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2011 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS (photos)

Of its naturally aspirated 911 models, the Carrera GTS comes just short of the GT3 in the lineup. It is a brilliantly handling car with technology used in just the right places.

Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Wayne Cunningham
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Porsche's new GTS version of the 911 slots in between the 911 S and the GT3 for power when considering the nonturbocharged cars. Porsche offers four versions of the GTS, adding all-wheel drive and a cabriolet top to the base version.

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The GTS uses a wider body than the standard 911, giving it better cornering capability. But its basic design follows the form of the car sketched out over 40 years ago.

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As a dedicated sports car, there is not much cargo room. A well under the hood can hold a couple of roller bags.

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The 2+2 seating means two comfortable sport seats in front, and two small wells in back. As long as the front seat occupants are average height or less, there can be rear leg room.

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The brakes on the GTS allow excellent modulation. You can easily apply quarter braking to shave some speed, or stop on them for good stopping power.

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Even with Porsche active suspension, the ride quality in the GTS is either rough, or rougher. But it handles brilliantly.

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An automated rear spoiler rises at speed, or at the touch of a button on the center stack.

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Porsche 911s are rear-engined. And with this one, Porsche squeezed 408 horsepower out of a 3.8-liter flat six, getting well over 100 horsepower per liter.

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Porsche helps justify the over $100,000 price of the GTS with luxury materials in the cabin. Bare metal on the transmission tunnel gives a nice retro effect.

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Porsche puts no buttons on the steering wheel. If you want to change the stereo volume, you need to reach for the stereo.

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The tachometer in the GTS is front and center on the instrument cluster, with the speedometer off to the side in true sport car style.

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The GTS can be had with either this six-speed manual or Porsche seven-speed double-clutch transmission.

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The Sport Chrono package adds this lap timer to the dashboard.

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A hard-drive-based navigation system does a good job guiding you between destinations, and it has a responsive interface.

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The navigation system uses traffic data to dynamically alter routes, avoiding traffic jams.

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The Bluetooth phone system is full-featured, downloading contact lists and making them available on the touch screen.

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The GTS offers a variety of audio sources, but it does not have Bluetooth audio streaming.

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After selecting music from a connected device, you must touch the Start Playback button to hear it, an unnecessary step.

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The audio quality from the 13-speaker Bose system is excellent.

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