P O R S C H E
9 1 1
Carrera GTS
showroom had driven it, so it will come as
no surprise that I was a little apprehensive
to say the least.
“Don’t be scared of the car and don’t
accelerate too quickly out of the
corners or the back will slide out!”
Let me start by saying this review of the
Porsche 911 Carrera GTS is not going to
be written by someone who knows too
much about their Intake manifold gasket
or their camshaft pushrod. But more by
someone who believes increased features
and buttons surely mean a good thing…
doesn’t it?
Let’s rewind and give a quick intro to my
family situation. Quite simply, recently there
were two very special events in the Elphick
household - a) my 47th birthday and b) our
Wedding Anniversary. (Though, I’m not
sure in terms of priority, I got those in the
right order?!)
Add in that the festive season was fast
approaching, include a trip to the Ashdown
Park Hotel with no kids to worry about and
we had a recipe for a weekend away. That
just left one question, how could we arrive
there in style?
Enter the lovely people at Porsche Centre
Mid Sussex in Burgess Hill.
After the guided tour of the brand new white
Porsche Carrera 911 GTS that I’d be driving
over the weekend; namely what goes
where and which bit does what and when,
I remember a voice in my head saying
three things over and over as I pulled away;
namely, “don’t stall it,” “don’t scratch it”, and
“didn’t he say it was worth approximately a
100 grand? Gulp!” Oh yes, it only had 10
miles on the clock and no-one else at the
94
and forwards on many occasions. The
only way I can describe this sound was a
gu ttural growl. Beautiful!
Oh but one mistake that I made, (shhhh,
don’t tell anybody it’s embarrassing), is that
I had a bottled soft drink, went to place this
in the cup holder, couldn’t and commented
to the wife, “nearly a 100 grand’s worth of
car, you’d think they do a universal drinks
holder.” At which point Mrs E adjusted it
by pulling the sides apart, with the words,
“there you go you oaf!”
This trepidation didn’t last too long though,
as I safely negotiated the roundabouts
away from Burgess Hill onto the A23. Once
there, I decided to play it safe at a steady
70mph down the motorway (honestly
I did!). But then I noticed that other car
drivers were having a good gawp as they
drove past. To be honest there aren’t many
of these 911s on the road so I started
to experience that sensation of smug
satisfaction that other sports car users
must enjoy! “Jealousy is a cruel mistress”
as my 18 year old son Luke reminds me
whenever he’s got something I haven’t!
It was during the next 20 or so minutes that
I also began to appreciate my surroundings
as well as how lucky I was.
The inside felt roomy but safe, classy
and stylish, but with all the trimmings
you’d expect from a sports car; amazingly
comfortable sports seats, satellite
navigation and a tastefully positioned
Porsche logo beaming out at you from the
leather steering wheel, together with the
words GTS and Carrera, all to remind me
of where I was and about the amazing
experience that I was having!
Add in the various selections of buttons just
behind the gear box on the centre console
and suddenly I’m in gadget heaven! A Sport
mode button AND a Sport Plus button,
the latter I understand being the preferred
setting for a race circuit. Sadly on Sussex’s
roads I thought better of depressing this
one. My favourite button though has to be
the exhaust one – quite simply, push this
down and the volume of the exhaust is
louder. A must when you’re driving through
the Southwick Tunnel, as I did backwards
Moving on from that let me tell you more
about the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS which
comes as a manual (from £91,098) and
the PDK (starts at a mere £93,915). The
one I drove had a 3.8 litre flat 6 engine
with a Porsche PDK gear box which
stands for Doppelkupplung. No neither
did I, but this features both manual and
automatic modes, i.e. two gear boxes with
two clutches. This apparently means that
during a gear change, one clutch simply
opens and the other closes simultaneously,
enabling gear changes to take place within
milliseconds!
It has 2-wheel rear drive and does 0-62
mph in 4 seconds. I can definitely vouch
for this as my head and body were pinned
back in the seat as I ‘flew’ up the slip road
on to the A27. Oh, by the way the GTS
stands for Gran Turismo Sport, I always
thought that was just a PlayStation game!
On the drive back, I swear a Maserati
came screaming up behind trying to tempt
me in to a race. Tempted though I was, I
remained Mr Sensible…maybe another
time Maserati man. All I can say you’d
have had no chance!
My verdict? Amazing, superb, absolutely
brilliant and I need to start saving. My wife’s
verdict…it was like having a new husband!!
By Laurence Elphick