Sometimes the scheduling of automotive test vehicles goes awry. Despite carefully laid plans to test the 3.6 liter Turbo in Los Angeles earlier this year, I had to scrub the mission at the last minute due to illness. Given the popularity of this premier Porsche among reviewers, it took nearly four months to reschedule the test drive, and by then the Turbo had migrated from California to Boston.

By the time I learned the Porsche was available, I had already made arrangement to test drive a Lexus GS 300, followed by an Infiniti G20 during my three week stay in the East. But when the Turbo arrived, the Guards Red Mist descended, and I took no note of anything with four doors.

The newest Turbo is still the ultimate toy for the connoisseur of fast automobiles. A legend in the sports cars realm since it was introduced as a 3.0 liter European model in 1974, the latest 3.6 liter version in a bored and stroked derivative of the 3.3 liter Turbo that Porsche has been building since 1977. The original horsepower rating of 260 climbed to 300 in 1977, 315 in 1992, and 355 in 3.6 liter guise. The original Turbo of 1974, which set the motorsports world on its ear, weighed 2,635 pounds. The latest issue from Stuttgart is more than 20 percent heavier, at 3,274 pounds. If you calculate the power-to-weight figures on the first Turbo, you find each horsepower responsible for moving 10.13 pounds. The 3.6 Turbo improves that figure only marginally, to 9.22 pounds per horsepower.

But as generations of Turbo owners have found to their dismay, horsepower-to-weight figures can be deciving, if all that horsepower comes in with a sudden rush at an inopportune moment. And indeed, even the latest version of Porsche's ultimate wundercar displays the same on/off toggle switch character as all its 930 predecessors.

It is ironic that Porsche - the company responsible for pioneering the use of twin turbochargers in both race (935) and street (959) applications - offers only a single turbo on its blown 3.6 liter 911. Latecomers to the turbo game like Mazda (RX-7) and Mitsubishi (3000 GT VR4) use sequential twin turbos which all but eliminate lag, while Porsche's latest offering still suffers from turbo-lag, the same bugaboo that has plagued the 930 since its inception.

The notable lack of motivation under 3,500 rpm imparts a docile quality to the newest Turbo that is distinctly at odds with the car's riotus appearance. But rest assured that once the tach needle swings past 4,000 rpm, the Turbo fulfills its pledge of performance with a vengeance. The power surge is so strong, and occurs so fast, that it places greater demands upon your reflexes than anything else you can buy for the street. When you press that slender loud pedal hard, you'd better have your avenues of escape planned in advance.

If you consult only the torque rating chart of the new Turbo, you might draw conclusions about it tractability that prove to be incorrect when you're behind the wheel. The torque curve reveals that more than 350 foot-pounds of urge are on tap from 2,500 rpm to 5,000 rpm, with a peak reading of 384 ft.lbs. at 4,200 rpm. That flat torque curve means you can trundle around town oblivious to the requirements of shifting.

But if you examine the horsepower curve, you quickly ascertain why the Turbo feels relatively weak-kneed at low engine speeds. At 2,500 rpm, the boosted 3.6 produces only 160 horsepower. Given the Turbo's short (3.15:1) first gear, and tall (1.79:1) second gear, you will find yourself spending a lot of time in normal driving at about 2,500 rpm, or 50 mph, in second gear. At that plateau, performance is less than scintillating.

Of course, as you toe into the throttle in second gear, the Turbo's prodigious power instantaly manifests itself as horsepower leaps from 160 at 2,500 rpm to 250 at 3,500 rpm, and 330 at 4,500 rpm. Even when experienced repeatedly, the astonishing 90 horsepower increase between 2,500 and 3,500 rpm is difficult for the senses to comprehend. If you compare that lustly power spike to the 3.6 liter Carrera 4, which gains only 40 horse power between 2,500 and 3,500 rpm, you begin to understand the magnitude of the Turbo's explosive horsepower.

