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Auto Blog
10 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Manhart Turns Porsche 911 Turbo S Into Hardcore Supercar
This is the 911 to have if you're in a hurry. Manhart Has Pulled Off Something Special Everyone wants a piece of Porsche's quickest 911 right now. Earlier this week, Gunther Werks released an exorbitantly priced aero kit for the 991 Turbo S, but that didn't add more power or performance to the 640-horsepower sports car. Fortunately, Manhart exists and has just revealed the TR 900 II, a 992-gen Turbo S that has been enhanced with a comprehensive performance kit. The result is a Porsche 911 with outrageous power and hardcore looks to match. Source: Manhart EV-Like Power And Torque Hybrids and EVs have long surpassed pure ICE cars in raw power and torque, but Manhart has shown what's possible without any electric assistance. Whereas the stock Turbo S produces 640 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque, the TR 900 II dials things all the way up to 922 hp and 804 lb-ft. That 922-hp figure is presumably metric horsepower, but it still works out to 909 imperial hp – far surpassing the standard Turbo S. The flat-six engine has been boosted by a Manhart Turbo performance kit, in addition to ECU remapping. A new stainless steel exhaust with valve control has also been fitted, as have race downpipes with 200-cell catalytic converters. The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic has been beefed up to cope with the extra power, but the standard carbon-ceramic brakes have been left as is, since they're already powerful and durable enough to cope with the normal Turbo S' incredible performance. Manhart makes no claims about how quick the TR 900 II is, but based on the fact that the stock Turbo S hits 60 in 2.6 seconds, we expect a time in the low two-second range; at this level, even a few tenths shaved off the normal Turbo S time would be a massive achievement. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. It Looks The Part, Too The standard 911 Turbo S is not the most impactful 911 to look at – that's a role reserved for the likes of the track-focused GT3 RS. But the TR 900 II is no ordinary 911, and it shouldn't look like one. To that end, Manhart added Concave One forged wheels measuring 21 inches in front and 22 inches at the back. The body sits 1.2 inches lower, thanks to Manhart lowering springs by H&R, giving this Porsche an even more menacing stance. A Moshammer aero kit includes a front spoiler, side skirts, and a rear diffuser. A larger carbon rear spoiler completes the look. Source: Manhart Black stripes on the body and unique wheel finishes are complemented by a Manhart steering wheel logo and Manhart-branded floor mats inside, but otherwise, the interior hasn't been changed too much. No price was provided for the TR 900 II, but expect a figure far beyond the $230,400 of the standard Turbo S. This level of power doesn't come cheap, even if using all of it may prove to be a mighty challenge in the real world. About the Author Karl Furlong View Profile
Top Gear
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Here's Gunther Werks' new £46k aero kit for the 992-gen 911 Turbo S
Here's Gunther Werks' new £46k aero kit for the 992-gen 911 Turbo S Those magnesium wheels will set you back an extra £12k on top. Ouch Skip 15 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Turn on Javascript to see all the available pictures. 1 / 15 Fancy dressing up yer 992-generation Turbo S? Cali-based Porsche tuner Gunther Werks has just unveiled this shiny new carbon fibre aero suit, and it adds more presence to a car that isn't really lacking any. You'll need £46k for all eight pieces, including a front lip sporting aggressive fins, side skirts, plus a rear diffuser and redesigned wing combo. Wire an extra £12k on top, and Gunther Werks will add lightweight, forged magnesium alloys from Vorsteiner. Advertisement - Page continues below In return, the kit aims to improve downforce and airflow while maintaining a factory level of fit and finish, since these parts slot right into the OEM mounting points. The carbon used is also said to be 30 per cent stronger than the traditional stuff, since it's bonded with Autoclave technology. It's a process whereby the raw material is first cured within a temperature and pressure-controlled chamber, increasing stiffness and durability. No more performance on offer, but again, the 911 Turbo S isn't really lacking any. The 3.7-litre flat-six kicks out 642bhp, gets to 62mph in under three seconds and hits its vmax at 205mph. It's the first product to be released by Gunther Werks' new sub-brand, 'GW9', which will focus primarily on suiting and booting modern 911s. Expect to see more kits like this in due course. Advertisement - Page continues below Top Gear Newsletter Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. Success Your Email*
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid and Turbo S E-Hybrid
