Matt Farah’s love for Porsches is well-documented, and seldom does he pass up an opportunity to try a new model out—especially when track driving is involved. He’s a lucky boy, and on this particular occasion he was fortunate enough to sample Road Atlanta in an astonishingly quick, composed, and luxurious 991.1 Turbo S. Best of all—it’s modified.
Top Speed Motorsports, a Georgia-based tuning shop, specializes in bringing all the potential out of large, technologically-sophisticated, powerful cars—namely the Nissan GT-R and the 911 Turbo. Their “Elite700” package, as seen here, incorporates a slew of bolt-on engine modifications to bump the power output to 680 horsepower at the wheels. It’s hard to fathom such a figure is attainable with bolt-ons, but considering how far just a Cobb Accessport can take a 991 Turbo, it’s not incomprehensible.
The power is sweet and smoothly delivered, and with PDK ensuring a constant, steady stream of torque to haul this heavyweight down the straighter sections at Road Atlanta, Farah effortlessly brushes 150 miles an hour before negotiating the righthand kink leading into Turn 10A. Considering the approach to this turn is somewhat blind, that the plush Porsche Turbo weighs 3,800 pounds, that the normal entry speed is roughly 60 miles an hour, and the braking zone is all downhill, it’s understandable he backed off a little. At those speeds, things can go badly in a split second.
Even in high-speed direction changes, the 991 looks remarkably planted.
Despite his mild trepidation, Farah revels in the experience offered by the Elite700; whooping, hollering, and broadcasting the palpable enthusiasm that’s made him an online celebrity. That elation might come from the way Road Atlanta challenges its drivers to test their mettle at the end of every intimidating straight. It could be the Porsche’s composure, namely the way it puts all the power down without histrionics and its stability in direction changes, which encourages a driver to try and extract every iota of performance from the platform. Either way, the accessible-yet-challenging 991 Turbo S and the frighteningly-fast Road Atlanta are a match made in heaven, and Farah was very fortunate to get mixed up in that goodness.