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The Turbo S is unspeakably quick, but it doesn’t do driving excitement like its slower sibling.

It’s a bullet train. A missile. An F/A-18 catapulted off the deck of an aircraft carrier. A Saturn V with a grudge. A Beetle on Barry's own steroids. Handles like it’s on rails. The king of the 911 family. All of these cliches have been used for every generation of 911 Turbo, and every one is true for the Turbo S Lightweight. But after putting hundreds of miles on a Lightweight pack-equipped example, I just wanted it to be more like its slower, more spirited sibling, the GT3.

I don’t want to knock the Turbo S. It’s a fantastic machine. Its absurd capabilities should not be minimized. On a drive through our Performance Car of the Year route in the Catskills, staff writer Brian Silvestro and I are nothing short of addicted to its stupid speed. On desolate stretches of country backroad, we put its 640-horsepower claim to the test, by way of Porsche’s fine-tuned 8-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission and its launch control. Zero to 60 in the Turbo S Lightweight is ungodly, meeting the mark in 2.1 seconds. And it doesn’t stop climbing.

The devil's own flat-six, already monstrous in the standard Turbo S, has 80 fewer pounds to slow it down here. With no back seat, lighter glass, and next to no sound deadening, the Lightweight Package delivers a final curb weight of 3566 pounds and a sticker price of about $220,000. Pure speed fiends, this is your car.

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“It literally pushes my eyeballs in,” Silvestro says as I roll on the power, starting off on our Catskill backroad drive.

“Jesus Christ….it’s f***ing fast. It feels so much faster than in the passenger seat,” he adds after taking the wheel. “When it gets into boost, it wants to leave the planet.”

It’s quiet speed. Even with the exhaust in loud mode, from the inside, the Turbo S doesn’t make much noise. Off-throttle it fires tiny droplets of fuel into the exhaust, the explosions so muffled that they sound like the little pops I make with my lips when I'm bored. The boost noise is no more dramatic than a street sweeper's brushes hitting pavement. Far from the theater of some of its supercar competitors, or the screams of the GT3, the Turbo S never matches the soundtrack to the speed.

“All speed. No drama,” Silvestro said.

Acceleration isn’t the Turbo S’s only trick. It also has an unbelievable amount of grip, even on the broken, loose chip seal road surfaces we present it with. Not surprising, since in Car and Driver testing, the car managed to grip up to 1.12 Gs. That test was done using Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tires, but for this drive, our Turbo S has Goodyear Eagle F1s. Thanks to their grip, this 911’s steering is also obscenely direct.

“You barely need any steering angle for anything,” Silvestro said.

The optional carbon-ceramic brakes are equally exceptional. They don’t unsettle the car on immediate bite. Instead, they’re very gradual and smooth but capable of absurd stopping power if you dig for it. When you do, you’ll really feel it.

The Turbo S Lightweight is beyond impressive. It’s perfect for the hardcore boost enthusiast. But for those of you in it for the pure driving experience, it’s not the best option.

During my time behind the wheel of the Turbo S, I couldn’t help but compare it to the GT3. It just didn’t live up to the standard that our 2022 Performance Car of the Year set for me.

It handles well, but it doesn’t have the GT3’s first-rate, mind-bending steering or feel, or the pure aural bliss of its 9000-rpm engine to go with it. And though the PDK is fantastic, likely the best automatic on the market, its shifts don’t have anything on the bliss that comes from shifting the GT3’s divine six-speed manual. Strapped into the Lightweight’s standard carbon bucket seats, I expect everything to be about enjoying the driving experience

GT3 aside, the Turbo S is in a weird spot. It isn’t as exotic or special as its fellow $200,000 club peers, like the Huracan, McLaren Artura, or R8. It’s just another 911. One that costs double what the moderately slower version runs. If you want seriously brutal speed in a daily-driveable package, it's a phenomenal car. But if I was spending $200,000 on a Porsche, I wouldn't want a missile, a bullet train, or the self-anointed king. I'd want a GT3.