On board the first hybrid Porsche 911

‘The greatest difference with this car is just how easy it is to balance. You really don’t have to think about it, because the response is always instant and exactly what you expect.’

Were this the observation of a public relations spokesperson in a press conference, I might have taken the comment with a fistful of salt. But this is no press man and this is no press conference. It’s veteran Porsche racer Joerg Bergmeister – class winner at both Daytona and Le Mans and winner outright of the Spa 24 Hours – and right now we’re sideways, power on, steaming towards the exit of turn one at the Weissach test track, a corner approached at 160mph. He’s grinning and chatting away, providing the most literal and vivid illustration imaginable of the point he is trying to make.

We are in the new Porsche 911, the second-generation 992, on sale now in base Carrera form (of which more further down the page) and in Carrera GTS guise, the once traditional season ender now turned curtain raiser. And whatever you read in all that’s to come, which I hope is interesting, it is worth remembering that what matters is less what it is, and more what it does, as Herr Bergmeister is doing his very best to demonstrate now.