Porsche has historically been
Porsche has historically been great at steadily improving the 911 year over year. And their lower 911s are now quicker than the 911 Turbo was a few years ago. But then again the regular 911s have turbos now too, so it's no surprise that they are so quick today. I understand that some Porsche purists will always fight changes, but Porsche has a strong history with Hybrid models, even in racing. It was 10 years ago when Porsche first came out with their GT3 R Hybrid. The hybrid design at that time used a flywheel to store the energy and two 101HP electric motors driving the two front wheels. But the car showed off how well hybrid technology could help in racing because rather than burning up red hot disc brakes, much of the deceleration energy normally lost in heat could be directly converted into electricity, which saved the brakes, and also the added electric power could then be used to provide a boost in acceleration as needed. The results were often showing the fastest lap times, and also about 1/3rd less pit stops for the GT3 R Hybrid. In 2011 Porsche showed off their 919 Hybrid (using lithium Ion batteries) which provided Porsche's overall victory in 2014 with the first endurance prototype motor racing win since 1989, and they also won the World Endurance Drivers' Championship in 2015. While this was going on in the racing world, Porsche came out with one of their most amazing hybrid supercars ever, the Porsche 918 Spyder in 2013-2015, which still holds many track lap records including setting a record in 2013 with a Nürburgring lap time of 6:57 on the 20.6 km (12.8 mi) road course, beating the previous record by 14 seconds, and making it the first series production street-legal car to break the 7-minute barrier. A trio of super-fast hypercars came out with hybrid drivetrains around that time, from the Ferrari La Ferrari, to the McLaren P1, to the 918 Spyder. In Car and Driver's independent test of the Porsche 918 they achieved 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 2.2 seconds, 0-100 mph (161 km/h) in 4.9 seconds, 0-180 mph (290 km/h) in 17.5 seconds, and the quarter mile in 9.8 seconds. Currently, Porsche's new electric Taycan Turbo S has the quickest 0-60 time in their model lineup. So hearing that the 911 is getting a hybrid model is only good news to me. Sure, it will provide better fuel economy, but you know that Porsche will mostly use the hybrid drivetrain in the 911 to become a better performance car.