Styling
Visually, all 992.2s look very much like their 992.1 forebears, apart from subtle alterations to the front lighting (all functions are now in the circular headlamps, so the associated bumper area is cleaner on all updated models), a revised full-width illumination strip at the rear and then a few minor tweaks to the designs of the vanes on the engine cover. Nothing drastic, then, but as the 911 still looks great - despite six decades and more of familiarity with its basic shape - we're not too annoyed by the lack of aesthetic daring in this facelift.
Features denoting the Carrera S are a set of 20-inch front, 21-inch rear alloy wheels of its own design, the 'Carrera S' model badge on the rump of the car, and then the oval exits of the standard-fit Sports exhaust system. Obviously, all of these can be upgraded with various official options, not just on the S but on supposedly 'inferior' models from lower down the 911 tree, so whether you'll ever see a truly showroom-spec Carrera S with no additional extras on it in the first place is probably a moot point. Essentially, the S is a 911 Coupe, so you really ought to know what one of those looks like by now. And it looks good.
Interior
The main change in here is the adoption of the fully digital, 12.6-inch Curved Display instrument cluster, which means the analogue rev counter has gone the way of the warrior. That aside, the 992's cabin is generally superb, much to the benefit of the Carrera S. Aside from the model-emblemed door sills, there's little in here which is S-specific - but, again, we're not saying that as a bad thing. You have a perfect driving position, the splendid circular steering wheel of just the right size, diameter and padding thickness for the rim (might seem like all of these characteristics are a given for a steering wheel, but these days, in the automotive industry, they really aren't), some proper physical climate controls, the exceptional 10.9-inch Porsche Communication Management (PCM) infotainment system, and then the sort of material finishing and haptic correctness that only the Germans seem able to master. Unless you want wildly dramatic surfacing textures or outlandish leather colours, the 911's passenger compartment is close to faultless.
Practicality
It's not quite as faultless when it comes to practicality, but then no 911 - 992 or otherwise - is anyway. The Carrera S has a 135-litre front boot under what we'll term the bonnet, even though it obviously doesn't cover the Porsche's engine, and that nose-mounted storage zone is the usual carpet-lined cuboid cubby that'll take about one carry-on suitcase and that's your lot. There's then what the Stuttgart concern is now calling an 'open luggage compartment (behind front seats)', which - yes - simply means the back of the passenger cabin; something we've always known about 911s for years. Anyway, with the Carrera S available in both Coupe and
Cabriolet body styles, it is only the soft-top variant which comes with four seats as standard. Like any other 992.2 Coupe, the S will only be fitted with the two front seats from the factory, unless you tick a specific box at ordering time for the no-cost (phew!) rear-seat option. Go for it, and the luggage area is rated at 261 litres while the rear chairs are occasional-use items for smaller people only; making the Carrera S a 2+2. We suspect many will do without them, thus vindicating Porsche's decision to make them a free upgrade only if desired, and therefore there's then 373 litres to play with. That's about as practical as a 911 is ever going to get.
Performance
The Carrera S retains the 3.0-litre, twin-turbo flat-six engine it had before, codenamed '9A2 Evo', and eschews any of that T-Hybrid gear you'll see in the next 911 model up the line, the GTS. Taking learnings from the variable turbine geometry (VTGs) blowers in the big-T
992.1 Turbo and
Turbo S monsters at the other end of the 911's range, there's no increase to the maximum torque this time around (it's still 530Nm) but the rev band over which it is delivered is marginally wider, while peak power has gone up 30hp to 480hp overall - that's exactly the same as the
pre-facelift, non-hybrid 992.1 GTS possessed.
Sadly, one thing that has been shorn from the Carrera S is the
seven-speed manual option it had open to it as a 992.1. That really did differentiate it from the base Carrera and some of the other models in the line-up, but nowadays the only three-pedal, H-gate-equipped 911s you can get are the Carrera T (where it's the only gearbox option) and the mega GT3, which is pretty much unattainable if you haven't got one already.
