The 911 Turbo (997.1) is the all-wheel-drive twin-turbo 911, built on the wide body with a retractable rear wing. Its 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six is the water-cooled "Mezger" engine, a dry-sump race-derived design unrelated to the Carrera's M96/M97 — and it was the first Porsche production car, and the first gasoline production car, fitted with variable-turbine-geometry (VTG) turbos. Drive goes through a six-speed manual or five-speed Tiptronic S, and the optional Sport Chrono package adds an overboost function.

For a 997.1 shopper the engine is the headline: the Mezger does NOT suffer the Carrera M96/M97's IMS-bearing or bore-scoring failures, which is a large part of why Turbos command more than comparable Carreras. That's not a licence to skip inspection — the GT1-derived Mezger is prone to coolant-pipe failures and a P0021 cam-timing fault — but the Carrera engine lottery is off the table.