Applied to some luscious racing cars in the past, these days Porsche’s GTS badge is applied to road car variants with more power, the odd chassis tweak and extra interior and exterior trinketry. Latest Porker to get the GTS treatment is the open-air Targa.
That means there are now three models in the 911 Targa range: the base £86k 3.8-litre Targa 4, the more powerful £96k 3.8-litre Targa 4S and this, the £104,385 Targa 4 GTS. All are four-wheel-drive, with the same wider-track bodyshell as the fixed-head coupe Carrera 4.
How much faster is the 911 Targa GTS, then?
Power’s up to 424bhp from the hardly weedy 395bhp of the Targa 4S, lopping half a second from the 0-62mph time which now stands at 4.3 seconds. That’s with the seven-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission – a seven-speed manual ’box is standard. Top speed is up 2mph to 186mph, presumably with the roof panel in place.
Porsche claims that despite the extra power, fuel consumption remains the same as the 4S: 30.7mpg or 28.2mpg depending on which gearbox you go for.
What other goodies do you get on the GTS?
Porsche’s Sport Chrono package is standard-fit, whereby there’s an extra, less forgiving Sport Plus mode for the adaptive dampers, a more lax setting for the stability control and a stopwatch in the middle of the dash to distract you, among other upgrades.
The GTS can be told apart visually by a set of black 20-inch wheels with central wheel locks and lots of other black bits: black air intake screens, black brushed aluminium interior trim, black alcantara seats and steering wheel (because alcantara is half the weight of leather, Porsche would like to point out), and black GTS logos more or less everywhere. Even the headlights have had a touch of mascara with smoked lenses.
