What is it?
The 911 GTS is the latest addition to the fabled Porsche 911 family, recently arrived on UK roads. It joins equivalents in the company’s Cayman, Boxster, Panamera and Cayenne ranges and plays yet another distinct role within a 911 model range already crowded with bit-parters.
Slotting in on price, performance and sporting purposefulness between a normal Carrera S and the full-blooded GT3, the GTS is Porsche’s new medium-hot, medium-affordable derivative. Moreover, its identity is allegedly that of the everyday-use, highly developed road-going performance special.
That’s as distinct from the comfy one (Targa), the fast one (Turbo), the trackday one (GT3) and the upcoming even more specialised trackday one (GT3 RS) – and it’s not counting coupés and convertibles, rear-drive and four-wheel-drive variants, normal and ‘S’ models or special editions separately.
So on the face of it, this is a car that seems to answer absolutely no need whatsoever. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Cars like the 911 subsist on a fairly modest customer base, and with the current 991 generation now approaching middle age, Porsche needs something to lure owners back into the showroom.
With the awesome GT3 now all but sold out, the company also needs a more pragmatic counterpoint to offer customers clearly not in the market for the imminent GT3 RS. That, in a nutshell, is the GTS’s raison d’etre: to add spice to the model range, but at a level that isn’t too rarefied.
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Of course you can still have
you can still get a manual!
It is strange. I don't