The Hawkesbury River boat ramp has never looked better. Photo: James Coleman.
Would you like a “decorative side logo PORSCHE text” with your “Shade Green Metallic” Porsche 911? That’ll be a total of $8750 for both.
How about an “Exclusive Design” fuel filler cap? $280, thank you very much. Mirror bases painted in exterior colour? $1120. Ventilated seats? $2200. Electric sunroof? $4720. A lift-kit that raises the front suspension so you don’t scrape its pretty little nose on kerbs and speed bumps? $4950.
All in all, options alone increase this car’s starting price from $380,100 to $431,700. And that’s not even driveaway. This is Ferrari-levels of stupid-to-the-point-of-near-criminal gold digging.
Fortunately, it’s worth it. Well, maybe you could live without the exclusively designed fuel filler cap.
A week with the new Porsche 911 Carrera GTS has just ended for me, and part of me is still kicking the other part of me for handing it back to the Sydney-based dealership, rather than driving off into the sunset to a life lived happily ever after.
It’s not like the family wouldn’t be with me either. My wife and I managed to squeeze our four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son into the 911’s back seats – even if I use the word “seats” most generously. And you could stow away a fairly decent suitcase in the front boot.
The back seats are surprisingly useful – for very small children. Photo: James Coleman.
Put away the VW Beetle jokes – the 911 is the perfect everyday sports car.
This year marks the model’s 61st year, during which time we’ve seen eight generations. I don’t want to delve into the various model codes for each one, because I believe it may lead to many men remaining single if they are aware of this level of detail. However, what you need to know about this one is that it has become a hybrid for the first time.
Yes, forget the dizzy spell-inducing change from air-cooled to water-cooled engines back in 1997. The 911 now has not one, but two electric motors in its drivetrain.
However, the boxer-style six-cylinder engine is even bigger than before – up from 3 litres to 3.5 litres – and the hybrid part of the name has nothing to do with economy. It’s here to make acceleration even more savage, and that’s it.
One motor sits between the dual-clutch automatic gearbox and the engine, reducing the delay from when you bury the accelerator to when you feel all 610 Nm of torque rocketing you towards the horizon, from the previous model’s 2 seconds to just 0.5 of a second.
The second, smaller motor helps here too by living inside the turbocharger and making sure it’s constantly ramming air into the engine like it was packing away a particularly annoying sleeping bag.
The combined result is a 0-100 km/h sprint of 3 seconds – nearly half a second quicker than the old GTS, with the first 21.5 metres covered in 2.5 seconds – an improvement of seven metres.
You feel this. Or more precisely, you feel how hard the tyres are trying to make this work. It scrambles like a Jack Russell after a ball.
The noise is joyous too. There is a ‘Wet’ drive mode, which makes it a bit sleepier to keep you out of trees in corners, and Normal, but in Sports and Sports Plus, the flaps in the exhaust open all the way to flood your head – which is all of one metre from the source – with all the whooshes and roars of force-fed internal-combustion.
Not much to see under here, but believe me – it’s there. Photo: James Coleman.
The steering feel is the best I’ve tried too – tight, darty and the perfect weight. It’s a pain to park because of all those curves and disappearing edges, but on the road, the 911 wraps around you like a Spandex suit.
And when you’re done with this – and want to comfortably drive your family off into the sunset, for instance – it’s just as adept. The brakes are not uncomfortably bitey; the throttle is not overly touchy, and the suspension is more liveable than the GR Corolla I was in a few weeks back.
Provided you’ve sold a kidney – or just one of your imported mantelpiece ornaments from one of your five homes – to get the front-lift kit, you can press a button to mount pesky speed bumps. The car will then remember it and raise itself automatically on your next approach, leaving you to nod at the admiring onlookers in the cafes.
I’m not sure I would choose mine in Shade Green Metallic, or have the beige and dark green interior, but everything inside and out is beautiful. Stand and stare beautiful. Down to the clock on the dash (itself a $2110 option, mind you).
The trouble with tasting perfection is that everything else then tastes like sawdust. That’s me right now. You’ve ruined me, Porsche.
Goodbye, Porsche – you will be missed. Photo: James Coleman.
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS
- $431,700 (plus driveaway costs)
- 3.5-litre 6-cylinder turbocharged petrol-electric hybrid, 398 kW / 610 Nm
- 8-speed automatic dual-clutch, rear-wheel drive (RWD)
- 0-100 km/h in 3 seconds, 312 km/h
- 10.7 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption (combined)
- 1595 kg.
Thanks to Porsche Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with Porsche Cars Australia.
