While these two supercars don’t exactly cater to same demographics, they do possess similar straightline strengths. The soft, silent, bubble-bodied Porsche Turbo S looks almost modest when stood against the angular, wing-clad Lamborghini Huracan Performante—especially when it’s doused in a coat of metallic lilac. More powerful and much lighter, the 640-horsepower Performante looks like the car that would leave a 911 behind without much difficulty.
However, the 911 Turbo has always had a way of outrunning the on-paper quicker cars. That wide wave of turbocharged torque gives the 3,750-lb Turbo S the shove of a freight train, and thanks to the seamless shifts of the PDK transmission, that shove is never interrupted. With 553 lb-ft of torque available from 2,100 rpm, the Turbo S is frighteningly fast from just about anywhere in the rev range. In most real-world situations, that big-block-esque turning force should make the Porsche the quicker car.
Watch how both four-wheel drive vehicles leave the line at about the same rate, but how the Porsche surges ahead once they’re underway. With that mid-range shove and perhaps a mild traction advantage, the Porsche’s the faster from stoplight to stoplight. That said, the jump off the line pays dividends. 1,350 feet later, the two are separated by just a tenth of a second; the Porsche pips the snarling bull by a hair’s breadth.
Dragging from a dig and from a 40-mph roll are two different tasks entirely. The Lamborghini’s weight and throttle response play a role here. At tip-in, the Porsche’s mild delay keeps it from snagging the rolling race. When time comes to stop, the award again goes to the Performante; roughly 700 pounds make a major difference in the act of deceleration. You simply cannot cheat physics when it comes to braking—but that doesn’t stop Porsche from trying.
Which one would you rather have?
