- 2024 Porsche 911 S/T is not for the faint-hearted. It is, so far, the most instantaneously responsive Porsche perhaps ever made, with steering that communicates better than couples therapy.
- But you pay a big price in comfort for all that driving feel.
- You also pay $290,000 just to start.
Communication takes many different forms. Sometimes it is soft and subtle, something you have to listen for and pay attention to. Other times itās being shouted at you and you get it pretty quickly. The 2024 Porsche 911 S/T manages to do both at the same time.
The 911 S/T is supposed to be the ultimate street Porsche. If the GT3 RS is the most extreme 911 for the track, then the S/T is the most extreme 911 for the street.
And they aināt kiddinā about that extreme part. After a day spent wedgied into the slender carbon-fiber bucket of a 911 S/T, winding and wending my way through the best roads Northern California has to offerāin both pouring rain and bright, dry sunshineāI can say this: Do not ask your spouse or significant other if he/she āwants to go for a rideā in your new 911 S/T. You will soon find yourself single once again.
The 911 S/T is brutal performance with an abuse chaser. It is loud, way firm, and violently uncompromising.
And a lot of people like that.
The 911 S/T uses essentially the same chassis as the GT3, most importantly that carās double-wishbone front suspension. Unlike its sister 911, this one does without rear-steer. It also has that 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six from the GT3 RS tuned to the same 518 hp and mated to a six-speed manual with ratios shortened across the box by a shorter rear end.
Package that in a 911 with seemingly no sound deadening whatsoever, sprinkle carbon-fiber reinforced plastic parts throughout, and you have the lightest 992 ever made, at just 3056 pounds.
āThe 911 S/T focuses on on-road dynamics,ā explained the Porsche spokesman before handing over the keys. āItās focused for use on winding roads over mixed pavement; itās focused on twisting and dynamic pavement. But not on a track. Itās a pure street experience.ā
With loins thusly girded, I set off. Into pouring rain. The entire Pacific atmospheric whatever was dumping its load on the road in front of me, which in turn was being made intermittently invisible when passing cars, trucks, SUVs, or really scary 18-wheelers were fire-extinguishing spray into my path. At times like those you just trust in the engineers at Porsche and power through.
The first thing you notice when you twist the faux key knob on the left side of the dash is the noise. If youāre like the Grinch and donāt like the ānoise, noise, noise, noise,ā then this isnāt the 911 for you. The Carrera is very nice and relatively quiet.
Then pop it into gear and youāll note that the shifter is very direct, notchy, even. The manual trans has 8%-shorter ratios than in other applications, which means you spend more time shifting than in other 911s but, again, some people like that.
Let the clutch out and youāll immediately notice the 23% lighter clutch compared to the GT3 and the even lighter single-mass flywheel. The only lighter flywheel Iāve ever felt in a Porsche was in the Carrera GT. As a result, the engine revs very quickly, hitting its 518-hp peak at 8500 rpm on its way to a redline of 9000 revs. Torque peaks at 342 lb-ft at 6300 rpm.
At first, say if youāre taking a test-lap around your dealerās block, you may say the S/T is way too bumpy, and way too loud. You may complain that the carbon-fiber bucket seat is bolt upright and cannot recline, that you feel you are being smashed against the steering wheel like the cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich.
You may think the interior is loud and claustrophobic, like sitting in a clothes dryer missing a bearing that has been rolled down a hill. No way would your spouse or partner stick around after a co-drive in this thing, you may think.
But when you get on a dry, empty, twisting two-lane with no side streets or driveways, and when all the large mammals have long since left the roads and are tucked into hibernation, you understand what they were trying to do with this. Itās the highest-performance 911 you can get for the street. You can get another one for the track, but this is for the street.
The steering is the best of any Porsche maybe ever. The chassis is firm, insistently controlling bumps without ever hitting a bump stop. Chassis flex seems non-existent. And with all that noise you donāt really even need that sound deadening, since you can tell every rigid rocker armās latest rock just by sound.
Is it worth the pain? Only you can decide. But this one definitely sifts out the poseurs.
And the underfunded. Prices startāSTART!āat $290,000 before you add those pages and pages of Porsche options. Thereās also a one-year lease deal for buyers set up to prevent speculators from flipping the 1963 Porsche 911 S/Ts that will be made. (1963 was the year the 911 was unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show, 60 years ago.)
You can also get a matching titanium-bodied, limited-production wristwatch that is only available to S/T owners, for another $13,500. That may seem like a lot for a watch, a device that provides the same information as your latest iPhone 15, but the rear winding rotor on the watch mimics the wheel design of the car.
Whatever you choose, the 911 S/T will help you sort your priorities.
