The 2022 Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS Proves There's a 911 For Everyone

A sports car is not an easy thing to sell these days. Just look at the Mercedes-AMG GT, as compelling a 911 alternative as there ever was, yet a car that finds relatively few buyers. Porsche realized back with the 997-generation 2004-2012 that the best way of justifying the 911 was to offer a car for every conceivable sports-car buyer. You can't make something only for purists and enthusiasts and expect enough sales; you've got to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. It's a strategy that's worked well for Porsche, and as a result, it's seen the 911 lineup balloon into a 23-car behemoth, each with a very long options list. It's also led to some odd creations, like the Targa 4 GTS.

The GTS is the enthusiast-focused version of the 911 Carrera, with more power—473 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque vs 443 hp and 390 lb-ft—and a number of other performance-related tweaks. The Targa is the "lifestyle" 911, heavier even than the Cabriolet, equipped with all-wheel drive, and undeniably gorgeous. The 911 Targa 4 GTS is, thus, an oddball, especially when optioned with a manual transmission. Cognitive dissonance, the car. It's also one of the most compelling 911s you can buy today.

I'm a little bored writing yet another positive review of a Porsche, yet the company continues to set the benchmark in so many ways. The Targa 4 GTS is one of the most complete sports-GTs on sale today, a car that just does everything so well.

There's a real effervescent quality to a Targa. It invites you to take things a little less seriously, to slow down and revel in the sensations. It's a nice change of pace from most modern high-performance cars, whose limits are so high they often feel aloof on the road. The Targa 4 GTS is very fast and very grippy, yet it doesn't need to be driven at absurd speeds to engage.

All other 911 GTS models get a stiffer "Sport" suspension that shares much with the 911 Turbo. Porsche doesn't offer a similar setup on any Targa model, and the Targa 4 GTS is all the better for it. I've always felt that 992 Carrera models with the Sport chassis were too aggressive, harsh over impacts and lacking wheel travel. This was my first opportunity to spend time with a 992 on its standard suspension, and it was a revelation. It's far better suited to the pockmarked roads we have up here in the Northeast, and I suspect the Targa 4 GTS will be similarly good throughout the country. The car floats with the road surface, rather than trying in vain to beat it into place.

Handling doesn't seem to suffer, either. Maybe on track, there's a difference, but who's buying a Targa for track work? Compared to most cars on sale today, the Targa 4 GTS has excellent, communicative steering, though all-wheel drive 911s lose some of the nuance found in their two-wheel drive counterparts. It feels a little less traditional 911, a little less rear-engined, for better or worse. All-wheel drive does provide a ton of confidence, though.