Porsche's top-of-the-line Panamera has landed in the UK in its latest, third-generation or '976' form. Lording it over a pair of other V8-powered hot Panameras (leaving the V6 and V6 PHEV models, with which we deal in our regular Panamera review, to one side), the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid becomes quite the potent proposition in all sorts of ways: technically, as a performance option or simply as a luxury electrified GT. And it comes at quite the price. The 493bhp pure-V8 GTS will cost you £132k before options; the 671bhp Turbo E-Hybrid £152k; and the Turbo S E-Hybrid a whisker over £175k. Our test car came to rest at an all-up £194k, even without Porsche's carbonfibre-intensive aero kit. But Porsche actually delivers quite a lot on the top-of-the-line version for those who would be ordering a fully stocked vehicle anyway, and there's fully 772bhp, 0-62mph in 2.9sec and up to 52 miles of electric-only range to tempt you. So just how generous should your budget be for the ultimate Porsche fast four-door? Read on to find out. It's a powerful advert for the Panamera that, even in range-topping form, there's a sense of moderation and refinement about the car's design. You can have the Turbo S's carbon aero kit if you must (it helped produce the downforce to deliver its record-setting Nordschleife laptime, needless to say). But leave it aside and this car passes on the visual aggression of the latest BMW M5 and what you might expect of an equivalent Mercedes-AMG or Audi RS model. Although it gets lumped in with the super-saloon set, it's well capable of rising above such easy definition and retains a richness and sense of the exotic that escapes its more prosaic rivals. The '976' Turbo and Turbo S are available only with V8 PHEV power. The electric part, in both cases, is made up of a 188bhp motor sitting upstream of the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, which draws power from an NMC battery of just under 26kWh in capacity, carried under the loadbay floor (so PHEV Panameras have slightly less claimed boot volume than ICE ones). Electric range varies between just under and just over 50 miles. The Turbo's blown V8 adds enough oomph to make for 671bhp of peak power and 686lb ft of torque, while the Turbo S's slightly higher-strung equivalent ups the ante as far as 772bhp and 738lb ft. The difference in performance is less than half a second from 0-62mph (3.2sec versus 2.9sec). But it's also enough to make the Turbo S the first factory Porsche Panamera with a top speed beyond 200mph (it's 202mph). All Panameras are built on the Porsche-developed MSB platform, constructed of a mix of high-strength steel and aluminium. The Turbo uses two-chamber, height-adjustable air suspension and PASM adaptive damping as standard. But it's the suspension and steering technology that the Turbo can have as an option - and which the Turbo S gets as standard - that represents the Panamera's new technical tour de force. The highlight here is a special active air suspension system called Porsche Active Ride (PAR). This does away with anti-roll bars entirely. Instead, each wheel has a corresponding motor-driven hydraulic pump that builds up the necessary pressure for actuators in the air springs to harden or soften, or even to lift or lower each wheel or corner of the car independently, thus enabling all manner of dynamic magic tricks. Porsche had a static demonstrator at the Panamera's press launch in 2024 that could dance on its suspension like an American lowrider. More usefully, PAR can cancel out nearly all body roll. It can also enable 'active features' that positively lean the car into corners; and which also gently pitch it forward to counteract squat under acceleration and lean it back again under braking (the engineers describe its behaviour feeling a little like the movements of an Apache helicopter). On rough roads, it can also lift up wheels for bumps; grab them to guard against rebound thwack; and return them to terra firma under perfect control on the far side of sleeping policemen etc. The system draws its data from the steering, accelerator, brakes, accelerometers and, most importantly, sensors in the suspension itself. It doesn't use cameras to monitor the road surface, because Porcshe says they're unreliable when obscured. Given the suspension can adjust 13 times per second, it doesn't need to be proactive anyway. PAR is fairly pricey option (£7182) on the Turbo, but the Turbo S gets it as standard, and there are other technical tidbits the big-sibling model also gets thrown in that feed into its impressive ride and handling, to which we will come in due course. The Turbo's cabin is inviting and luxurious, with plenty of elegance and hints of understatedness that mirror its exterior design. There's a sense of lowness about its hip point and of cocooning intimacy about the arc of the roofline, which feel distinctly special and set it apart from most other fast four-doors. It's not like an executive saloon to sit in but succeeds in conjuring more sporting ambition and sense of occasion. The major controls are right where they ought to be, and its digital technology is integrated neatly and with just enough judicious reserve. The central touchscreen is designed neatly into the fascia rather than perched on top of it and isn't the domineering presence you find in some luxury cars. It's well laid out and usable, with conveniently located menu shortcut controls, and it's juxtaposed to proper physical heating and ventilation controls with plenty of tactile quality about them. We