First drive in the 992.2 GTS

Perhaps it’s because the technological backstory is so rich or maybe it’s just the headline power figure of 541hp, but I am more excited to drive the new 992.2 Carrera GTS with its T-Hybrid powertrain than I have been about a new Porsche for quite a while.
 
That is to say, ‘very’. You know how it goes; the finger-twitching agitation as you finally get your hands on the keys you’ve yearned to use, breaking out into outright nervous anticipation when you hear what a new engine sounds like for the first time. Then the sheer torture of letting fluids warm up, waiting for the moment when the stars align – or, rather, the oil temperature says ‘Yes please’ and a gap in the traffic appears – when you can really pin the throttle. Finally, exhaustively, there is that opportunity. Will it enthral or underwhelm in the moment of truth?



THE BEST JUST GOT BETTER
If you read our overseas launch first drive piece on the Carrera GTS, very ably penned by Andrew Frankel back in Porsche Post August 2024, you’ll know that this car is both a technological marvel and an experience that requires some adjustment of personal perception and understanding.
 
I’ll only summarise the specification here to avoid repetition but, as you may know, the new GTS is a hybrid but not in the ‘eco’ sense of the term. Sure, there’s a small reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, but the real purpose of a T-Hybrid (as Porsche call it) is to improve performance without compromising driveability or fitting an engine that might tread on the toes of any forthcoming Turbo model. In short, Porsche has ditched the pair of turbochargers, sensibly sized so as to avoid any unnecessary throttle lag, replaced them with one large turbo that’s power-hungry and to blazes with its low-rev response.
 
The T-Hybrid consists of an electric motor positioned between the turbine and compressor wheels of the turbocharger and another between the engine and the gearbox. The 992 was engineered for this from the start, if you recall, but the 992.1 made no use of the space provided. Although the turbocharger can be spun up by exhaust gases in the usual manner, the electric motor takes over at low engine speeds, in theory eliminating any turbo lag. Meanwhile, the electric motor provides an additional 56hp down at the gearbox, although there’s no provision for all-electric running because to do so would require a large and very heavy battery. Instead, Porsche is able to fit a small one, under the front scuttle, of 1.9kWh. The new engine itself displaces 3.6 litres, the expansion achieved by increases in both bore and stroke over the existing 3-litre units. It can be fitted as low in the chassis as possible thanks to ancillaries such as the air-conditioning setup being electrically powered.
 
Elsewhere, it’s the typically incremental Porsche style of improvement across just about every area, whether it’s the nips and tucks to the styling – most obvious in the clean front bumper, where the daytime running lights are now incorporated into the main headlight – or the chassis, with a thorough re-work of settings that also now includes rear-wheel steering as standard and sports PASM (on the GTS). Just try and remember the performance (0-62mph in 3.0 seconds and a top speed of 194mph) when I tell you the price, which is £132,600 list but £145,543 on this Ice Grey example with a smattering of options, the stand-out being the bucket seats.
 


…OR DID IT?
So, this is the new 992. The 992 with the all-digital dashboard, which is nothing
like as annoying as I thought it would be and, on initial inspection, works well. I don’t miss the old semi-analogue setup; who’d have thought it?
 
Over those initial miles, the first impressions are of a certain heft to the way the car responds. It doesn’t feel heavy per se, blunt or like there’s lots of inertia but, from the iron-fisted body control of the suspension through to the steely precision of the steering, it’s a car that clearly means business. The ride is always taut, just stepping back from unforgiving over really poor surfaces, but then, given the performance, this was always going to be a car with a deep sense of purpose.
 
And then there’s the power. Or, more to the point, the instant, massive torque of the car. Holding it manually in third gear to force it to use the breadth of its torque curve and not involve the optimal ratios, I floor the throttle at little more than jogging pace. Without any delay or commotion, the GTS just surges forward with incredible conviction – surreal conviction, really. I don’t hold a stopwatch but, in my head, it feels like little more than a couple of seconds before we are at the national speed limit. Therein lies the first problem; it’s almost without peer in terms of pace, but where can you safely and legally enjoy it?
 
So the GTS is spectacularly powerful and I would say it’s a technological marvel too. But initially – that first day of driving, in fact – it’s not a car that I really love. I wonder why that might be, but the best I come up with is the fact that it’s so fast and so capable that, on the traffic-congested roads of Oxfordshire with draconian speed limits, the GTS is simply working so far within its envelope of abilities that it’s barely ‘awake’ and therefore the fun element is somehow missing.

 
It’s not as if it doesn’t feel good in the hands, or cover ground immensely quickly, or do everything that you could want a new 911 to do. It’s blisteringly fast, sticks to the road with so much determination it’s impossible not to feel your confidence soaring and it would be a magnificent beast to use either as a daily commuter hack or as a long-legged GT to blast all around Europe in.
 
