The new Porsche 911 Carrera S is here and – surprise! – it’s more powerful

If you’re in the market for a new Porsche 911 and want a Medium amount of Carrera but not Full Carrera, a new model has arrived to sate your incredibly specific request. This is the new Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe and Cabriolet, and as expected, it betters its predecessor in every metric that matters.

Slotting in between the base Carrera and hybrid Carrera GTS, this one of course gets more power than before, a beefier design, better brakes, and fancy torque vectoring.

And as expected… yeah, it’s probably all the 911 you’ll ever likely need outside of the incredibly shy and retiring GT cars.

So, that 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat sixer powering the rear wheels has been treated to a new set of turbochargers, while Porsche has set about optimising the charge-air cooling, “among other things”. As a result of this tweakery, the new 992.2 Carrera S now produces a whisker under 474bhp – up 30 horsies from the 992.1 – and 390lb ft.

Which means it now goes from 0-62mph faster – in 3.3s – and maxes out at 191mph. Not too long ago, those figures were the preserve of full-blooded supercars, not Medium sports cars.

Though, it takes its look from a full-blooded supercar, Porsche opting to design the new Carrera S like the old Turbo. Bigger brakes, too, pinched from this generation’s Carrera GTS, which means 408mm/380mm discs front and back, and red calipers all round.

Those are matched to 20/21in Carrera S wheels, a sports exhaust, and standard fit ‘Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus’ (PTV+) system. In news that’ll surprise you, this is Porsche’s torque vectoring system. Plus. Which uses an electronically-controlled diff lock on the rear axle to balance out the torque between both rear wheels.

As an option, you can swap in ceramic brakes instead if you want a squeaky start to the day, and the PASM sports suspension that drops the car by 10mm and features “optimised” damper hydraulics versus the old car. Steering’s said to be better, naturally.

As is the interior. Leather makes its presence felt throughout, and you can option in folding rear seats into the Coupe for no additional charge. The Carrera S Cabriolet gets rear seats as standard, FYI.

Like the sound of a Medium Carrera? Prices for the new S kick off from £119,800 for the Coupe, or £129,800 for the Cabriolet.