Porsche 911 Carrera GTS review

But it didn’t. The Touring is as uncompromising a device on the public road as the standard GT3, a fact I found somewhat puzzling. It’s defining position as the most rewarding 911 you could use as a daily driver had been abandoned, leaving a gap with nothing obvious to fill it.

You will probably have twigged already where I am going with this, and we’ll be arriving shortly, but as we leave cruising altitude and settle into the glide path, let’s fill the time remaining by looking at this newly revealed gap from the opposite direction.

The thing about the two previous 991-generations of GTS is that, wonderful though they were, for want of a less pejorative term, they were also parts bin specials. In terms of what they provided in mechanical terms, there was little or nothing you could not have had as an option on a Carrera S. Their appeal therefore lay in the visual changes – all that smoky glass and black accents that are the hallmarks of the GTS – and the fact it was all available for less than you’d spend on the optioned up S.

This GTS, however, takes a different approach. For a start the 3-litre motor gets a 30bhp boost to 474bhp, and this time there’s no commensurate power upgrade for Carrera S customers on the configurator. They’ve hacked out a load of sound deadening to save weight and add aural excitement, fitted Turbo brakes and based the suspension on the Turbo too, complete with helper springs at the rear to ensure the main springs remain under tension at all times. All suspension settings are bespoke to the GTS.

And as if to underline where Porsche wants you to think this car now sits, there’s a lightweight package option among whose features include a rear seat delete, thinner glass, a lithium ion battery (now where have we seen that before?) and adds four-wheel steering. And it’s only available on coupes…

So a quick statistical comparison between a GTS and GT3 is now in order. Their 0-62mph times are 0.2sec apart, but the GTS does so on standard rubber, not the sticky track day stuff worn by the GT3, which would easily make up the difference. The GT3 is lighter as you’d expect compared to the fully furnished twin-turbo and intercooled GTS, but perhaps not as much as you might think: just 67kg with both in two-seat configuration. A person in other words.

The GT3 has a little more power, but quite a lot less torque and when you factor in mass, it is the GTS that has the considerably better torque-to-weight ratio. And this is the most sorely under-appreciated measure of them all, because when you accelerate, that’s what you feel.

Two more things: as standard the GTS is £18,900 cheaper than the GT3 and while we often hear from those for whom buying a GT3 is an entirely theoretical process because demand so outstrips the rate at which Porsche chooses to supply them, I do not anticipate any such difficulties for those wishing to secure themselves a GTS. It’s almost as if, mindful of this, Porsche has repositioned the GTS to occupy the place vacated by the current generation of GT3…

But is it successful? So long as you choose the right car, to a considerable extent the answer is yes. And this is important, because you can’t just consider the GTS to be synonymous with the old GT3 Touring and then think how much better that is because it also comes with the option of two driven wheels or four, coupe, cabriolet or Targa bodywork. Put it this way: a GTS Targa is, to the kilo, 200kg heavier than a standard rear drive, manual GTS coupe with the lightweight pack (which itself saves only 25kg). And that is a simply enormous difference.

So what follows is based on the car I drove, which was that rear drive, manual coupe but with the optional lightweight pack, so the very lightest GTS there is, just 1485kg at the kerb before you knock off another 20kg or so for the ceramic brakes it wore but which are not part of the lightweight pack.

And the news, for good or bad, is that it is still quite unlike a GT3. It doesn’t have that lizard-like off-centre agility of, particularly, the current generation of GT3 with its double wishbone front suspension; the seven-speed gearbox, while good, is still on the wrong side of the quantity/quality ratio relative to the six-speed GT3 and, of course, it doesn’t do those revs, make that noise or have that searing throttle response.

Even so, I still found it captivating on the right road. It doesn’t make you laugh out loud as might a car as audacious as the GT3, but the quiet smile it brings lasts just as long. It is phenomenally rapid from place to place and beautifully poised. The steering is as good an electric system as exists and it has not been set up to prioritise stability over agility. On the road it understeers hardly at all, yet needs no excuse to slide at will, just the merest provocation. And while the noise may not make your scalp itch quite like that of a GT3, it’s still loud, still inimitably flat-six and still gorgeous to listen to.

I did a few laps on track in it too and found it as composed as you’d expect, but here a GT3 is a different proposition entirely, and I’m sure no one will be overly surprised by that.

But here’s the thing: a GT3 is a GT3 at all times. That’s all it has and all it does. It can’t be anything else, and many would say – including maybe me – thank heavens for that. But in the GTS you can switch it all off. Return the drive mode to standard, drop the revs and cruise and the GTS becomes just a rather pleasant place in which to pass the time until you arrive at your destination. It’s quiet and comfortable enough (even with the thinner glass) for daily driving to be not just a possibility, but the most obvious and natural use for the car.

I was so taken by the sheer facility of the thing that when I got home I did something I do less than once a year: I got on the configurator and designed my own –Gentian blue, black leather, badge delete, four-wheel steer and ceramic brakes as you’re asking. I’d probably option in the Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyre that’s available as an N-marked aftermarket accessory, but I wouldn’t have the lightweight pack because I think most people most of the time would be more aware of what they’d lost than gained.

I think that car would shut me up for a long time. But is it a true replacement for a second-generation 991 GT3 Touring, a car which is already looking likely to be remembered among the greatest Porsches of all? Not quite, for it is still quite a different proposition. But is it the most rewarding 911 you can buy as a daily driver today? Yes it is, and by a distance.

Porsche 911 Carrera GTS

Engine: 2981cc, 6-cyl, twin-turbo
Transmission: 7-speed manual, RWD
Power: 474bhp @ 6500rpm
Torque: 420lb ft @ 2300rpm
Weight: 1510kg

Power-to-weight: 314bhp/tonne
0-62mph: 4.1 seconds
Top speed: 193mph
Price: £108,920

Ti rating: 9/10