And yet, somehow, something is missing. For me, at least. Maybe it’s just too fast, everywhere. It’s so responsive and so flexible that you never have to work for the performance and therefore never feel fully satiated when it does everything perfectly, all of the time. Or perhaps that extra 50kg really does make a difference? It’s more like 85kg heavier than a base Carrera, and there’s no doubt it doesn’t feel quite so light on its feet.
 
I also can’t get on with the noise it makes. It’s just too loud when you’re really pressing on, particularly with the exhaust open, so I tend to keep that in the quiet mode. I love how it sounds at low revs or part throttle. It’s a gruff, gnawing kind of growl, which to my ears owes much to cars like a 993 or a 3.2 Carrera with a free-flowing exhaust. But the hard-edged roar when it’s pulling hard to the redline feels a bit one-dimensional to me and obviously synthesised. Then again, acoustics – like so much to do with cars – are a subjective thing.

 
ON SECOND THOUGHTS
Yet, having written all of the above, something happens after I’ve spent a couple of days with the GTS, whereupon I find my viewpoints turn completely on their head. I’ve tried my best to put my finger on why, but I take some comfort from the fact that I know I’m not alone when it comes to this predicament. I’ve spoken at length to a Club member with one of the first customer GTS coupés in the UK and he found almost exactly the same thing. As he says, it’s a car you need to spend more time with and have a really proper drive on good roads in to really get under its skin and see its true talents come to life.
 
I don’t really know what’s changed, because it wasn’t the greatest B road I’ve ever driven on, but it was clearly enough for the GTS to show its talents. The one thing that really changes the driving experience with the GTS above all else is its low-down punch. Picture a typical 90° B road corner; the kind you might take in second gear in an older manual or maybe third gear in a PDK-equipped car. In a Carrera, you might brake hard for the corner, feed the nose in, get on the power as early as possible if you were driving in a spirited manner and feel that inimitable 911 traction catapult the car down the next straight. Sure, if it’s wet, then the experience may be a little less sure-footed, but we’ll assume this in is the dry.
 
If you wanted to push the car a little more, to feel it nearer the edge of grip (although this is not recommended on the public road, naturally), you might choose to work the brakes harder into the corner, be more aggressive with the steering and then the throttle, and try to break the tail free. You might succeed, particularly with a 991.2 onwards turbocharged car which benefits from more torque than the earlier naturally aspirated engined cars. A GT3 is a different animal, often on stickier rubber, and a turbo (a modern one, at least) is four-wheel-drive. It might break traction at the rear, but you’ll have to be ready to react quickly with the steering because the front axle will try to pull the car straight as you head for the exit.

 
THE SUBTLE SLEDGEHAMMER
What makes the GTS different from all of these? In this car, you have the choice to be leisurely on the way into the corner and then, if the mood takes you, overwhelm the rear tyres on the way out, simply with the throttle alone. Despite their gargantuan width, that awesome engine can overpower them and, once you know it, a whole new world of driving opens up. It’s just so damn exciting having that much shove being put through only the rear wheels of a 911. It makes the car feel edgy; a little bit unforgiving, perhaps. It gives a slightly unhinged, dangerous character that has a magnetic pull, where you want to be in its company even though it’s clear that, if handled in the wrong way, things could turn sour quickly.
 
It also strikes me that, even without staring at the rev counter, drives in the GTS rarely use the final quarter of the rev counter’s arc. The car is so powerful everywhere that revving it out is almost a forbidden fruit. Using the paddles, you can short-shift at 5,500rpm and still make the most obscene progress. However, when the opportunity does arise, preferably in the middle of nowhere and without an audience, really uncorking that new 3.6-litre motor is a special experience. I have to believe it’s that single, large turbo. It’s not blessed with the best low-down response (and nor does it need it, of course) but, when it needs to pass large volumes of air, it seems to relish it and there’s a ferocity to the final reach of the engine which the 3-litre units, with their more sensibly sized turbochargers, have never been able to replicate – even in ultimate 992.1 GTS form.
 
So there you have it. Perhaps the joy of the new GTS is not so much what it can do, but knowing that it can do it and the warm, fuzzy, superior feeling you get inside from holding that back, dipping into it to demolish other traffic and very occasionally letting fly with a moment of abject fury. It’s a subtly but profoundly different driving experience from any other Carrera model and one that’s separate from the Turbo too. But I can say this without any hesitation: the more I lived with it and drove it, the more I came to understand it and love it. As a long-term ownership experience, it holds massive appeal. As for quite what this all means for the next Turbo model, the mind boggles…



This feature was written by Adam Towler and first appeared in the May 2025 issue of our monthly Club magazine, Porsche Post. Join today to receive your copy, as well as enjoying a host of exclusive member benefits and savings.