WE'RE APPROACHING THE FAST, UPHILL Turn 12 of the Monteblanco circuit in southern Spain in the Taycan Turbo GT.
I'm riding shotgun with Lars Kern, the Porsche factory driver who took this car around the Nürburgring in 7min 07sec last year. He shouts across: 'At first I wasn't convinced by the Active Ride suspension. Host pretty much all feeling for the car, and it didn't give me what I needed on track. We're still accelerating.
At what feels like the point of no return, I lunge for the imaginary brake pedal in the passenger footwell. A heartbeat later Kern finally eases off, but not by much, and turns in hard towards the apex. I'm sucked down into the Taycan's carbon seat through the compression, then slammed into the backrest as we launch over the crest under full power. The car goes light but Kern stays committed, and climbs all over the exit kerb at an indicated 175kph (108mph). 'After going through a few iterations of the suspension, I now have full confidence in the package. It allows me to push the car to the absolute limit.
It's hard to argue with that...
The Turbo GT is a new, very different kind of Taycan. Porsche's first EV shifted our perspective on what kind of poise, precision and ability an electric car could deliver when it arrived in 2019, but this track-prepared flagship explores the very extremes of what the platform is capable of. In some ways, the results are spectacular, but why the GT exists - and precisely who it's for - is a little more complicated.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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