The Violently Purple 1,092-Horsepower Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Looks Like Bottled Electric Insanity

Sky Purple Metallic Taycan Turbo Gt Ts2
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For the past few years, the big winner in the electric sedan performance wars has been California. Between the Tesla Model S Plaid and the Lucid Air Sapphire, California has been the exclusive home turf of the latest generation of unfathomably quick roadgoing business jets. Until now. That’s because a certain German sports car maker is putting its foot down and firing a 1,092-horsepower salvo in California’s general direction. The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is poised to be a ruthless destroyer of straights and corners, and Porsche has pulled every trick out of its sleeve to score production electric car lap records at Laguna Seca and the Nürburgring.

Let’s start with that herculean output of 1,092 horsepower. It’s a great headline figure, but it’s worth noting that power is only possible due to peak output calculation and Porsche temporarily cranking the knobs off with something called Attack Mode, which dumps 120 kW at the sedan’s electric motors. First off, Attack Mode is an excellent name. Secondly, that’s an entire Porsche 944 worth of power available at the push of a button.

The results sound absolutely profound — zero-to-60 mph in a manufacturer-claimed 2.2 seconds without the lightweight Weissach package and 2.1 seconds with it, and zero-to-124 mph in a claimed 6.6 seconds without the Weissach package and 6.4 seconds with it. Keep in mind, Porsche seconds are a little bit shorter than actual seconds, so don’t be surprised to see the big car magazines beat those figures in instrumented testing.

Sky Purple Metallic Taycan Turbo Gt A1 04054 044

Sky Purple Metallic Taycan Turbo 2

Of course, sustaining big output is always harder than cranking out big numbers like Soulja Boy, so Porsche’s gone to town on the nitty-gritty bits beneath the skin, including the inverters. In Porsche’s words:

In both Taycan Turbo GT models, pulse inverters with a maximum current of 900 amperes are used on the rear axle. These deliver even more power and torque than the 600-ampere pulse inverter in the Taycan Turbo S. For better efficiency, silicon carbide is also used as the semiconductor material in the pulse inverter. This significantly reduces switching losses in the PWR and enables higher switching frequencies.

Translation: Beefier inverters made of more efficient semiconductors can handle more current, cycle current faster, and therefore allow for better performance. Car go fast, indeed.

22 Taycan Turbo Gt With Wp Interior

Of course, there’s more to the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT than just bonkers output. It rolls on forged 21-inch wheels with spokes milled down for two purposes — reducing unsprung weight and enhancing brake cooling. Speaking of brakes, even in the presence of carbon ceramic discs, optimized braking components including lightened calipers shave more than 4.4 additional pounds. Add in carbon fiber bucket seats and clever touches like deletion of the soft-close function on the tailgate latch and a weight-optimized trunk liner, and the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT weighs 165 pounds less than a regular Taycan Turbo S. Oh, but because this is Porsche, the engineers didn’t stop there.

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Say hello to the Weissach Package, a 190-proof, Ozempic-prescribed Arkham Asylum alumnus variant of the Taycan Turbo GT. It’s a further 154 pounds lighter than the regular Taycan Turbo GT — a total of 319 pounds lighter than a regular Taycan Turbo S — and you get the sense that instead of just looking for clever optimizations, Porsche just took everything reasonably removeable and threw it in the bin. This means no rear seat and no screams from the rear seat, no rear speakers, no floor mats, no analog clock, no driver’s side charging port (there’s still one on the passenger side), and substantially less sound insulation. Porsche’s GT division then added all that weight and more back, but only when moving. A proper rear wing is said to help generate 485 pounds of downforce, and it’s this combination of reduced weight and increased downforce that’s nabbed the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach Package a couple of records.

Porsche Taycan Turbo Gt Laguna Seca

Last month, Porsche wheelman Lars Kern laid down a 1:27.87 lap around Laguna Seca, and that’s not just quicker than any production-spec electric car, that’s only about three tenths off of the Ferrari Challenge lap record, set in a race-spec 488 Challenge Evo. Add in a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time of 7:07.55 — 17.681 seconds quicker than a Tesla Model S Plaid with the track package — and the Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package is also the quickest production sedan to ever lap the Nordschleife.

Shade Green Taycan Turbo Gt A1 05967 001

At this point, I know what you’re thinking: Is any of this particularly practical or of much use in the real world? Over a Taycan Turbo S, probably not. However, as an engineering achievement, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is spectacular. It’s shown up to a tri-motor gun fight with two electric motors and sheer grit, and it’s right in the mix. It also comes in an exclusive Purple Sky metallic, and that’s a win right there. As a bonus, the Taycan Turbo GT both with and without the Weissach package starts at a price $17,005 cheaper than a Lucid Air Sapphire. While $231,995 including freight isn’t cheap by any means, a penny saved is a penny earned. Expect deliveries to start this Spring, and with four-door practicality and a WLTP range forecast of 344 miles, I just want to give a shoutout to the heroes planning on daily driving these.

(Photo credits: Porsche)

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39 thoughts on “The Violently Purple 1,092-Horsepower Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Looks Like Bottled Electric Insanity”

  2. „Of course, sustaining big output is always harder than cranking out big numbers like Soulja Boy“ senteces like these is why i love this site

  6. “ Keep in mind, Porsche seconds are a little bit longer than actual seconds, so don’t be surprised to see the big car magazines beat those figures in instrumented testing.”
    If Porsche is using longer seconds, wouldn’t they need fewer of them than the regular seconds that the car magazines would be using?
    I guess I can put Porsche second on the same list as imperial gallons, nautical miles, and ounces of gold.