While it may post the same 12.8 second quarter mile elapsed times as a ZR-1 Corvette, the Porsche achieves its goal in a completely different manner. The ZR-1 jumps out of the gate with plently of wheelspin, and runs hard all the way down the strip. The Turbo, on the other hand, stumbles out of the gate, first sleeping, then leaping its way through the quarter mile traps at 113 mph.

It's virtually impossible to launch the Turbo from a standing start with any semblance of wheelspin. On progresive attempts to do so, I bought the initial rpm allotment up from 1,500 to 2,000, and finally 2,500. The first two attempts netted severve bogging off the line, and the last try produced a rear end judder which chastened me into backing off the throttle altogether. Those steamroller Yokohama rear tires (265/35ZR) afford so much traction that the Turbo feels like an all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 coming off the line - bog and go.

Once up to cooking speed, however, the blown 3.6 whistles from point to point like a teleportation device.

The 0-100 mph sprint takes but 10.1 seconds, just a tick slower than the time recorded by the 450 horsepower twin-turbo 959. To put that kind of acceleration into perspective, remember that Al Holbert's 1977 Trans-Am winning 934, with 485 horsepower, turned an identical 10.1 second time to 100 mph in a track test conducted by Road & Track in January, 1977.

Frustration is as much a part of the driving this car as turbo-lag. There is virtually nowhere you can use its acceleration capabilities in the kind of congested traffic I encountered in New England. In fact, the Turbo 3.6 seems to have been conceived for use in a world that no longer exists, where roads are empty and drivers are smart. Given the restrictions inherent on the open road, it made sense to confine any driving experiments to strictly controlled venues. Luckily, the New England Region of the SCCA had set up a practice autocross circuit at the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. A few trial runs through the pylons taught me more about the handling of the Turbo than hundreds of miles of street driving could ever explain.

It is impossible to spin this car. Porsche has engineered trailing throttle oversteer completely out of the turbo equation. It's been nearly a decade since a California jury found Porsche AG guilty of manufacturing a car "defectively designed because of its severe turbocharger 'self-acceleration' combined with the vehicle's tendency to oversteer." And in that period of time, the changes wrought to the basic platform of the 930 have rendered it a completely different car from the one that cost Porsche a $1.55 million judgment in 1984.

The big news about the 1994 Turbo isn't really the 2 mm increase in stroke, nor the 3 mm increase in bore. Rather, the real story involves Porsche's magical transformation of such as tail-heavy car into a dead neutral handler. When you are dealing with a weight distribution factor of 38 percent on the front axle and 62 percent at the rear, special measures must be taken to prevent the kind of tail-happy oversteer that has plagued previous versions of the 930. The most obvious solution is to equip the Turbo with large enough tire contact patches front and rear to preclude slip-angle induced catastrophes. The Yokohama A008P tires, mounted on "Speedline for Porsche" modular rims (8 x 18 front, 10 x 18 rear) are the most tenacious street tires I have ever experienced. Even at full tread depth, they impede side slip with such ferocity that it becomes vitually impossible to get the Turbo crossed up on opposite lock.

But eradicating trailing throttle oversteer requires more than bolting on a set of super sticky tires mounted on the extra-wide wheels. The answer rather lies in utilizing the vastly improved suspension geometry of the revamped Carrera 2/4 platform for the Turbo's peculiar traction demands.

To that end, the Turbo front suspension uses alloy lower control arms and MacPherson strut gas-filled shocks. The 21 mm stabilizer bar that ties the suspension arms together us now augmented by a massive front strut tower brace that is the first such production item from Porsche. The upper shock tower mounts are reinforced to withstand the additional loads transferred to them by this brace. "Porsche" is emblazoned in bas relief on the castings which locate the tubular cross member to the shock absorbers. The brace is a beautiful piece of work, showing Porsche's customary attention to detail and finish.

At the rear, the Turbo benefits from toe-correcting rear suspension arm bushings. This is a running change on '94 production Turbos, the first batch of which used the non-corrective rigid Carrera RS bushings. Reinforced chassis plates locate the trailing arms of the Turbo and reduce deflection of the suspension under load. A 22 mm rear stabilizer bar works with progressively wound coil springs to keep the ride soft at anything less than full chat.

