Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS 2022 Review

As is typical at this end of the market, the actual purchase price of the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS will depend greatly on your restraint – or lack thereof – when presented with the options list.

It’s akin to the wine list at a fancy restaurant in its breadth and the associated price tags.

The 911 GTS range starts at $334,900 plus on-road costs for the rear-wheel drive coupe and stretches to $387,700 for the Targa 4 GTS.

Our Carrera 4 GTS test car sits neatly between the two at $354,200 plus ORCs, which puts it head-to-head with the likes of the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition, BMW M8 Competition and Mercedes-AMG GT R.

Add the options, however, and you’re looking at $400,770, nudging it into the territory occupied by the Ferrari Roma and McLaren GT.

We’ll get to those options in a moment, but the good news is none of them are strictly necessary and the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS comes reasonably well equipped in standard guise.

The main GTS identifier is the blacked-out exterior bits, including the spoiler, wheels, badging and engine cover, but there’s also big brakes from the 911 Turbo (408mm front discs with six-piston callipers and 380mm rear discs with four-piston callipers) and a GTS-specific suspension tune that includes a 10mm ride height drop.

Added to this on our test car is a carbon roof ($7470), Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control active anti-roll bars ($6750), front axle lift ($5070), rear-wheel steering ($4720) and tinted LED Matrix headlights ($4020).

On the inside you’ll find swathes of Race-Tex (Porsche’s eco-friendly suede material), keyless entry and start, heated electric seats, a heated GT sport steering wheel, dual-zone climate control and a Bose surround sound stereo as standard.

But extras include 18-way adjustable sports seats ($5910), roof lining ($2440) and sun visors ($860) in Race-Tex, Porsche Design dash clock ($2110), yellow seat belts ($930), Porsche logo courtesy lights ($300) and the key painted the same colour as the car ($780).

Safety is a slightly thorny issue with the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS. Despite the core model’s popularity, there is no independent Euro NCAP or ANCAP rating and a number of active safety aids are conspicuous in their absence.

While we always encourage cars to be made as safe as possible, the lack of any lane keeping assistance in the 911 is likely a conscious choice and buyers of such a driver-focused machine are unlikely to be put off by its omission. Possibly the opposite.

Absent NCAP rating aside, the 911’s safety credentials seem solid, with six airbags and the strong bodyshell such a focused sports car requires, while autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and a 360-degree parking camera are standard.

Adaptive cruise control, on the other hand, will set you back a further $3570.

The latest iteration of the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) infotainment system has improved traffic information and the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS can also understand ‘human’ voice instructions: Hey Porsche, I’m cold” will increase the air-con temperature; “Hey Porsche, I need petrol” will automatically install the co-ordinates of the nearest petrol station into the navigation.

Another handy trick is that whenever the nose-lift function is used a prompt asks if you’d like to save the destination and have the nose automatically lift in future, a clever feature that’ll stop the low front kissing the concrete by accident.

Smartphone mirroring is standard with Apple CarPlay available wired or wirelessly, but Android Auto only the former. Apple music subscribers can also log in and access their library directly through the car.

The PCM system itself is quick and easy to navigate and should present few problems with a bit of familiarity.

Porsche’s integration of technology into the dash is also very tasty, with a pair of configurable digital screens flanking the iconic central analogue tachometer, a benchmark fusion of old and new.

In the back of the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS sits the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six that powers all 911 Carrera models, though the GTS enjoys a 22kW/40Nm bump to 353kW and 570Nm.

Those numbers aren’t spectacular in this segment – for instance, the BMW M8 Competition offers 460kW/750Nm, the Ferrari Roma 456kW/760Nm – but, as ever, the Porsche uses every skerrick of its available outputs to maximum effect.

The 0-100km/h sprint is claimed to take just 3.3sec, 200km/h disappears in 11.8sec and top speed is 309km/h. Buyers of the rear-drive GTS coupe have the option of a seven-speed manual – until the Carrera T emerged recently, it was the only variant available with three pedals – but all other GTS models are dual-clutch only.

With less enthusiastic applications of throttle, the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is claimed to use 10.4L/100km on the combined cycle and will dip well below when cruising along with the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox in top gear.

A 67-litre tank gives a highway range of up to 800km, but 98RON fuel is required.

If you’re at all familiar with the current-generation Porsche 911 it won’t surprise you to learn that it’s utterly fantastic to drive, but there is a short version and a long version of the answer.

The short version is that the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is a stunning driver’s car: unbelievably fast, incredibly accurate, thrilling and yet still daily useable.

The long answer has a little more nuance.

By any measure the Carrera 4 GTS is a phenomenally fast car. Floor the throttle and it snaps your head back against the seat with fantastic response, the engine revving so quickly in the lower gears that it’s tricky to keep up with the first couple of changes manually.

