We like
Searing performance, incredible dynamics, surprisingly practical

Room for improvement
Adaptive cruise control should be standard rather than an outrageous $3570, interior needs costly options to feel as special as the rest of the car

Overview

 

We’re testing the $334,900 (plus on-road costs) 911 Carrera GTS coupe with rear-wheel drive and eight-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission.

 

You can also have a seven-speed manual in this variant, which makes no difference to the price – and one in five buyers go for the DIY version.

 

All-wheel drive, Cabriolet and Targa GTS variants are PDK-only – the only other 992-generation car available with a manual is the hardcore GT3.

 

For your $35,000 over the equivalent Carrera S is an extra 22kW/20Nm from the turbocharged 3.0-litre flat-six, bringing the total to 353kW of power and 570Nm of torque courtesy in part to the standard – and rather vocal – sports exhaust.

 

In rear-drive coupe format, it’ll do the 0-100km/h dash in a claimed 3.4 seconds, on the way to a 311km/h top whack.

 

Porsche’s spirit of charging more for less comes in the shape of reduced sound insulation to let more of that throaty rasp thrill the occupants. More thrills come from the bespoke 10mm-lower GTS suspension tune with adaptive damping.

 

Beefed-up brakes are derived from the hairy-chested 911 Turbo that costs $96K more while being 74kW/180Nm punchier. Borrowed from the Turbo S is the staggered alloy wheel pattern (20-inch front, 21-inch rear).

 

A typical GTS cosmetic black pack comprises satin black alloy wheels, blacked-out spoiler lip, engine cover louvres, headlight surrounds and GTS badging.

 

This theme continues inside with a GT Sport steering wheel, Sport Chrono package, Porsche Track Precision app compatibility, tyre temperature display and upgraded sports seats. 

 

Our test car was fitted with a cool $61,310 worth of options – almost enough to buy a Volkswagen Golf R for the school run – with the costliest being a GTS Interior Package that matched the $5700 Carmine Red exterior paint finish with the same colour applied to the contrast stitching, seat belts in embroidered GTS logos on the headrests, Porsche-branded floor mats, rev counter and Sport Chrono stopwatch.

 

The package also includes carbon dashboard, door and centre console trim as well as applying a mixture of leather and suede-like Race-Tex to the majority of interior surfaces.

 

Also lavished on the interior were 18-way adjustable adaptive sports seats ($5910), a $4720 tilt/slide glass sunroof, Race-Tex headlining ($2440) and sun visors ($860) ambient lighting ($1050) and a fancy Porsche Design ‘Sub-second clock’ for $2110.

 

Dynamic upgrades included roll-reducing Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control ($6750) and rear steering ($4720) while a nod to practicality came in the shape of the $5070 front axle lift system (which we used a lot when negotiating driveways, speed bumps and poor urban surfaces), adaptive cruise control ($3570 but really should be standard) and semi-automated parking ($1640).

 

Nice-to-haves were the $780 colour-matched key with leather pouch and Porsche logo puddle lights ($720).

 

We reckon many of the above inclusions genuinely contributed to a more satisfying all-round experience than if we’d tested a bone-stock GTS. But for 60 grand, you’d bloody hope so.

Our Opinion

 

In Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland is a set of hairpins where the last one upon ascent gently reduces in radius after the apex before the road unwinds into a set of uphill sweepers. 

 

Perfect for a slow in, fast out kind of car like the Porsche 911. No wonder Aussie former F1 and endurance racing driver – not to mention Porsche ambassador – Mark Webber likes to head out here for a fang.

 

Our rear-drive GTS coupe with its uprated roll stability and rear-wheel steering seems even more attuned to this environment.

 

The way it squats as its big 305-section rear P Zeros dig in and blast it upward out of that final hairpin is thrill number one, quickly followed by a sense that – a little like water-skiing – our angle of travel has more to do with what our feet are doing than our hands.

 

Thrills number two, three and four are just how precisely, faithfully and intuitively our inputs are translated into every motion and response. This most digital generation of 911 yet still feels intoxicatingly analogue.

 

Not to mention the glorious accompanying flat-six soundtrack that goes from rasp to blare to hard-edged hollow howl and then cackle on the overrun. It makes us hope that Porsche can pull off its e-fuel experiment and give its incredible internal combustion engines a stay of execution.

 

We’re whooping out loud as we crest the rise. This is what all the fuss is about. Where do we sign? Trundling through a village with a school zone, the smell of hot car – hot engine, hot brakes, hot tyres – catches up with us momentarily.

