Porsche 911 Carrera GTS

The new 911 GTs is the best 991-series carrera that you can currently buy – provided you choose the correct variant and the right options.

- Dan Prosser

THE NEW PORSCHE 911 Carrera GTS, which slots in between the Carrera s and the forthcoming GT3, is super-agile, ultra-responsive and very rewarding to drive. It’s also lethargic, lazy and a bit top heavy. It steers very well and also quite poorly. It’s good value for money, though far too expensive.

It comes in three body styles – coupe, Cabriolet and Targa – with the first two of those available with rear- or four-wheel drive. All versions can be fitted with either a manual gearbox or Porsche’s PDK twin-clutch transmission. on top of all this, buyers can specify rear-wheel steering and variable anti-roll bars, tyre option A or tyre option B, and choose between the standard brakes and the very expensive carbon-ceramic ones. That’s before they’ve decided on the paint colour and interior trim. It’s baffling.

In fact, the range is so mind-numbingly expansive that for every single word of praise or criticism that anyone might level at a sports car, there’ll be a GTS to which it applies. Fun and responsive? That’ll be the two-wheel-drive coupe. Flat-footed with dull steering? Targa PDK. 

With that in mind, be vigilant. when some bloke down the pub one day brags about his new GTS, he could either be a man shot through with such righteous stuff that he actually owns what probably is the best new 911 that you can actually buy in a showroom, or he might prefer a dash of lime in his carling and drive a paddle shift Targa.