So, equipped with an eight-speed PDK as standard, the 480hp/530Nm 992.2 Carrera S runs 0-62mph in a bonkers 3.5 seconds and tops out at 191mph. Equip the Sport Chrono pack and the Launch Control subfunction trims that benchmark sprint to just 3.3 seconds, which is an absolutely baffling level of sheer pace to comprehend in a 'mere' 911 S. Remember, this is essentially only one step up from the Carrera/T 394hp entry-level pairing. And it has the straight-line performance to embarrass most supercars. In fact, an even more startling revelation is that the GT3, originally one of the swiftest 911s of them all, is now one of the slowest-accelerating (that's a relative term, natch) models in the line-up, especially if you fit it with a manual 'box (3.9 seconds), where it will only outsprint the non-Sport-Chrono-equipped Carrera (4.1 seconds) and the Carrera T (4.5 seconds). Madness, even if these are only pub stats that tell a simplistic fraction of the overarching dynamic story.
We therefore seriously doubt if anyone is going to complain about the way the Carrera S sets to its business. It is monumentally quick, either from a standing start and revving it out through its well-spaced gears, or if you squeeze on the throttle when the car is rolling along in its mighty midrange. It's clear the 30hp increase has given it an additional zestiness and eagerness at the higher end of the engine's operating speeds, reflected in the fact the S revs a little higher to a new limiter of 7,500rpm (+100rpm) with a redline at 7,000. Both of the turbochargers and also the PDK transmission are quick to respond to inputs from the driver, so when you want the Carrera S to veer from docile to demented, it will happily oblige in the merest of instants.
It sounds good, too, thanks to that Sports exhaust. It's not the sweetest nor most mellifluous engine in Porsche's history, or indeed its current catalogue (not just in the 911 family, but within some of the other model lines with V8s installed), but there's enough boxer-six chuntering from the rear-mounted motor up to 4,000rpm to keep your ears entertained, whereupon it transforms into a louder, slightly industrial bark as the tacho needle sweeps around to the redline. The acoustics are one of those things: by Porsche's own exalted standards, maybe not quite the best work it has ever done, but frankly by everyone else's yardstick the six-pot 911 Carrera S sounds quite delightful.
Ride & Handling
The S, as befits that single-letter honorific, gains some chassis equipment that isn't even an option on the entry-level Carrera. Such as Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV Plus), the electronically controlled limited-slip differential, which is standard fit on the latest entrant to the 992.2 canon. Or Rear Axle Steering (RAS), that's an option on the S but not available at all on the 394hp Carrera. That one (RAS) also enables an upgrade to the standard Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) two-stage variable dampers that come on all Carreras, which is known as PASM Sport - this lowers the Carrera S by 10mm and toughens up the spring rates significantly.
For the purposes of this evaluation, we drove one 992.2 Carrera S with PASM Sport and the associated accoutrements like RAS, which is the red car you can see in the pictures, and also a striking Cartagena Yellow car which had the PTV Plus and RAS, but the regular, softer PASM set-up and higher ride height. Bear in mind that RAS is an initial £1,941 option and PASM Sport another £939 on top, meaning it'll be £2,880 to drop your S 10-mill closer to the road.
Another amendment to the hardware for the S is the stronger braking system from the GTS T-Hybrid, with 408mm front discs and 380mm rears gripped by red callipers as standard (although these can be painted in other colours, such as black, for a fee), with Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB) on the options list - again, the German company doesn't permit their fitting to a Carrera at all, so that's another feather in the cap of the S. Albeit, a £9,000-plus feather.
In all honesty, though, for all this talk of Porsche's acronyms and initialisms, and 'Carrera v Carrera S' this, and 'why wouldn't you just go for a GTS?' that, anyone in their right mind will be overjoyed by the cohesive, assured and downright entertaining way the 992.2 S drives. It's magnificent. It's all to do with Porsche's fabled ability to weight and measure all of the car's major controls in perfect equilibrium with each other, so that the steering, the throttle response, the brake-pedal feel, the balance, the grip, the traction, and the body and wheel control operate in sumptuous harmony with one another.