 

The aroma of a good time. And what a time we’ve had. This GTS feels pretty much flawless on these roads. Perhaps a certain Mr Webber has been sending notes back to Zuffenhausen?

 

It’s remarkably supple, stable and faithful over these typically patchy Aussie backroads. Many a hot hatch and performance sedan comes quite literally unstuck by the mid-corner ridges, eroded surfaces and dodgy repairs around here. But not the GTS. Even road noise on the coarse-chip bitumen isn’t too bad.

 

It might not quite qualify for supercar status – though its responsive, linear, punchy performance would demolish everything in the category from just a few short years ago – but this GTS is certainly a super car.

 

So almost 400 grand well spent, right? Well, there’s more to the value equation.

 

We used the 911 GTS as our daily driver for more than a week, as a family of four, and came away happy.

 

The eldest child, almost seven but with the height of most kids three years their senior, was initially vociferous about having to fold themselves into a sleek little two-door but ended up pleasantly surprised by the ease of access as well as the relative comfort and space provided – even when sat behind 188cm-tall dad.

 

Less opinionated was the two-year-old – who appreciated the Carmine Red paintwork and matching seatbelts – but Porsche’s solution of removing part of the rear bucket’s backrest in order to access the ISOFIX child seat anchorages is a genius move as it creates a valuable centimetre or so of space for the bulky restraint to slot into.

 

The only major downside is that the rear windscreen is directly above the heads of rear passengers, which could be an issue on blazing summer days.

 

Behind the rear passengers is a sizeable parcel shelf that can be extended further by flipping the 50:50 split backrests forward if the rear seats are unoccupied.

 

We also found space in the 132-litre frunk generous enough for a medium suitcase or judiciously stacked groceries that, despite the proximity to components for cooling the engine and air-conditioning, weren’t affected by any heat soak on the way back from the shops.

 

Other onboard storage is fairly basic but at least equivalent to that of some sports sedans. The central cup-holder is supplemented by a pop-out one for the front passenger, but the forward section of the split door bins is only suited to carrying small drinks bottles.

 

The glove compartment is surprisingly big and makes up for the small and shallow well under the central armrest that mainly serves as smartphone stowage.

 

Porsche’s excellent, full-featured and intuitive infotainment system is present and correct, operated through a crisp high-resolution touchscreen and piping audio through a rich-sounding Bose surround sound set-up. Apple CarPlay is wireless (Android Auto via USB-C) and there’s DAB+ digital radio as well.

 

The instrument pack is also fantastic, with a simple roll-and-scroll menu operation for selecting various functions on the quartet of digital screens flanking the analogue rev counter, although the steering wheel partially obscures the outermost displays regardless of position.

 

Around town, we never tired of the vocal engine and exhaust as Porsche has managed to maximise the sounds you want and eliminated annoying boomy or whiny frequencies. It can’t do anything about the latter if you, as we did, have the kids onboard though.

 

The ride is undoubtedly firm for suburban and urban running and can be jiggly over unloved surfaces, but the motion never builds up into a jostle and head-toss is also kept to a minimum.

 

Considering what a monster the engine slung out back of this car can be when asked, tractability at everyday speeds was flawless and the foibles of dual-clutch transmissions never reared their head during our time with the car.

 

The bandwidth of this thing is incredible. Not only that, fuel consumption was in the low sevens on the motorway and averaged in the low-to-mid tens during our test (official combined consumption is 10.1L/100km).

 

Our car’s optional rear-wheel steering made errands a cinch by reducing the turning circle and the also-optional nose lift probably paid for itself numerous times during our time with the car. Handily, it will offer to remember where you activate it and automatically do so next time you approach the obstacle that prompted you to activate it in the first place.

 

The standard automatic adaptive LED headlights are so effective as to require no intervention from the driver and utterly destroy darkness without dazzling other road users. Super impressive.

 

Our whole family also enjoyed the upgraded interior ambience applied at great expense to this particular GTS.

 

The adaptive front seats provided the perfect blend of comfort and support, while keeping us tightly in place when negotiating those heavenly hairpins and the GTS Interior Package in general really elevated the ambience compared with a standard GTS cabin’s

suede – sorry Race-Tex – overload.

 

A car costing four hundred grand with options should be good by definition but we still came away somewhat amazed at just how good this car was. We knew it would be a blast to drive but the way the 911 GTS also fitted into – and somewhat soothed – the daily grind was by far the more pleasant surprise.

 

Perhaps you can go crazy on lovely options for your GTS and not buy that Golf R for the school run after all.