a car that provides a sporty feeling and real driving pleasure

Exactly this. I was on some semi-rural roundabouts today with some lads in their hot hatch on my arse trying to follow and without even trying, certainly not using acceleration I whipped around 2 roundabouts with absolute precision (within my limited ability), and they just blundered through them well behind me and rev’d their engines out to catch up after, when I kept to the speed limit after the roundabouts without breaking a sweat. The feel and precision and the way I could place the car on the road and stay totally flat is just in another planet to other cars. I’m sure a Cayman or 911 would also be amazing through the same simple roundabout corners, but that’s the point: this is a luxury electric car and we’re comparing it to thoroughbred sports cars. And it holds close to them. Impressive stuff.

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