While this Turbo will never be mistaken for a Lexus in terms of ride comfort, it is substantially softer than its 1992 predecessor. Despite their miniscule sidewalls, the 18 inch wheels and tires do afford additional cushioning over bumps and potholes when compared to the '92 Turbo's 17 inch footwear. But the handling has lost nothing because of the softer ride. In fact, the '94 Turbo is a good deal more neutral than either the early ('76-'78) oversteerers or the recent ('89-'92) understeerers.

For maximum traction, be sure to inflat the front tires to 36 psi and the rear tires to 40 psi (cold). After experimenting with various pressures I found the Turbo to be utterly controllable with its Yokohamas set in this inflation range. If you bump the front tires pressures up to match the rears (i.e., 40 psi all around), the Turbo is crippled with prodigious understeer. I could not find a placard on the door or in the engine compartment listing suggested pressures from the factory. The manual supplied with my test car covered only the '92 Turbo with 17 inch rubber.

The hydraulically-assisted power steering is force-sensitive, and still the best in the business. So quick that it will have you thinking it's unboosted, the rack-and-pinion travels lock-to-lock in just 2.81 turns of the hefty steering wheel. This instantaneous response makes it easy to wind the Turbo through a field of cones with extreme precision. Through a five cone slalom, with pylons set 30 feet apart, the Turbo increased speed with each gate, suffering not at all from the dreaded pendulum effect of a wagging tail.

There is, however, a price to pay for the quickness of the steering. On the open road, the Turbo's front end hunts from side to side in an endless series of course deviations that mandate a firm hand on the tiller and constant vigilance from the bridge. Nautical allusions are not out of keeping here, since the Turbo requires rudder-like corrections best performed with both hands on the wheel. This routine quickly becomes tiresome. Dropping inflation pressure to 32 psi in the front tires did not solve the problem. The extraordinary mass of the front wheels and tires undoubtedly contributes to the oscillation. More caster in the front spindles might increase the self-centering effect and eliminate the wanderlust.

The Turbo's brakes are phenomenally effective. The pedal is always hard, and even with the ABS engaged, pedal control is firm and predictable. As my confidence in the feel of the system increased, I was able to utilize the ABS system to scratch just a little deeper into the corners of the slalom course. The reserve of braking is enormous, and the Turbo is capable of shorter stops from 60 mph (128 ft.) and 80 mph (223 ft.) than the Corvette ZR-1 (142/256 ft.), Lamborghini Diablo (142/247 ft.) or Dodge Viper (156/261 ft.). Only the significant lighter Acura NSX (120/200 ft.) and Lotus Esprit Turbo (121/225 ft.) can outstop the Porsche.

When it comes to repeated stops from speed, however, even the NSX and Lotus cannot match the overengineered brake system of the 3.6 Turbo. The 322 mm (12.68 in.) front discs and 299 mm (11.77 in) rear discs are identical to those used on the '92 Turbo with 17 inch wheels. Both front and rear discs are cross-drilled and internally vented for heat dispersion, and grooved for water dispersion. Like a chambered nautilus seashell, the internal ribs are spirally shaped, and fitted with additional half-ribs to further dissipate heat build-up. Each one of those striking red calipers are externally ribbed to disperse heat. Each caliper uses four aluminum pistons fabricated from temperature-resistant engine grade alloy.

The modular Speedline wheels follow "Cup Design" specifications, with large openings which promote cooling, and more importantly, allow you to read the hyper-extended white "Porsche" script on each lobster red caliper. While other manufactures are still busily color-keying wheels spokes to car bodies, Porsche, having launched that craze long ago, has graduated to Advanced Subliminal Eye Poping. In addition to extractor wheel design, careful attention to underbody ducting insures a consistent supply of cooling air to both front and rear brakes simultaneously. This balance keeps brake bias the same throughout the operating temperature range. In addition to ducts in the nose, Porsche has affixed flexible spoilers to the lower suspension arms, and deflector plates at each corner to channel air through the brake splash shields.