would prefer a slightly less small and fiddly transmission controller than the downsized one that's perched to one side of the steering column, but the car's secondary control regime is hard to fault. There are physical buttons you can use to disable the car's lane-keeping assistance and speeding alarm systems; and Porsche's familiar dial on the steering wheel boss for easy selection of the major driving modes (E-Power, Normal, Sport, Sport+). The Panamera's second row is a little less roomy and practical than in some uber-executive options, particularly if you stick with a standard two-seat rear bench, but still big enough for adult passengers to be comfortable. That long, accessible boot, meanwhile, delivers beyond your expectations on cargo space, even in the case of the PHEVs, with their reduced load-bay volume. On the move, both the Turbo's hybrid powertrain and its clever suspension have enormous potential to surprise and impress, and in a variety of different dimensions. The system is the same in both the Turbo and the Turbo S; it's simply that the V8 engine can work so much harder in the faster version, to lend a hit of speed when called upon that feels fully Herculean rather than merely huge. And yet, even in the Turbo S, that engine never imposes itself unless you want it to. In electric mode, there's enough oomph from the 188bhp motor for fairly assured, if unhurried, engine-off cruising around the national speed limit. Our Turbo S test car's trip computer promised a little under 50 miles of electric-only running on a full charge, although it needed to be kept to lesser cruising speeds to reproduce that. Even so, the motor is really well integrated into the wider power delivery; the engine starts and stops discreetly, after bigger pedal inputs that become easy to gauge even without any additional haptic pedal feedback. The V8 fire and brimstone is there when you go digging for it, though, adding plenty of soul and theatre in wilder moments. And sure enough, every bit as much buttock-clenching acceleration as you have an appetite or use for, whether you want the torque-rich, locked-in-gear, hauling-from-lower-revs variety, or the redline-bothering, maximum-sound-and-fury kind. Use Sport+ mode and the car ensures its hybrid battery remains at a healthy state of charge, so you never drag dead weight around. The Turbo S is an unrelentingly fast car when given its head, and the Turbo isn't far behind it. Both have plenty of authentic audible V8 charm, provided that you option in the sports exhaust (without it, they can sound just a little overly digitally augmented from the driver's seat). We've yet to test a Turbo or Turbo S without the PAR system fitted. With it, though, they seem to be at their very best on the road at that brisk but moderately relaxed pace that feels engaged and interesting yet still socially acceptable in 2025. It's the kind of pace, suffice it to say, that suits a fast modern luxury GT car very well indeed. The active suspension is a technical triumph for Porsche, working uncannily well on UK roads, and acting pre-emptively but discreetly to counter pitch and squat yet also lateral roll, and to bring a real sense of effortlessness to fast cross-country motoring. The secondary ride can be just coarse enough over really sharp edges and rough asphalt to remind you that you chose a Porsche, rather than a Bentley, Mercedes or Maserati, but rarely dismayingly so. Turn the suspension's active posture-adjusting off, if you prefer, with a flick of the wheel-mounted dial into Sport or Sport+ driving modes, and both Turbo and Turbo S feel more conventional in their close body control. Still amazingly taut and poised when cornering, though, with a tactile feel to the steering, a suppleness to bump absorption and a naturally fluent alacrity to turn-in all of which so often elude performance cars of this kind of size and weight. On track, meanwhile, you truly can feel how the body movements - or lack thereof - make it unlike any rival. It can take a while to acclimatise to the way the car declines to roll past the apex or dive under hard braking when you use Hybrid driving mode (the one with the most 'active' suspension management). Engaging Sport or Sport+ mode changes the system's logic so that it aims to make the Panamera as composed yet natural-feeling as possible, for intuitive performance driving and even loading of contact patches, and progressive limit handling. While this is not as dramatic, it does serve to make this 2.4-tonne car feel far lighter than it is. The weight still shows at times, especially under braking. Nevertheless, the way the Turbo enters tight turns and negotiates direction changes is impressive – if not as impressive as the way that it appears to simply flatten big crests and compressions and to apparently iron speed bumps almost pancake-flat around town. Whether you're satisfied with a fairly lightly equipped Turbo or a fully laden Turbo S, you're unlikely to be spending much less than £160,000 on your fast Panamera, which makes it a pricey proposition even by modern fast saloon standards. But there is a kind of 'millionaire maths' logic to spending big. Because it crams in so much more standard equipment than the regular Turbo (carbon-ceramic brakes, 21in centre-lock wheels, four-wheel