THE CARRERA TO HAVE
THE GTS ADDS EXTRA DRIVER ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT LOSING ANY OF THE PORSCHE 911’S EVERYDAY CAPABILITIES
They know how to do it, don’t they? There’s a reason the greatest sports car of all time is also one of the most successful sports cars of all time. Beyond the fact that it’s the greatest, they give you options.
Go to the Porsche website and you’ll currently find 19 variants of the 911 on offer, even though the range is currently without a GT3/RS model.
From the base Carrera 2 through to the Turbo S Cabriolet, Porsche is the master at making a 911 for everyone.
Well, not quite everyone, because even the cheapest one sets you back at least 12 million baht in Thailand. But you know what I mean. With some sports cars/junior supercars, you might get two or three, or four or five, even seven or eight flavours.
The latest and meanest batch to join the range are the GTS models, which acted like a bridge between regular Carrera models and the GT3 last time around. Now the GTS is back, with the suggestion that it might do the same. A Carrera S Plus, if you will: lower, faster and keener, but not motorsport-derived.
Sounds quite promising for the road, doesn’t it? GTSs now account for five models in the 911 range. You can have a twowheel-drive or four-wheel-drive coupe, the same in cabriolet form and a Targa in fourwheel drive only, in either manual or PDK dual-clutch automatic form.
All GTS variants get the wider body that usually marks out four-wheel-drive models and the same power output of 450hp — 30hp more than the regular Carrera S — courtesy of new turbochargers for the 3.0litre flat-six engine. That the GT3, GT3 RS and 911 R are no longer available means the 911 line-up is now entirely turbocharged.
All GTS models get sports suspension, which is 10mm lower than standard. But coupes like this one get a further suspension drop courtesy of PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management), which also allows the dampers to be swapped between normal and stiffer modes. The Targa and cabriolets do without that. Standard on all, though, is a sports exhaust and Porsche’s Sport Chrono package, which brings with it dynamic engine mounts. Soft during normal driving, they firm up in cornering to prevent the engine from moving around and unsettling the handling of what is, let’s remember, a rear-engined car.
The detail changes even between GTS variants continues. If you spec a manual car, you get a mechanical limited-slip differential and Porsche Torque Vectoring (rear-wheel braking). PDK models get an electronic limited-slip differential and PTV Plus. I swear there are as many Porsche initialisms as there are 911s. The “Plus” bit means that the wheel braking is combined with control of the differential. And then, as an option, you can have Power Steering Plus — which makes the steering lighter at parking speeds and is fitted to this grey car — and active rear steering, which isn’t.
Phew. Keeping up? Good. Then I’ll continue: wheels are 20in centre-lock as standard and 0.5in wider than usual, shod with 245mm-wide front and 305mm-wide rear tyres. The rear track is wider than the Carrera S’s, too, to encourage less body roll. Front brakes are up by 10mm in diameter and get larger 911 Turbo pads, with aluminium disc hubs.
The 0-100kph time falls by at least 0.2sec and, in case you care, the Nurburgring lap time is, apparently, down by four seconds.
Inside? An Alcantara steering wheel is the highlight (because I love Alcantara wheels) and there is a smattering of GTSlabelled bits and bobs here and there, plus dark colours to make it look moodier and more purposeful.
But as is so often the way with Porsche, the devil is in those technical details, which are intended, you suspect, to add hints of GT3-like keenness and sharpness while still being sensible for the road.
Quelle surprise, they work. Boy, do they work. A standard 911 S is still a terrific car — and because it retains six cylinders, unlike a Boxster/Cayman, the addition of turbos hasn’t spoiled the engine — but this GTS turns up the levels of interaction a bit further.
There’s no great reason why it should be hugely different from a standard 911 — and, well, it isn’t — because you can have the equivalent suspension drop on the regular Carrera S.
But there is a big enough difference in all the little details combined — the better feel offered by the steering wheel rim, the reduced unsprung mass at the front, the modest but noticeable difference in urgency, the resistance to roll and the enhanced traction given by the new rear geometry — that the GTS feels inherently keener, more engaged and more willing than a regular 911.
It still rides, too — some going for a car with 35-profile front and 30-profile rear
tyres. You can flick the dampers into the Sport setting and not be bucked from one bump to another as you would be in a Nissan GT-R.
It doesn’t have the magic floaty feeling of a McLaren 570S, but it settles impeccably quickly and its steering, meatily heavy, is quite possibly the most rewarding electrically assisted system on any current production car. It retains a usable roundedness, but it feels inherently keener, more engaging, more focused.
The engine sounds a touch zingier and has suffered no discernible loss in response. The dual-clutch PDK is now superb and the handling is as secure, predictable and engaging as you could hope for.
Those words keep cropping up when you try to describe the GTS: engaging and keen. It’s not that a regular Carrera or Carrera S lacks those things. But for every incremental model upgrade, they are the things that seem to fall away, until some of it is popped back in later.
The GTS is Porsche doing precisely that. Like I said, Porsche gives you choices. Of the current 911 line-up, the GTS would be mine. AUTOCAR