Driving the Porsche GTS Family, From 911 to Panamera: Pretty Persuasion

If you’re looking for a fast car at a bargain price, Porsche isn’t the first brand that comes to mind.

But for people who can already afford a Porsche, the company’s wide-ranging, road-taming GTS lineup is the sweetest deal from Stuttgart in some time.

From the seaside of Malaga, Spain to the Ascari Race Resort in the Andalusian countryside, we sampled the full smorgasbord of GTS models. We’re talking seven distinct Porsche models: The classic 911 sports car in Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet body styles; the Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan; and the mid-engine Boxster convertible and Cayman coupe. GTS versions of 911 Coupe and Cabriolet can be had in either rear-drive or AWD.

Sure, it’s a mental stretch from a vintage racecar to a 4,500-lb. Cayenne SUV. But this GTS lineup traces its origin to the 904 GTS, a curvaceous street-legal racer produced when Kennedy was still president, in 1963. The 904 GTS’ relative comfort and smoothness gave its drivers an edge in endurance racing, Porsche says, with the car winning the Targa Florio in 1964, a famously difficult race over the rawboned public roads of Sicily.

Today’s GTS philosophy remains similar, Porsche says: More car for less money. GTS models flex a bit more German muscle, with about 30 to 50 more horses than standard versions. Suspensions are firmer, bodies lower, and engine and exhaust sounds are lustier. And compared with choosing from a long options list — a notoriously costly exercise at the Porsche dealer — the GTS’s are stuffed with standard features that would cost you several thousand dollars more if you bundled them as options on non-GTS versions.

Consider the GTS models the Goldilocks versions, just-right for serious drivers who want speed and sharpened handling, but without emptying their bank accounts for, say, a 911 GT3 or Cayman GT4.

As a new-for-2016 model (along with the Cayenne GTS), the 2016 911 Targa 4 GTS is a prime example. Flipping open its magical, bubble-glassed Targa roof and hustling it from Malaga to Ascari, the Targa 4 GTS revealed itself as likely the best-looking and most versatile performer in the entire 911 lineup. It’s built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Targa.

Like other GTS’s, the Targa adds formal attire: Black painted, center-locking alloy wheels, with more black for air intakes, headlamp surrounds, exhaust outlets, trim strips and a rear Porsche badge. Black Alcantara fabric wraps the steering wheel, center console, shift lever and seat inserts, with a deep red central tachometer that reveals a higher engine redline: 7,500 rpm versus 7,400 rpm for a standard Targa 4 S.

With 430 horses from its 3.8-liter flat six, 30 more than a Targa 4 S, the Targa 4 GTS scoots from 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds and to a zesty 186 mph top speed, equipped with the seven-speed PDK automatic transmission. Porsche’s seamless seven-speed manual transmission remains an option.

Porsche Active Stability Management is standard, along with 20-inch wheels and tires from the mighty Turbo S and the Sport Chrono package. A two-stage Sport Exhaust remains an option: Press the console button, and the signature rasp and bark of the flat-six engine grows angry and urgent, boosted by a mechanical sound symposer that directs all-natural engine noise to the interior.
As with every AWD 911, the Targa 4 GTS adds welcome flare to its hips, with a rear-end widened by 1.7 inches. And of course, there’s the aluminum Targa bar that accentuates the 911’s classic silhouette and harkens to the stainless-steel original – a silver ribbon to wrap this fantasy present for any sports car fan. s

In the spectacular roads approaching Ronda, one of the most postcard-worthy towns in all of Spain or Europe, the Targa carved up mountain switchbacks with the combination of grace and grit that’s a Porsche signature. The Targa 4 GTS does weigh roughly 200 pounds more than a standard 911 4 Coupe, and 45 pounds more than a 911 Cabriolet, but the difference in handling is nearly negligible.

The Targa’s knee-weakening style also blows away the odd humpbacked look of the Cabriolet. And its automated hardtop – with its ingeniously complex mechanism – is more practical for buyers in unseasonable climes.
Now, at a starting price of $133,795, no one will confuse this Porsche with a Prius. But we tallied up all the standard features of the Targa 4 GTS, and what you’d pay to add them as options on a standard Targa 4 S. We arrived at $35,425, or the price of a loaded Honda Accord. And that GTS model is priced at $15,270 above a Targa 4 S, meaning Porsche is throwing in $20,000 worth of features at no cost.

Math class complete, we rolled into Ascari, a fast-flowing circuit that recreates famous corners from tracks around the world. 

We attacked Ascari in the full range of 911 GTS’s, marveling, as usual, at how Porsches make even amateur drivers feel like Walter Mitty, skilled and heroic out of all relation to reality. Porsche’s PDK automatic transmission has become near-psychic, allowing us to turn the quickest laps by simply leaving the lever in “Drive” and never touching the paddle shifters; though a blast in a manual-equipped 911 GTS reminds us that it’s still fun to shift for yourself, even if you lose a few tenths to the cyborg-like PDK models.

Then it was the underdogs’ turn, with laps in the Boxster GTS convertible ($75,595) and Cayman GTS coupe ($76,195). With their own GTS makeovers, these mid-engine beauties have never been better. Sure, we’re itching to drive the upcoming Cayman GT4 and its enlarged 3.8-liter engine, finally handed down from its big brother 911, though that hardcore GT4 will also start from $85,495, nearly 10 grand beyond the Cayman GTS.

Firing onto straightaways, the Boxster and Cayman GTS’s can’t quite match the 911 GTS’ pure accelerative force, or the sheer grip of the 911’s much-wider wheels and tires. But their lighter weight and mid-engine balance help make up for the power deficit, allowing them to brake later into turns and glue themselves to the 911’s bumper, despite a handicap of 90 to 100 horsepower. The Boxster GTS gets 330 horses, with 340 for the Cayman GTS, keeping them in the hunt at a respective 4.4- and 4.3- second rush from 0-60 mph. And for people who love the immediacy and reflexes of a lightweight mid-engine car (you know who you are), the GTS-enhanced Boxster and Cayman are both pretty and persuasive.

Even the burly Cayenne and Panamera GTS models get in on the act. The $114,395 Panamera GTS sedan, with AWD and a 440-horse, 4.8-liter V8, charges around Ascari like a Clydesdale on crystal meth, despite a nearly 4,400-lb. weight and a back seat big enough for rangy adults.

We jump into a Cayman GTS for the return trip to Malaga, and a chance to sort our feelings over Porsche’s favorite new letters. Sure, there’s a whiff of opportunism in the growing GTS lineup, a chance to separate wealthy buyers from more of their cash by slapping a GTS badge on every body style in the Porsche universe.

Yet there’s no bait-and-switch here: For Porsche lovers who were planning on ticking off option boxes anyway – or splurging all-out for a 911 GT3 or any Turbo model – a GTS can be justified in both financial and performance terms. If your significant other remains skeptical, just pull out the calculator, along with the ignition keys, to make your case.