Porsche 911 vs KTM X-Bow

What's the difference?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The t-hybrid might be an entirely new propulsion system for the 911, but the net result is unchanged – power, poise and performance on tap.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Okay, so rain is not your friend. Neither is brutal sunshine, strong winds or any speed bump anywhere. There are probably a handful of times you'll want to drive it, and when you do you will definitely get hit in the face with rocks and bugs, and spend most of your time wondering just how the hell this thing is legal.

And yet, we are hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with it. It's an absolute weapon on a track, a joy on anything even resembling a twisting road and it is one of the few genuinely unique cars on the road today. And the fact it exists at all is a cause for absolute celebration.

This facelift debuts a revolutionary exterior design that has completely reshaped the 911.

Just kidding. If it ain’t broke and all that. The front air vents and exhaust have changed, the former now an active intake system that deploys via vertical flaps, but elsewhere it’s largely evolution over revolution.

Instead, Porsche has focused most of the updates in then cabin. In here, you’ll find a new digital instrument panel, they’ve changed some of the levers and the steering wheel.

In true Porsche fashion, though, this new 911 mimics the older versions in that it's one of the more intuitive cabins you’ll ever sit in. Everything feels as though it’s exactly where it should be, and all feels entirely centred on the driver.

The X-Bow R is built for purpose in the most wonderful of ways. From the visible suspension components to the rocket-style exhausts, to the stripped-bare interior, it's fairly obvious that form came a distant second to function in the X-Bow's design process.

And, for us at least, that's a tremendous thing. It looks raw and visceral, and a bit like Harvey Dent post-fire - you can see all the normally hidden components doing their thing. It's mesmerising.

This probably falls under the ‘next question, please’ umbrella, given that, while the Porsche 911 is known for a lot of things, vast acres of space with loads of practicality perks just ain’t a part of its portfolio.

The new 911 measures a not-insubstantial 4533mm in length, 1852mm width and around 1294mm in height, and it rides on a 2450mm wheelbase. Luggage space is a paltry 135 litres under the bonnet, plus whatever else you can fit in your pockets.

There’s seating for four, should you not like the people you’re squeezing back there very much, but really the 911 is best enjoyed as a two-seat proposition – which is why you can also delete the backseat, should you wish.

It also weighs a minimum 1595kg, or up to 1745kg, but Porsche says the hybrid tech only adds about 50kg to the total kerb weight.

Short answer? It's not. People are unlikely to test drive an X-Bow R and start looking for cupholders and storage space, but if they did, it wouldn't take long.

Aside from the twin seats, a four-point racing harness, a high-mounted gearshift, a pull-lever handbrake, and detachable steering wheel, the cabin is as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

Luggage space is limited to what you can carry in your pockets (though wearing cargo pants will help) and even getting in and out of the thing takes some fleet-footed antics. With no doors you need to literally jump in. And the side sills are only rated to 120kg, so heavier types will need to avoid stepping on them at all, and instead attempt a kind of running leap into the cockpit.

Keen readers of this site will recognise this as the area where we outline the many and varied features that come along with a normal new car purchase, but that's just not going to work this time. In fact, it'll be considerably easier to talk about what's missing, so let's start with the obvious: doors, windows, roof, windscreen. All conspicuously absent from this weird and utterly wonderful X-Bow.

Inside, you'll find two thinly (and we mean thin - we've seen thicker contact lenses) padded seats fixed into the tub. You'll also find push-button start, a digital screen reminiscent of those found on motorbikes (KTM is an Austrian-based motorcycle company, after all) and a pedal box that slides backward and forwards to offset the height of the pilot. Oh, and that steering wheel can pop off to make getting in and out easier.

Climate control? Nope. Stereo? Nope. Proximity unlocking? Well, kind of. With no doors, you'll always find it unlocked when you enter its proximity. Does that count?

But what it does have is a turbocharged two-litre engine. And in a car that weighs a sprightly 790kg, that means it's quick, pulling like a rabid sled dog in every gear, rear tyres chirping with every change.

A new (or at least, massively altered) 3.6-litre petrol engine has been developed for this T-Hybrid, which combines with two electric motors to produce a total 398kW and 610Nm. It’s only available with Porsche’s very good eight-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) automatic, largely because the brand admits it would be… well… unpleasant to drive as a manual.

Now, there is lots of magic at work here, and I don’t want to bore you, but the Porsche setup sees a lightweight 1.9kWh battery placed basically in the middle of the front axle, and a 12-volt battery now behind the front seat. Then, a tiny e-motor lives as part of the gearbox (it’s just 55mm long) and delivers up to 150Nm at low speeds to supplement the petrol engine.

It’s joined by what Porsche calls an “electric exhaust gas turbocharger”, which essentially removes the spooling time from the turbo, delivering instant power.

The aim of the game here is excitement, not efficiency, and the launch-control-aided spring to 100km/h takes just 3.0 seconds. And it somehow feels, and sounds, faster.

The latter being important, with Porsche aware that if the new powertrain didn’t sound good, "nobody would like it”.

The X-Bow R's power comes from an Audi-sourced, turbocharged 2.0-litre engine, paired with a VW Group six-speed manual transmission (and one of the stubbiest gearsticks in existence). That mid-mounted marvel produces 220kW at 6300rpm and 400Nm at 3300rpm, and ships it off to the rear tyres with the assistance of a Drexler mechanical limited-slip differential.

Thanks to its lithe and lightweight body, that's enough to propel the X-Bow R from 0-100km/h in a blistering 3.9 seconds, and on to a top speed of 230km/h.

Porsche in Australia is yet to lock in local fuel use for the Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, but international testing has it at 10.5-10.7L/100km, C02 emissions of between 239-244g/km. 