If all these suspension and brake refinements leave you unimpressed, then you must be a candidate for the "S2" package. Never known to leave well enough alone, Porsche offers just that extra margin of performance and safety in a grouping of options sure to whet the appetite of racers, collectors and cognoscenti alike. If you want to level the playing field a bit before venturing out of challenge the Brumos Turbos of Stuck and Haywood, or the Kelly Moss Racing entry of Nick Ham in the Bridgestone Supercar Series, then the S2 package is a must. Dealer installed, it consists of a Matter roll cage, a larger intercooler, larger turbo and associated hardware, plus additional front and rear suspension reinforcements. The factory authorizes dealers to peform these modifications to customer Turbo, and will continue to cover such cars under the full factory warranty - a lot more than you can hope to obtain from any aftermarket source of modification. Although the three entries currently battling for Supercup supremacy were actually built at the begining of the current season on the assembly line at Porsche, the S2 retrofits available from your local dealer are guaranteed to be "virtually identical" to the mounts raced by Stuck, Haywood and Ham.

Beyond Supercup exists yet another echelon of Turbo performance - the 911 Turbo S Le Mans, which produces 475 horsepower, even while saddled with a 34 mm restrictor plate on the turbo intake. This 2,000 pound lightweight is capable of producing 800 horsepower without the restrictor, and is available from the factory as a race-ready car for $300,000 "if the demand exists." Stuck, Haywood and Rohrl have already enjoyed notable successes at Daytona and Le Mans in this production-based successor to the 935.

With its twenty year production run due to be celebrated in 1994, the Porsche 911 Turbo has achieved icon status in the pantheon of speed. Its bulbous fender flares, soaring whale tail and wicked wallop have so recast automotive lore that the Turbo has become a moving target for every top gun on the pike. Such dream cars as the Dodge Viper, Corvette ZR-1 and Lotus Esprit Turbo may match the Porsche in terms of performance, but none of them can remotely approach the latest Porsche for habitability, reliability, or longevity.

Slipping into the cookpit of the Turbo 3.6 is as comforting as donning your favorite pair of slippers. Once you have familiarzied yourself with the admittedly iconoclastic locations of the various mirror and sunroof switches, driving this supposed exotic becomes mindlessly easy. Much to their detriment, the same cannot be said for the Viper, Corvette or Lotus, which seem crude and illogical by comparison.

When, for example, you need mist cleared from the inside of the Porsche's windscreen, merely activate the defrost button and you'll quickly learn that this 911 has a turbo defrost unit to match its turbo engine. All the little bits and pieces in the cockpit work so well that it seems unfair to brand the Turbo as an exotic. The Beetle-inspired practicality of Ferdinand Porsche's original vision has never been lost.

Although some won't admit to it, every Porsche owner has been subtly conditioned to accept the 911 Turbo as the ultimate example of the marque. Even the most prosaic 914s and 911s sprout wings and flares that bespeak abject idolatry. I was thinking along those very lines as I closed upon a winged black 911 in Massachusetts traffic. At first, I thought the Porsche in my sights was another Turbo, but as I drew closer I realized this one was yet another in the endless chain of 911 variants kitted out to look like a factory Turbo. As this example disappeared in my rear view mirror, I noticed that its owner had failed to fit it with a sufficiently deep front airdam to match the downforce generated by the whale tail. As a result, the 911 was porpoising like a motorboat cresting a wave. But the important thing was that it looked like a Turbo.

In a world chock full of imitations and icons, the real Porsche Turbo has the road symbology game all locked up.

G-force machines may come and go, but the Turbo shape is still aped and gaped more than any other. It's a silhouette synonymous with power and prestige. But this Porsche does more than simply impress onlookers. Indeed, your $101,825 buys you a sanguine state of mind, and that's a commodity in short supply at any dealer these days.