Obviously money buys happiness, and this car is the proof

Of the many versions of the Porsche 911, the GTS is in the delicate balance between the sporty elegance of the model and this little demon that is in every 911 and takes over driving

Keinan Cohen, Photo: Rami Gilboa

08/04/2022

Friday, 08 April 2022, 08:25 Updated: 08:57

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

Porsche 911 GTS (Manufacturer)

For too many years, this nonsense has been circulating here that "money does not buy happiness."

Entire generations memorized this sentence to their children when they had no money to buy them what they asked for.

Well, at first glance this is not complete nonsense, because money does not buy happiness, but from what I have examined - money-makers buy you a Porsche 911 - and when you think about it, it's pretty much the same thing.

And just when you realize that the basic, simple Porsche 911 Carrera is exactly what you like and want, the GTS arrives - it shouts, kicks, grunts and shakes your world from top to bottom and you just beg for more.

More on Walla!

First driving: the new Porsche 911

To the full article

But let's go back to the point where we imagine we have the money to buy a 911, wait, it does not get any easier - because then you have to figure out which 911 you are buying.

Because when you are told the Porsche 911 has the familiar pattern, a sports car with a rear boxer engine but hence the business gets completely complicated.

Because there is the Carrera which is the base and comes in a closed or open version and then the Carrera 4 with the dual paddle in a closed or open version, it continues to the Carrera S and then to the S4 again, in an open or closed version.

Oh, and there is also the half-open Targa with dual propulsion and in the S4 version how far have we come?

10 versions in the meantime and that's before we got to the Turbo which also has the S and "regular" version in a closed or open configuration and the GT3 shatters the chains, the first one for its name.

And within this whole list when it's placed between the "regular" versions and the muscle turbo there is also the GTS, which comes closed, open or sluggish in rear or dual propulsion.

If I had not already confused myself in the count, we are about 20 sub-models before special editions.

And this time we're with the same GTS, the link between the 911 worlds in the Carrera and S versions and the extreme turbo, the car that is required to do the most difficult task of combining the sports-mini GT which is the 911 with the hard-core machines of this family .

Since 1963, the same silhouette that is immediately identified with the 911 (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

Between a smile and monsters

At a glance, the 911 GTS looks like another 911, the same silhouette that is recognizable in a second, with its low bow, curved roofline and heavy tail - which are simply unlike any other sports car.

In the current generation it combines the evolution of this car with some features that are a tribute to the first generation like the air vents of the engine in the rear.

It takes another second to identify the two most prominent external components that immediately differentiate it from any other 911 - the front spoiler which is divided into three compartments and the wheel hub here replaces the screws in a central locking unit, which is a really important arrangement in a race car and quite silly in a road car.

You will not have to change wheels fast to get back in the race, b.

It requires special tools to replace a wheel and no, you do not have them.

Another identification tip?

It is with the caption, the exhaust pipes and the blackened headlight housings.

But I have a much simpler method for you to differentiate between the versions and they are not related to the car, but to the driver of it.

If he smiles, it's Carrera, if he smiles very much it's Carrera S, if he smiles a little stressfully and creepily this is the GTS, roaring with laughter?

This is the Turbo and Turbo S. By the way, if it's just sitting there with a scared look it's the GT3.

Smart, meticulous and accurate (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Even in a yeshiva where Porsche's genius is revealed in creating a very smart, meticulous and accurate cabin.

It's smart because even when it has a lot of technology everything is simple to use, with switches that make you want to press them all day, with a function for each button without turning it into a spaceship cockpit and without all sorts of menus and dials.

It is meticulous in that although there are screens on the dashboard, the central part is an analog and large RPM gauge. The materials, needless to say, are not only fine, but also combined with taste, in a kind of logic of where there will be skin, where the carbon fiber stripe is and where the alcantara and where the opposite skin is. The business was over with a very serious complaint to the police.

Even the shortcomings of its day-to-day use, such as the location of the cup holders, their storage compartments and size suddenly get a twist when she pushes them back and tells you "drink coffee at your mom's house! Here you go".

Just on the gear switch I'm really angry, a piece of plastic that looks like the smallest razor in the world and makes you make such a silly movement with your hand in all its operation.

On the sunroof (NIS 23,423) in the test car I would give up, both a weight and in the least position to add weight to it.

Blackened background for the lighting units and a different front spoiler (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

As the model that combines the worlds in the Porsche, the GTS gets some of the mechanical turbochargers of the powerful Turbo.

