2015 Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS UK first drive

The Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS is the new full-house version of the now-fifty-year-old 911 Targa. It’s trying to be the sports car that can do it all, packing the dynamism of a sporting great with the good manners of cruiser.

The sure-footedness of four-wheel drive combined with the security, style and refinement of coupe – and the option of convertible-type open-air motoring on-demand. Better usability than any other 911: which is, in any form, a two-plus-two rightly revered for its usability. It is, in theory, the best sports car that Zuffenhausen makes. But how far will theoretical brilliance take it?

The current-gen Targa, introduced only last year, returned to the roots of a concept originally designed in the 1960s – when US safety legislators looked likely to ban simpler cloth-top convertibles in response to increasing numbers of rollover-related fatalities. They never did, as it turned out – and so the Porsche 911 Cabriolet survives, making the Targa work all the harder to justify its existence.

And it currently does that with an ever-so-slightly softened chassis than the normal 911, standard four-wheel drive; and a body design that includes a fixed rollover hoop, a retractable cloth roof, and a glass rear screen that looks a bit prettier than a furled-up hood, and frees up some storage space underneath.

Also last year, Porsche set the template for the way it’ll apply the ‘GTS’ badge in the future: as an upper trim level, rather than to distinguish lower order ‘GT’-series models or special driver-focussed editions. A Carrera 4 GTS, for example, is no different from a generously and judiciously equipped Carrera 4 S, sold at a more appealing price.

The Targa 4 GTS follows the same theme. Getting as standard the Powerkit engine upgrade and Sport Chrono pack, as well as leather/alcantara interior, Sport Design exterior body upgrades, 20in ‘centrelock’ alloy wheels and various other bits of kit, it is ostensibly a £112,000, optioned-up Targa 4 S on offer for an £8000 discount.

It gets some tasty-looking GTS badges thrown in as well, of course. And our test car had an optional PDK twin-clutch gearbox.

A fine sports car by any reasonable estimation – but perhaps not a great 911. And that matters because the Targa 4 GTS isn’t a cheap 911; because it sits in a model range full of other cars with clearer selling points; and because Targa owners are likely to be returning 911 customers with first-hand experience of those other models.

Those who aren’t will, conversely, fall head-over-heels for the car in fairly short order. The Targa 4 GTS offers at least 95% of the performance, handling deftness, excitement and interactivity that makes most of its rangemates great. But it’s almost 200kg heavier than 3.4-litre, rear-driven, manual Carrera coupe, and it’s more softly sprung. And it doesn’t have the accessible torque of forced induction with which to shrug off those extra kilos, either.

And so, until you get at least 5000rpm wound onto the tacho, the Targa 4 GTS doesn’t feel that fast. It’s less noticable with Porsche’s quick-shifting PDK gearbox fitted than it might be in a manual, and hardly an imposition in any case. But, more than any other Porsche 911, the Targa needs revs to bare its teeth.