Porsche 911 Carrera S
Seven gears, three pedals, one flat-six that still thinks 8,000rpm is a perfectly reasonable place to live
Reserve this car → View all Porsche models →The Col de Turini at dawn, mist still clinging to the hairpins, no traffic, no audience. This is where a manual Carrera S earns its keep. Seven gears, a 3.0-litre flat-six mounted out back where it's always belonged, and a shifter that rewards a deliberate hand. No twin-clutch shortcuts here — every downshift is calculated, rev-matched by ear or by a blip of throttle, exactly as intended.
The engine doesn't shout. It builds, linear and precise, boost arriving right where you've calibrated your right foot to expect it. The steering is direct, weighted honestly, telling you exactly how much grip remains before the front tyres give it up.
This is a car built for real roads, not showroom floors. Comfortable enough for the drive to the office, sharp enough to embarrass machines costing twice as much through a proper set of mountain switchbacks. Every control feels engineered rather than styled — nothing decorative, nothing added for effect.
That's the Carrera S in a sentence: quietly competent at everything asked of it, and genuinely spectacular the moment you ask for more. Petrol-fed, manual-shifted, unbothered by fashion. Some cars perform. This one simply works, exactingly, every single time.