steering, active mechanical torque vectoring and Porsche Active Ride suspension), the Turbo S isn't entirely the heart-over-head, irrational splurge purchase that you might expect. Account for the optional cost of fitting all of that to a Turbo and you will end up within a couple of thousand pounds of the Turbo S's £175k starting price anyway. And so, for those likely to lavish so much optional equipment on their Turbo anyway, it's almost as if Porsche is giving away an additional 101bhp for free. It's something of a shame that Porsche elected to drop the Panamera's old Sport Turismo estate bodystyle, of which we were fans - not least because it softened the impact of the car's slightly forced visual pastiche of a four-door 911. That is about the only way you can really criticise the design or desirability of this car, however. The Turbo and Turbo S are cars of an exceptionally broad range of dynamic ability. The Turbo S adds eye-popping performance and some show-stopping dynamic party tricks. Both have plenty of big-car usability, top-level ride comfort and luxury appeal and an enduring dash of the elegant and special mixed in with their performance. You would have to be a very demanding owner indeed of a modern performance GT to really expect more. It may be true to point out that much of the car's dynamic star quality depends on an active suspension system that's a fairly expensive option on the Turbo – something we will confirm when we get a chance to drive a car on standard air springs. As flagship derivatives go, however, the Turbo S is a singularly easy car to recommend, because it includes that system as standard, as well as all the other steering and driveline technology contributing to a level of ride and handling sophistication that lifts it well clear of its rivals for driver appeal. Porsche has also addressed the shortage of electric-only range versus key PHEV rivals and made that side of the car's character significantly more convincing. It's not often that a car as expensive as this so comprehensively justifies its price, but in 2025, the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid feels like £175k of luxury GT, and then some. ]]>
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tencent launches T1 reasoning model amid growing AI competition in China
By Yelin Mo and Andrew Silver SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Tencent on Friday night launched the official version of its T1 reasoning model, stepping up competition in China's increasingly crowded artificial intelligence sector. The upgraded T1 model offers faster response times and enhanced capabilities for processing extended text documents, the company said in a post on its official WeChat account. T1 can "keep the content logic clear and the text neat and clean", the post said, while the hallucination rate is "extremely low". The launch comes amid heightened rivalry in China's AI landscape following DeepSeek's introduction of models that offer comparable or superior performance to Western systems at substantially lower costs. Tencent had previously released a preview version of T1 through platforms, including its AI assistant application Yuanbao. The official version will be powered by Tencent's Turbo S foundational language model, unveiled late last month, which the company claims processes queries faster than rival DeepSeek's R1 model. A chart published in the post comparing the T1 model to DeepSeek R1 showed Tencent's outperformed on some knowledge and reasoning benchmarks. Tencent has ramped up its AI investments in recent months. On Thursday, the company announced plans to increase capital expenditure in 2025, following already aggressive AI spending throughout 2024.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tencent launches T1 reasoning model amid growing AI competition in China
By Yelin Mo and Andrew Silver SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Tencent on Friday night launched the official version of its T1 reasoning model, stepping up competition in China's increasingly crowded artificial intelligence sector. The upgraded T1 model offers faster response times and enhanced capabilities for processing extended text documents, the company said in a post on its official WeChat account. T1 can "keep the content logic clear and the text neat and clean", the post said, while the hallucination rate is "extremely low". The launch comes amid heightened rivalry in China's AI landscape following DeepSeek's introduction of models that offer comparable or superior performance to Western systems at substantially lower costs. Tencent had previously released a preview version of T1 through platforms, including its AI assistant application Yuanbao. The official version will be powered by Tencent's Turbo S foundational language model, unveiled late last month, which the company claims processes queries faster than rival DeepSeek's R1 model. A chart published in the post comparing the T1 model to DeepSeek R1 showed Tencent's outperformed on some knowledge and reasoning benchmarks. Tencent has ramped up its AI investments in recent months. On Thursday, the company announced plans to increase capital expenditure in 2025, following already aggressive AI spending throughout 2024. Sign in to access your portfolio
