Porsche Carrera GTS . . . turns up the power

WITH the next generation of Porsche 911 set to break cover later this year, the Carrera range has been joined by a car that claims to bridge the gap between everyday sports coupe and hard-charging road racer.

The new Carrera GTS shares its moniker with the late, great Cayenne GTS, which is still my favourite version of the controversial Porsche 4x4 thanks to a NASCAR-style V8 soundtrack, unapologetically brash body-kit and giant alloy wheels.

The GTS badges scrawled across the rump and flanks of the latest Carrera indicate similar perks that toughen up the standard car’s style and performance.

Despite retaining the rear-wheel-drive layout of the Carrera S, the GTS sits on the pumped up chassis of its four-wheel-drive siblings and gets a power hike of 63bhp (to 406bhp) and 21lb.ft. of torque (to 309lb.ft.) over the car it slots into the range above.

A relatively small price premium of £2,200 over the Carrera S makes the GTS coupe (£78,371) and GTS Cabriolet (£85,249) look good value and might have Porsche owners who have just shelled out on a standard Carrera S scratching their heads.

But, on paper, that increased power makes the GTS just a tenth of a second quicker to 62mph than the S, dispatching the sprint in 4.6 seconds with its six-speed manual gearbox and 4.4 seconds with Porsche’s paddle-shifting PDK automatic transmission (a £2,525 option).

The PDK transmission can also be had with a launch control system, which lowers the sprint to 62mph to 4.2 seconds.

But Porsche claim that the real-world performance gains are greater thanks to modifications which have made the 3.8-litre flat six engine more free flowing, bringing greater flexibility across the rev range.

The GTS immediately revealed itself to be a visually arresting proposition when I attended the car’s launch in Bournemouth

Distinguished by its 44mm broader stance and distinctive 19-inch gloss black alloys, black front apron and side skirts, it looks super-slick.

Inside, the GTS communicates its links to Porsche’s hardcore GT models—the GT3 and GT2—with Alcantara-clad steering wheel, gear knob, roof lining and leather/Alcantara seats.

The lightweight material looks great and offers fantastic grip and tactility.

As I took to the country roads in a white GTS equipped with Porsche’s PDK transmission, progress initially seemed a little clunky.

Previous experience of the paddle-shift gearbox showed me that it is a fantastic performance device, but needs to be warmed through to achieve smooth shifts around town.

The PDK also robs you of some of those wonderful initial impressions of a Porsche, which centre around the reassuring weight of its controls.

Once free of the early morning traffic, the GTS began to reveal its talents.

Fitted with a sports exhaust as standard, the PDK gearbox drops gear ratios with an exploratory prod of the throttle and the GTS surges down the road with a rasping exhaust note as accompaniment.

Porsche’s flat-six engines deliver their power in an ever-swelling, fashion, but there’s noticeably more grunt available from low revs.

Aided by a slight weight loss of 5kg over the Carrera S, and that additional grunt, the GTS surged towards its red-line with vigour.

Porsche’s Active Suspension Management system, which allows ‘normal’ or ‘sport’ settings, allows adjustments from the drivers’ seats but ‘sport’ is best reserved for the racetrack, eliciting jolts and crashes from Britain’s pock-marked tarmac.

Not so the more racy settings that come with the PDK gearbox.

‘Sport’ and ‘sport plus’ settings sharpen up shift speeds and suspension and loosen the parameters of the stability control, liberating the GTS’s playful side.

It’s almost possible to forget the Carrera’s reputation for spitting overambitious drivers off the road as the GTS’s broad frame blesses it with phenomenal grip.

Trust in that typically light-feeling Carrera front end and you find that the available grip and poise is there to be explored and exploited.

With the ‘sport’ or ‘sport plus’ settings engaged, the GTS exhibits fantastic adjustability through corners on the throttle or brakes.

That broad rear end grip means its just a matter of time before the tyres are digging into the Tarmac, though, exhibiting impressive tractability and channelling torque onto the road.

The Carrera GTS takes the style and performance exhibited by the Carrera S and turns up the wick still further.

It’s more attractive, more involving and more addictive than any other 911 without a GT or Turbo badge and the lofty list price they command.

The GTS is a fantastic swansong for the current car and...in Porsche terms...it’s something of a performance bargain.