2015 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS review: The spirit will move you

We won’t be the first to say that some modern Porsche 911 Carreras have lost some of the early 911’s knife-edge, risk-fraught, tail-happy excitability — the inevitable outcome of demands for safety and space over time. As Porsche pursues an ever-broader base of customers, it now offers some 19 different street-legal flavors of 911 for 2015. With that kind of variety, some invoke the original’s spirit better than others.

To find them, look for the four (coupe and cabriolet, rear and all-wheel-drive) that wear the “GTS” badge on their Kardashianesque derrieres. Like all Porsche “Gran Touring Sport” models from the Boxster to the Panamera, the Carrera GTS is comprehensively sportified in ways that improve its track cred at little cost to daily living. At $115,195, the Carrera GTS coupe with a manual transmission splits the difference between the $99,895 Carrera S and the raucous $131,350 GT3. The four-wheel drive Carrera 4 GTS coupe and the Carrera 2 and 4 cabriolets cost somewhat more, but the way we see it: any GTS (but especially the rear-drive coupe) represents one of the most appealing expressions of pure 911-ness you can get at any price.

And what is that feeling anyway? Start with a bounty of power erupting from behind the rear axle. Thanks to the “Powerkit” from the Carrera S of freer-flowing intake runners and higher-lifting valves, the 3.8-liter boxer six goes from 400 hp to 430 hp at 7,500 rpm (mostly above 6,500 rpm). The motor’s 325 lb-ft of torque remains the same, but peaks 150 rpm higher at 5,750 rpm and has a smoother and flatter torque curve. Both the 7-speed manual and the excellent 7-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission are available, the former an endangered species among performance-inclined buyers.

All GTS models gets the Carrera 4’s sexy, wide hips and use the same suspension and brake hardware as the S, but includes standard PASM adaptive shocks and the Sport Chrono package with its active engine mounts. Center-locking 20-inch multi-spoke wheels from the GT3 and the Turbo S fill out the wheel wells. As with the previous GTS, the new model gets by with a motorized spoiler that retains Butzi Porsche’s original purity of line when not needed for downforce.

We got our first taste of the 2015 GTS on a beautiful morning drive through the Angeles National Forest between Pasadena, Calif., and Willow Springs raceway, with a rear-wheel drive GTS Cabriolet equipped with the PDK. The first thing we notice is an ear-tickling engine note that goes from mellow to mellifluous by pressing the active exhaust button on the center console. Soon, the neighborhoods filled with raw and symphonic flat-6 sounds. We’re not sure Pasadena was ready for us, but we didn’t care; this is aural bliss. On a related note: Who knew Pasadena had so many tunnels?

We make our way toward Angeles Crest Highway and start dipping into the power, and find its full volume bottomless — delivered in crescendo as revs climb toward redline. Porsche claims that the 3,340-lb cabriolet with the PDK can hit 60 in just four seconds flat (the 146-lb lighter coupe is said to do the trick in 3.8), and the spectacular reserves of thrust in the mid-to-high rev range make passing slower traffic a near-instantaneous affair. We opt to leave the car in its Sport settings for the most of the mountain drive, during which the PDK intuitively and instantly chooses exactly the right gear, rev-matching during downshifts as we stab the brakes for a curve. Shifts are snappy but not harsh, with the occasional giggle-inducing crackle during overrun. The PDK isn’t called the world’s best automatic transmission for nothing.

The GTS’ aforementioned handling aids and the Sport Chrono’s active engine mounts conspire to eliminate body roll and reduce most sources of vibration that could siphon away any acuity from the car’s electromechanical steering. Modern cars have a tendency to disconnect the driver, but the GTS provides enough touch data through the seat and wheel to leave the pilot with no doubt about where the car stands. And even under extreme lateral loads on relatively lumpy surfaces, or while braking late and hard into a curve, the car grips the Earth like Atlas; it simply goes where you point it, no questions asked.

If the GTS shines bright in the hills, it is orgasmic on the track. First, we jump into a GTS coupe with the standard seven-speed manual, reworked for lighter shift action, and find that after the first few corners, our thoughts have cycled through all familiar sports car clichés. This manual is a track-day superstar, yet is affable enough that you could pull your 15-year-old nephew off the Xbox to learn on it.

Next, we take a PDK-equipped cabriolet and find it nearly just as solid feeling and nearly as scintillating as the coupe. In Sport Plus, shifts are fast and abrupt—too neck-snapping for street use but perfect for the track—and the chassis simply sings each tire’s story to the driver. Certainly, the GT3 would be quicker around the course, but we admire the GTS low-drama finesse, which allows it to sort of disappear in such a way that the grittier GT3 does not. Even with the controls in its Normal settings, most cars (including many Porsches) would have a hard time keeping up.

Repeated laps at 10/10ths give us even more appreciation for the brakes, which simply don't stop stopping, lap after lap. It’s telling that Porsche let us lap Willow in the same cars that we brought there, and then had us drive those same cars back without changing the tires or brakes. Indeed, this is how Porsche imagines these cars will be used, as many who have bought a Carrera GTS since its 2010 introduction could attest.

For our return, we choose a lightly optioned coupe (another rear-driver with PDDC and PDK) and find we have saved the best for last. With 146 fewer pounds than the Cabriolet and just 67 pounds more than the Carrera S, the GTS coupe feels as friskier and even more focused than the cabrio we drove in the morning. Steering reacts right quickly off-center, and remains quick enough such that one rarely has to shuffle his or her hands around the wheel in curves, leaving the shift paddles close at hand. Our only complaint is that we can’t delete the standard Carrera’s unusable rear seats, as had been done to our Euro-spec test car. (Also, for the record, we don’t get the cool clear-lens turn signals on the front fenders.)

At the end of the day, we consider the many ways the GTS models stand out next to the 15 non-GTS Carreras in the Porsche showroom, but end with this: the slant backed GTS is the fastest Carrera that still retains the visual purity of the original 911 Carrera. The GTS is, in so many ways, the Carrera perfected.