Porsche 911 Review

For over 50 years, the Porsche 911 has been the default sports car. The target on the dartboard for every other performance car, from race-prepped hot hatchbacks to Monte Carlo-bothering supercars.

It’s not exactly beautiful like a Jaguar F-Type or Lotus Emira, but the 911 is instantly recognisable and utterly iconic. You don’t mess with that formula. In recent years, all 911s have had wide bodywork that gives it a delicious stance.

But slide into the Porsche 911 and you’ll see what the fuss is about. Start driving it and you’ll be hooked. The controls are perfect, the steering is full of feel, the balance is spot on and – provided you can put up with its thirst – it’s friendly and docile enough to use every day.

Don’t think of the base 911 Carrera as a weak relation – it’s one of our favourite options in the 911 lineup, and still boasts enough power to feel very fast indeed. The range winds up through Carrera T and the more powerful Carrera S models, then the slightly hybridised GTS, before getting to the really spicy stuff – the GT3, GT3 Touring and GT3 RS. Four-wheel drive is available on base, S and GTS.

The base 911 Carrera is hardly a bargain, costing over £100,000 before options – but you can spend almost double that on the GT3 RS. And chances are, if you want a GT3 RS, you’ll need to have bought more Porsches in the last few years than most people have cars in their lifetime.

You can add plenty of extras onto every 911, including leather on every surface you can see, graphics packs and various functions to make the 911 even better to drive. Porsche’s popular Paint-to-Sample programme lets you choose any colour you want for at least £9,000. But some fairly common features on cheaper cars, such as a heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control, are expensive optional extras.

Porsche must be one of the best in the business at mixing digital and analogue features. There’s a touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (the latter included since 2022), but still proper buttons for the main features.

Now with digital dials as standard, Porsche has made sure the 911 doesn’t simply feel like a Silicon Valley fever dream. The dials are very configurable so you can have your preferred information displayed without any unnecessary distractions, and there are a range of view options including a screen that mimics classic 911 displays.

The graphics on both the digital dials and the touchscreen are pin-sharp, and both screens respond to your inputs immediately. Menus are easy to find, and it’s not going to take your eyes off the road for too long.

Material quality is exceptional – the Porsche really feels like it’s worth its price tag. The controls feel reassuringly heavy and expensive, and we like that there are still plenty of tactile touchpoints to interact with.

Perhaps even better is the driving position. You sit low and peer over the flowing front wheel arches, feeling an integral part of the experience.

Porsche 911 buyers aren’t likely to be too worried about practicality – if you’re buying a 911, you’ve probably already got a Cayenne or another large SUV in the garage. Even so, the 911 is decently practical.

With no engine at the front, the space under the bonnet can be used for luggage – and there’s just enough space for a weekend away. There’s extra space behind the seats or, if rear seats are fitted, you can use them for storage instead.

Yes, rear seats are now optional for the 911 (they’re free, you just have to tick the box). But the 911 isn’t really a four-seater anyway – the back seats are only really big enough for kids, or for adults on very short journeys.

First up, if you want a manual gearbox in your 911 now, you’ll have to pick the Carrera T. It’s the main feature of the T, highlighted by gear-shift pattern stickers and a walnut gearknob – inspired by the Porsche Carrera GT hypercar of the 2000s.

The manual is very special, but Porsche’s PDK automatic gearbox is incredibly well calibrated – and faster. For years now, the automatic has been far more popular than the manual, which perhaps isn’t surprising. The PDK double-clutch gearbox suits the 911 so well.

Positioned as the one for driving purists, the Carrera T also gets reduced sound deadening, adaptive dampers for the suspension, a limited-slip differential and four-wheel steering for increased agility.

Regular versions of the 911, if there is such a thing, come with a famed 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine. Base and T versions get 394hp, but the PDK-equipped base model is over half a second quicker from 0-62mph than the lighter, but manual T (3.9, with the Sport Chrono pack, vs 4.5 seconds). S and 4S versions get 480hp and a 3.3-second 0-62mph time.

The new hybrid GTS doesn’t need plugging in and doesn’t have an electric-only range; instead, its new 3.6-litre engine is supplemented by a 15hp motor mounted within the turbocharger to spin it up quicker, and another 55hp motor is part of the gearbox. There’s a 1.9kWh battery, recharged with regenerative braking, but that’s only really there to stop the engine having to power the car’s ancillaries.

The GTS is sickeningly fast. It’s the most powerful 911 available now – yes, even alongside the GT3 and GT3 RS – with 541hp. The stopwatch will barely keep up with its three-second 0-62mph sprint. If you need to accelerate faster in a Porsche, you’ll need the top-rung versions of the electric Taycan. And actually, the GTS’ unrelenting power delivery and no lag makes it feel not dissimilar to an EV.

It’s hard to pinpoint one stand-out area of the 911’s driving experience.

The steering is communicative and brimming with feel, so you really know what the front wheels are up to. Not the case in most modern sports cars.

The brakes are thankfully strong, but easy to work with as well. Your eyes aren’t at risk of pinballing through the windscreen every time you slow down but, if you need to stop quickly, the 911 is engineered to stop in half the time of its 0-62mph sprint.

There’s always a vast amount of grip in the dry, even in the most powerful rear-wheel-drive models. 4, 4S and 4 GTS models mainly add a feeling of stability in inclement conditions.

You sit pretty much exactly in the middle of the car, right on the pivot point. That, and its serene balance, puts you right in the centre of the action, and you can feel exactly what’s happening in front and behind you. Despite having plenty of power and a hefty price tag, most 911s are approachable. Of course, the higher up the range you go, and the closer you get to a full-blown Porsche Cup racing car, there’s more of an edge.

If there’s anything to complain about at all, it’s perhaps that the road noise is a little intrusive. Solution – just drop down a gear or two and the flat-six engine sings loud enough to drown the road noise out. It’s also a little firm at lower speeds, but not unexpectedly so, and it really settles down at speed and ‘breathes’ with the undulations of the road.