This is the sports chassis lowered by 10 mm, the adaptive suspensions also come from it complete, the 21-inch rims at the rear and 20-inch at the front and also the braking system with the large discs of the turbo.

And they all make up the shell for what drives it, a 3.0-liter six-cylinder boxer that if I had not known it was turbocharged, I would not have guessed alive.

The way he pours out his 480 horses (30 more than in the previous generation) is so smooth and linear, from the moment you roll your foot on the pedal to the burst of force that shoots it forward only a fraction of a second passes.

But this speed and immediacy also comes from its dual-clutch box, or PDK in the Porsche.

It has eight gears that know how to shift smoothly when needed, and aggressively when you want.

No dual-clutch gearbox I have encountered comes close to, sometimes it seems like it's guessing you in advance, and is already preparing you for just that gear at the right second to shoot it out of the turn.

Receives the equal choppers of the turbo and GT3, without the scary price (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

And how it turns, the world will lock ... because accelerating to 100 in 3.4 seconds is good and beautiful, but to travel fast from standing in this straight line to the monkeys, we are here in matters of driving.

The position of the engine - the main weight in the car - somewhere in the back, moves the "axis" around which it turns to somewhere in the seat area, that is, where you the driver is sitting.

And this story produces for her the well-known behavioral characteristic of the 911 - even more sensitive than that of a hunting dog and faster response than that of a German Shepherd.

She was and remains a wonderful educator for driving involvement.

It really forces you to drive correctly, accurately, surgically.

The strong braking must be in a straight line, and only then use the engine weight as a pendulum and "help" it to turn with its aspiration to get the butt out of the turning line.

Back to gas?

Only when you have finished the weight transfer and a moment before you straighten up.

And if there's a long enough line there, pressing that little button in the driving mode selector that puts the SPORT RESPONSE into action - 20 seconds of intoxication, extra engine power and noise that makes me happy like a cat in Zoglowek's Marlog.

Throw it in and on the gas with all your might at the exit (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

This is not the "widow maker" that was the 911 in the past, but it will still remind you very well that the relationship here is really not this drive of a driver on one side and on the other side one of these modern machines.

Well, you know, the ones that will be insanely fast even if there is someone sitting in them who does not differentiate between ESP, LSD and ABS.

The 911 GTS is a car that will give you the world, the moon and the stars - but you must deserve it.

You will despise her and she will humble you, make you miserable.

And on the right roads, away from the hustle and bustle of the center, you just want to drive and drive on it.

Drive until the exhaust is sooty like the lungs of a chimney sweep, the brakes whistling like a reserve company at the sight of a shooting instructor, erasing her grooves from the tires and stopping just to hear the ticking from the hot manifolds that sound like a bag of popcorn in the microwave.

It is by no means a comfortable car, uncomfortable and on most roads also not quiet because of removing some of the insulation materials to save weight.

But you have to keep in mind all the time that this may look like the 911, but it is a car with fantastic capabilities.

Then even the fact that it's obviously unreasonably noisy, certainly not for a car of its amount, is mixed with a smile from the previous winding road and a smile in anticipation of the next road - life is just the boring link sections between the two.

Fast, noisy, conquering (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

To me, the standard, rear-wheel-drive Carrera has always been the most correct, most faithful 911 to the original of this car.

But in this new generation something else happened, she softened up a bit, wanted to appeal to wider audiences - so did Porsche again emphasize to us at the launch we were driving in the current 911.

And I was a little sad about it, but then they released this GTS, and for me, personally, as someone who prefers fun and accuracy over power, it's a tremendous corrective experience.

Knowing there is one like it, seeing her do it and driving a car that leaves this model is not only one of the best sports cars in the world but one of the best cars in the world dot.

Oh and something else really at the procedure level - Porsche 911 in the GTS version costs NIS 1,175,000, the test car carried extras that brought the total amount to NIS 1,493,451.

So yes, it turns out that money does not make us happy, but piles of money?

Obviously!

Amazing, in every possible aspect (Photo: Rami Gilboa)

On the technical side: Porsche 911 GTS

Engine, propulsion:

petrol, turbo, rear

2,981

6,500 / 480

2,300 / 58.1

dual clutch , 8 gears

453

185

130

245

132

3.4 seconds

311 km / h

8.5 km per liter

Audi R8, Aston Martin and Vintage

NIS 1,175,00 (base), NIS 1,4,93,451 (test)

• vehicle

• Vehicle tests

Tags

• Porsche

• Porsche 911

• Orchid Sports Cars

• Sports car