2025 Porsche 911 GTS review: Electric, shock and awe

Business Times

a day ago

[CHIANG MAI] The new Porsche 911 GTS reminds me of a tale economists love to tell about Soviet central planners. One day they went to a factory and set a production quota of one million nails. The managers shrugged, then churned out tiny slivers of steel that were useless for carpentry, but perfect for hitting a target. If you'll forgive the obvious pun, when it comes to that sort of malicious compliance, this latest 911 really nails it.
I found that out in the most entertaining way possible, flogging both the GTS (S$781,168 without options or a Certificate of Entitlement) and base model Carrera (S$569,268) back-to-back through Chiang Mai's misty mountain switchbacks. With the Thai jungle flashing past the windows, their differences couldn't have been clearer.
Mind you, a billion words have already been written about the venerable 911, half of them in love letters, half in snarky notes accusing each new version of either changing too much or changing too little. So, spare a thought for the men who had to freshen up the current 992 iteration of the 911, carefully keeping yesterday's faithful happy while tomorrow's cynics sharpen their pitchforks.
The result is the 992.2, whose decimal carries real weight because 911 aficionados consider every model code a shibboleth.
Yet, identifying the 992.2 (and winning Porsche Club cred in the process) couldn't be simpler. The headlamps now cram every lighting function into a single pod, so the old turn signals on the bumper have vanished. Need more? The taillamps stretch farther across the rump, the GTS' movable intakes adopt active shutters to juggle cooling and drag, and there are new wheel designs to make you spend even more time on Porsche's online configurator.
Inside, the faux-key twist knob has been bumped into history by a start-stop button, while the instruments are now fully digital. Alas, that means the beloved rev needle is gone, but you do get a customisable 12.6-inch screen that can mimic the classic five-dial layout or stretch a navigation map across the whole span. Progress or sacrilege? The keyboard warriors can fight that one out.
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In the engine bay is where the two new 911s really separate. The basic Carrera pinches hardware from the outgoing 911 Turbo, with bigger intercoolers and a revised turbo layout pushing its 3.0-litre flat-six to 395 horsepower.
Add the Sport Chrono pack, and the rear wheel-drive coupe lunges to 100 kmh in 3.9 seconds, snarling like a lion that's caught a whiff of raw steak. For all that, it still serves up the quintessential 911 experience: direct steering, and a chassis that sometimes thrills with its agility (and sometimes terrifies if you overstep). Above all, it moves with a lissome grace that makes this 1.85 metre-wide sports car feel as lithe and ferocious as a Muay Thai champ.
Slipping through the loophole
Then there's the new Carrera GTS, a masterclass in engineering as a means of malicious compliance. Regulators (including those here) have vowed to slam the door on pure-combustion car sales by the end of the decade, but some are leaving it a crack open for hybrids. Porsche's response? Add electric drive to the 911 to slip through that loophole, then use the volts not to save the planet, but to fling the car down the road even harder.
The resulting T-Hybrid system puts a 1.9 kilowatt-hour battery in the 911's nose, feeding a 56 hp motor tucked inside the twin-clutch gearbox and a 15 hp electric motor that spins up the turbocharger even before you need it, so it's always ready to boost the engine. Between all that and a new 3.6-litre flat-six, the GTS has 541 horsepower at its disposal, enough for 0 to 100 kmh in three seconds flat.
The numbers sound almost abstract, so I'd describe flooring the accelerator in the GTS as an experience like being shot from a cannon. The hybrid system supplies a mighty shove from the get-go, but at some point the flat-six takes over, howling past 7,000 rpm to shove you even harder. It packs the kind of acceleration obnoxious electric car evangelists brag about, but it comes from explosions pushing pistons, not silent magnets.
Hybrid power isn't the GTS' only party trick. Rear-axle steering now comes standard, tightening hairpin lines like an invisible hand on the car's tail. It sits 10 millimetres lower on active suspension, with firmer springs that make the ride feel noticeably more choppy than in the Carrera. Nevertheless, the GTS has terrific damping, so you get one clean jolt over a bump, the body settles immediately, and it's on to the next hairpin.
Has electrification polluted the 911 experience? Purists are bound to think so since they once decried the first turbo 911s in the '70s, bemoaned four-wheel drive in the '80s, and wrung their hands at the arrival of 1989's Tiptronic auto.
But two minutes in the GTS will disabuse you of whatever phobia you're nursing. The steering still keeps up a lively chatter in your hands about grip and road texture, and the rear-engine balance still eggs you on to work the brakes and accelerator with skill and technique.
Nor should you be paranoid about heavy batteries and cables. The entire T-Hybrid system adds just under 50 kilogrammes to the 1.5-tonne 911, so it's barely even there.
What you do notice, mainly, is more mid-range punch and more urge out of second-gear corners, which leaves you with more laughter as the car's poise, agility and ferocity all come together beautifully.
All that said, the basic Carrera is still a phenomenal car in its own right. Despite its comfier suspension settings, it conveys the same sense of being a live thing in your hands, clawing its way through corners with tenacity, and wailing down the road at a pace that's bound to fill your system with adrenaline. It feels less violent and intense than the GTS, yet every bit as capable in the right hands.
In other words, the 911 Carrera is still all the sports car a sane driver could ever need, while the GTS is all the sports car a driver could ever want. Despite the latter's new hybrid system, the 911 isn't going to save the planet, but it does make it a more beautiful place for drivers.
Porsche 911 Carrera Engine 2,981 cc, flat-six, twin-turbo Power 395 hp at 6,500 rpm Torque 450 Nm from 2,000 to 5,000 rpm Gearbox 8-speed dual-clutch automatic 0-100 kmh 4.1 seconds (3.9 seconds with Sport Chrono Package) Top speed 294 kmh Fuel efficiency 10.7 L/100 km Agent Porsche Singapore Price From S$569,268 before COE Available Now
Porsche 911 GTS Engine 3,591 cc, flat-six, turbo Electric motor 56 hp System power 541 hp System torque 610 Nm Gearbox 8-speed dual-clutch automatic 0-100 kmh 3.0 seconds Top speed 312 kmh Fuel efficiency 11 L/100 km Agent Porsche Singapore Price From S$781,168 before COE Available Now