Those aren’t exactly Toyota Prius numbers. But again, that was never Porsche’s intention. The electric power on offer here is intended to improve acceleration, not fuel use.

It’s fitted with a 63-litre fuel tank, which should deliver a driving range of around 600km per tank.

KTM lists the X-Bow R's claimed/combined fuel figure at 8.3 litres per hundred kilometres (though we were managing mid-12s after an, ahem, very spirited test), with emissions pegged at 189 grams per kilometre.

The X-Bow R is also fitted with a 40-litre fuel tank, accessed via a side-mounted inlet. Instead of a fuel gauge, expect a digital reading showing how many litres you have left.

Porsche did just about the Porschiest thing to ever Porsche in launching the 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, in that we piled into cars in Melbourne, drove the many, many hours (well, it feels that long, at least) to the Phillip Island race circuit, beat the hell out of the cars on track and on the drag strip for several hours, then trundled back out on the road and drove them back to Melbourne.

The subliminal messaging here is pretty clear. This new 911 might have a new powertrain, but it can still deliver the road-track-road experience without breaking a sweat — or, more importantly, without breaking any expensive bits.

So let’s do this in order, shall we? On the road, this new 911 is every bit as sweet as it has ever been. Comfortable, quiet enough when you want it to be, and — save some road noise from those big wheels – quiet enough to let you forget you're driving something with one of Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactors hidden beneath its svelte metal work.

Mind you, that T-Hybrid powertrain will happily remind you of its presence every time you press the accelerator in anger, the exhaust erupting into life and the 911 genuinely rocketing into the future, but stay gentle with your inputs and this hybrid 911 is a genuinely comfortable, genuinely liveable daily driver.

Its split personality appears when you rumble out onto a race track though, where you quickly discover the electrified, and electrifying, Porsche is properly, properly rapid, both in a straight line or around Phillip Island’s fast and flowing circuit.

It’s so rapid, in fact, that it feels most closely related to a performance EV, like the Taycan. Of course it is louder and more engaging, but that’s the best way I can think of to describe the instant power on offer here. There’s no ICE-like lags or lumps in the way that 398kW and 610Nm finds its way to the tyres and into the tarmac. Instead it’s just this constant, savage flow of power that never seems to let up.

Porsche says this new powertrain is about 50kg heavier, but you’d need to be plugged into the race track like its the Matrix to ever feel it, with the T-Hybrid feeling lithe, grippy and athletic, aided by near-perfect steering, the best automatic gearbox in existence, and exactly zero roll through the body. In fact, the only thing that really moves when cornering hard in this new 911 is the driver, and I genuinely got out after several laps with a sore neck from trying to stay vertical.

Downsides? Well, it’s faster in a straight line (it will be some 7.0m further down the road after 2.5sec when compared to the older GTS) and faster around corners (8.7sec faster around the Nurburgring than its predecessor), but there’s something delightfully analogue about the outgoing car, which also manages to feel more aggressive under heavy acceleration, too, owing to the little ebbs and flows of power, and after driving both back-to-back, I still can’t decide which one I like more.

It couldn't be more Fast and Furious if it had Vin Diesel growling under its (non-existent) bonnet. We have technically driven faster cars, but we have never driven anything that feels quite so fast as this utterly insane X-Bow R.

Climb in, strap into the four-point harness and select first via the surprisingly easy-to-manage gearbox and clutch set up, and, at slow speeds, wrestle with the dead weight of the completely unassisted steering, and it's immediately clear that this is a driving experience like nothing else currently road-legal in Australia. Even at walking pace, the X-Bow R feels poised for an assault on the future, and it attracts attention on the road like nothing else we've ever driven.

Its road-scraping ride height and diminutive dimensions make tackling traffic an intimidating prospect, with regular hatchbacks suddenly taking on truck-like proportions and actual trucks now looking like passing planets. There's a constant concern that you're sitting well below the traditional blind spot, and that you could be crushed at any moment.

Combine all that with the bad weather that cursed our final day of testing, and the X-Bow R is all sorts of watery hell. It is truly homicidal in the wet, too, with the back end breaking grip at the slightest provocation. And the turbocharged 2.0-litre offers plenty of that.

But on a sunny day, and on the right road, it's pure driving bliss. The acceleration is brutal, the grip endless and the Audi sourced gearbox an absolute treat. And it pulls in every gear, tackling 35km/h corners in third and absolutely blasting out the other side.

Cornering is scalpel sharp, and the steering - so heavy at slow speeds - is light and efficient at pace, requiring only the most minuscule of movements to bite into a bend.

It is anything but perfect in the city, and even a light sprinkling of rain will have you seeking shelter (and a refund), but on the right road, on the right day, there are few if any cars that offer the kind of razor-sharp thrills and intoxicating excitement of KTM's monstrous X-Bow R.

Next to none. There is no ABS, traction or stability control. No airbags, powered steering or ISOFIX attachment points, either. If you break traction (which, in the wet, is more than a little bit likely) it'll be up to you to ensure you straighten up again. Helpfully, there's a ton of grip from the Michelin Super Sport tyres.

As part of the compliance program, Simply Sports Cars (the company responsible for introducing the X-Bow R) actually crash tested two cars in Europe, and raised the ride height by 10 millimetres. Oh, and there's now a seatbelt warning sign, too.

The 911 Carrera GTS is covered by a pretty underwhelming three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with servicing required every 12 months or 15,000kms. We don’t have the hybrid service pricing yet, but as guide, the last 911 split the services into minor and major, and charged either $785 or $1285 for each.

The X-Bow R is covered by a two-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and while service prices aren't capped, Simply Sports Cars estimates an average serve cost at about $350.