Such a beautifully calibrated car therefore becomes a doddle to drive from mile one, yet has enough layered within its dynamic make-up that you can learn more about it the harder you push. Genuinely, the 992.2 Carrera S is just a delight to drive - docile and biddable about town, capable and refined as it lopes along a motorway, thrilling and engaging on the right roads.
However, we'd sound a note of caution about the PASM Sport option. It definitely sharpens the car up in the corners, albeit we'd only say marginally so, but it comes at quite a notable detriment to low-speed ride comfort and general rolling refinement. The red 911 was considerably noisier as it dealt with manhole covers and only modest imperfections in the road's surface, while it fidgets much more as it traverses rucked-up tarmac. Sure, if you're going to be doing lots of track work with your Carrera S, or you regularly commute to work over, say, the Grimsel Pass, go for the PASM Sport by all means. In our view, though, there are better and more focused driver-centric models in the line-up, not least the GTS and the GT3 (which is also firm-riding, but has the exquisite and far costlier damping that allows it to 'float' over poorer asphalt), to satisfy your needs if that's what you're after a 911 for in the first place. The S is still a Carrera, at the end of the day, and so we prefer the more benign, graceful way the regular PASM-equipped car rides than the somewhat gritty comportment of the PASM Sport. And the yellow S remained a hoot to drive, too, so it's a win-win and 939 quid in your back pocket as well.
Value
There are two ways of looking at this. The positive outlook is to say the 911 Carrera S offers the sort of speed and driving dynamics that would probably cost you at least another £100,000 again to match with a product from any other manufacturer, so its £120,500 starting price isn't exorbitant in the slightest. The other, slightly less optimistic viewpoint is that it is positioned almost exactly equidistant between the £103,700 Carrera and the £137,900 GTS T-Hybrid, and perhaps it should have been a bit closer to the former than the latter; also, 120 grand for a 911 S is... well, it's a
lot, isn't it? Even in the contextual framework of utterly unhinged modern new-car prices.
Admittedly, the S has various bits of tech, which we covered off in the ride and handling section, that you can't add to a base Carrera no matter how much you try, which - along with the uprated performance of the 480hp model - justifies the £16,800 price premium to a degree. Then again, it's an almost identical amount again (£17,400) to get into the GTS, and Porsche's UK representative admitted that, when you strip out sales of niche models like the Turbo/S and GT3 cars, then in this country it's a roughly 25-25-50 split to the Carrera, Carrera S and GTS respectively. Which would seem to indicate that the T-Hybrid-enhanced GTS is going to be a little too tempting to resist for some potential Carrera S customers.
Verdict
Make no bones about it, the 992.2 Porsche 911 Carrera S is a tremendous sports coupe. Avoid the pricey and needless PASM Sport option, and what you have here is a car that can do every kinematic discipline to an incredibly high standard. It's exactly what you'd expect of a good 911, and what makes it all the more remarkable is that this is a near-500hp, turbocharged, two-wheel-drive Porsche that, unlike some of its forebears, doesn't want to kill you the moment you take liberties with its chassis, or drive it hard in the wet. Amazing stuff.
But. There's a bit of a problem with the Carrera S, brought about by just how sensational the whole 992 lineage is. What's its purpose? What's its clear, defined point? Isn't the cheaper, more comfortable and still decently rapid Carrera a better bet for those who want a pleasant, everyday 911? Doesn't the Carrera T provide a bit more interactivity, now you can no longer get a manual Carrera S? Won't the GTS provide too much allure for those people who have the sort of money required to buy the £120,500 S in the first place?
All difficult points to truly and convincingly counter. And with only a few more 992.2s still to come, such as updated versions of both the aforementioned Turbo and Turbo S models - likely to run a variation of the T-Hybrid gear from the GTS - as well as a revised take on the glittering
GT3 RS (not to mention any 'specials' we've already seen in the 992 family, such as the Sport Classic, the S/T and the
Dakar), we're by no means saying the Carrera S is the 'worst' 992.2 we've driven yet. It remains a sublime thing to drive and if you end up with one, you'll adore it with every fibre of your being - and rightly so. But now every 911 is so searingly fast, is the Carrera S the most pointless model in the line-up? Just maybe, it is.