  7. I would love it if on rear seat delete vehicles they still gave you the seats, and you could take them in and out as desired. Also, if they come out with a Taycan CrossTurismo Turbo GT, will it meet the “truck” rules to be fully depreciated in a year under business use?

    1. I would love it if on rear seat delete vehicles they still gave you the seats, and you could take them in and out as desired.

      I can imagine some serious crash safety liabilities with this idea.

      1. Many vehicles offer this though- it’s even listed as one of the possible criteria for the business depreciation. I believe the wording is “removable with hand tools” which doesn’t preclude using a torque wrench.

        That being said, I’m not sure how many (if any) sedans, hatches, or wagons have removable rear seats. I’m mostly aware of minivans, vans, and SUVs.

        1. It seems like that option is slowly going away though in vans and SUVs.

          Fold flat or fixed seats are becoming more common, and actual removal is harder and harder.

          Commercial vans are probably the last place this will be possible.

    2. I think it would be more logical if the rear seats delete came with a rear doors delete too. I can’t see the reason for having 4 doors in a 2 seats car…

      1. Other than the fact that a rear door delete is seriously complicated, I agree. Although if they add bracing like in the GR Corolla, the doors will be helpful for access to fit the track wheel set inside.

  8. If it came in a smaller 2-door/2-seater sports car package with half the mass and half the power, I’d be a lot more interested. It currently weighs as much as an SUV…

      1. I’d be interested in the Cayman version.

        If it doesn’t have a 2 in front of the 4-digit number describing its curb weight measured in lbs, while simultaneously having at least 200 miles range on the highway, I’m not interested. I know they can do it. The question is, will they?

        They could make a pseudo-streamliner with a CdA value comparable to a 550 Coupe and target 150 Wh/mile efficiency, even if it weighs right at 3,000 lbs. The GM EV1 did exactly that sort of efficiency. This is how you keep the battery pack light and inexpensive enough to keep both vehicle mass and per-mile operating cost down, while keeping range acceptable.

        1. I’ll collaborate with you on an EV based on the MR2 Spyder platform- we can swap in the motor from the Niro/Kona which is designed to be a drop-in 2L 4cyl replacement, and should be physically compatible with a the LSD from the N cars. The car will need all new body panels and hardtop to meet your Cd desires, and I haven’t figured out what the donor battery should be. Maybe from an i3?

          1. The Tesla Model 3’s pack has the best balance between reliability/cost/specific capacity, IMO.

            An MR2 Spyder streamliner weighing around 2,300 lbs with CdA of about 0.3 m^2, fitted with a 40 kWh 21700 pack and 201 horsepower/291 lb-ft of torque from a Kona/Niro drive system coupled to a single-speed reduction ratio and geared to top out at about 170 mph would be able to do 0-60 mph ~4 seconds and hold top speed without exceeding the continuous rating of the electric motor. Range on the highway would approach 300 miles and readily exceed 250 miles, although that might drop to 180-ish miles in the city and 40-50 miles on a race track. And you’d be able to give it usable trunk space.

            That 2,300 lb weight would be realistic considering the stock MR2 Spyder was around 1,900-2,000 lbs depending on configuration, and the completed battery pack would weigh under 400 lbs.

            1. But can the Model 3’s pack be packaged into that short of a wheelbase?

              The Niro EV is geared to 108mph top speed I believe, which is unnecessarily low since it can absolutely cook the front tires. In stock, the 0-60 of the Niro EV and the MR2 Spyder are almost identical. I want to get a set of 200TW and try it in autocross, although an LSD would be a huge improvement because of the torque.

              1. The pack is composed of modules. A new custom housing to fit them into a reconfigured pack would have to be designed to fit into the modified MR2, including associated BMS and cooling. Perhaps the pack would be split into two sections to keep weight distribution at the desired balance, IMO, somewhere between 49/51 and 50/50, with a very slight bias toward more rear weight, and all heavy motor/controller/batteries positioned between the axle lines to keep polar moment of inertia low.

                If the kit is instead made for a front-engine rear-drive car, it may be possible to fit the entire battery where the transmission tunnel would have been, and would certainly be a much easier layout to design for and service.

                1. Holy shit yes. I’ve dreamed of the new MR2 being exactly what you guys are deserving. Except with less range. The first MR2 was designed to be a joyous commuter. I think there’s space in the market for that once again. Imagine a car that could only do 60 miles. Not meant for leaving the city. But will make you smile wide every time you get in it and take zero fuel.

    2. They gotta charge extra for something. Or in this case less something.

      It would be cool if they had a way to say remove half the battery and drop 1000 lbs or something. It’s not like anyone doing hot laps keeps a full tank of gas.

      2. I love looking at what is and isn’t an up charge on a given Porsche. It varies from car to car! In this one, rear heated seats is a $0 option, but ventilated seats and heated steering wheel(both standard in my Niro EV) are $850 and $680 respectively.

  14. Factory Rear Seat Deletes are cool. Factory Rear Seat Deletes on cars with rear doors are Batshit Captain Insano Awesome, and I’m here for it.

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