It might seem curious that there’s still a 911 Turbo when all the Carrera models, including this GTS, are twin-turbo.

The difference between the two models is in how they’re calibrated. The 911 Turbo delivers a huge hit of mid-range torque when the turbos come on boost, whereas the Carrera models are mapped to meter out their power more progressively in an attempt to mimic a naturally-aspirated engine.

The logic is sound, though the 911 GTS’s performance is more akin to a 7.0-litre engine than a 3.0-litre.

Speaking of sound, there’s a GTS-specific sports exhaust that might split opinion. It emits a hard-edged noise with plenty of volume and it does become more endearing with time, but the engine’s note with it off is mellower but possibly nicer? It may be personal preference.

It’s almost impossible to fault the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Most will use the paddles when they feel the need to attack some corners, but the speed with which the gearbox adapts to your driving requirements is otherworldly and still beyond any other manufacturer.

It just seems to know what you want it to do.

The seven-speed manual has its own appeal as it’s any easy shift that is no chore at all to use in daily driving, though having seven gears means it’s fairly commonplace to get lost, especially on downshifts when it’s not obvious whether you’re in the 5-6 or 3-4 plane.

Such is the Carrera 4 GTS’s dynamic ability that approaching its limits is very difficult. There’s an enormous amount of lateral grip, incredible traction, those 911 Turbo brakes are monstrous, its potency can be exhausting as it seems to have endless reserves.

There is one small fly in the ointment, however, and it’s to do with those PDCC active anti-roll bars.

In an engineering presentation they sound fantastic. Electromechanical anti-roll bars effectively vanquish body roll as the car goes around a corner, which means all four tyres stay flatter on the road to provide more grip.

This sounds great, but body roll is one of the key characteristics that tell the driver a car is ‘working’.

It telegraphs how close you are to the limit and provides feedback about what the car is doing. Remove it, and suddenly tyre slip is the only indicator.

On track, this is fine as you have the ability to drive through it and space to play with, but on the road, especially in slippery, tricky conditions, it robs confidence.

With PDCC activated the GTS initially feels aloof, but thankfully there’s two very easy solutions: the first being to press the button and deactivate it, the second being to save $6750 by not optioning it in the first place.

With it deactivated, the 911 GTS moves around more and may very well be slower, but the way it subtly shifts its weight in a corner is just delicious.

When the 992-generation Porsche 911 first appeared, it felt a bit underdone, the large expanses of bare black plastic surrounding the gear lever – where you’d find haptic buttons for various vehicle functions on the likes of the Cayenne and the Panamera – seemed to take minimalism a step too far.

With familiarity it’s become more amenable and the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is a lovely place in which to sit, with a fantastic driving position, all controls within easy reach and a feeling of quality.

Ride comfort is remarkably good given the car’s focus and huge 20-/21-inch rims (front/rear), with a slight firmness over poor surfaces excused by the pliancy of the damping.

What’s less excusable is the level of road noise, but that is just simply a 911 trait common to all variants that must be just a characteristic of the mechanical layout.

On first glance the rear seats appear pretty useless as space is at a huge premium back there, but anecdotal evidence suggests the ability to put one or two child seats back there (both rear seats are ISOFIX-equipped) is a real boon for parents who want to retain a sports car.

Getting them in and out could lead to chiropractor visits, however.

There’s a flat storage area behind the rear seats over the engine, but the main luggage compartment is in the nose, which is deep enough to accept a suitcase, a couple of soft bags or the weekly shopping.

In a vacuum, recommending the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is a no-brainer. It’s unbelievably fast, stunning to drive and yet daily useable, the perfect everyday sports car.

In the context of the wider 911 range, however, the answer is a little bit more complex.

Around $400,000 plus on-roads is an enormous amount of money for a Carrera. It’s easy to say that a base Carrera offers much the same experience for around $100,000 less; this is true, and while it might be slightly slower and less capable, it remains a stunningly good sports car, but buyers may be attracted to the GTS for the very reason it’s NOT a base Carrera.

However, at this price point it’s not a huge stretch to get into a 911 Turbo, which is on yet another plane in terms of performance – 0-100km/h in 2.8sec, 0-200km/h in 9.7sec, 320km/h flat out – and looks and feels more exotic.

The newly unveiled Carrera T complicates the issue further, with the same sporty chassis and interior and availability of a manual gearbox as the GTS, but a significantly lower price tag and abilities that might be more easily exploited on regular roads.

We’ll know for certain when we get behind the wheel, but for now there’s every chance the Carrera 4 GTS is the Porsche 911 for you, but try a couple of its siblings to make sure.

2022 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS at a glance:
Price: $354,200 (plus on-road costs), $400,770 as tested (+ORCs)
Available: Now
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo petrol
Output: 353kW/570Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 10.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 238g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested