Porsche 911 Review 2026: Prices, specs & verdict

What is the Porsche 911?

The Porsche 911 is easily the most recognisable sports car shape on the market. It’s no wonder, with over 60 years of heritage and a gently evolved look over the decades.

The 911 is so long-lived because of its immense popularity with enthusiasts, which continues today. Unlike most of the best sports car rivals which have one or two variants, Porsche will sell you around 20 different variants of the 911 – including Cabriolet and Targa models.

The long-lived 911 has always stuck to a familiar theme: flat-six petrol engine at the back, driver and passengers in the middle and a small boot at the front. Today’s version, dubbed ‘992.2’, is larger and more complex than ever before, however.

It’s faster, more high-tech and more capable too, but has some of the charm and analogue appeal of the old 911s been lost in favour of searing performance and clever gadgets? Our in-depth review covers the whole Porsche 911 line-up to find out.

Verdict: is the Porsche 911 a good car?

We reckon the Porsche 911 hasn’t lost an ounce of appeal in its latest 992.2 guise. Great to drive on all roads, surprisingly usable and with a distinct character, it’s still among the most complete all-round sports cars ever made.

With such a breadth of choice, from the ‘pure’ Carrera T to the crushingly fast Turbo S and the raw GT models, there’s a 911 to suit every car enthusiast. Just exercise restraint when it comes to the options list.

Pricing, specs & rivals

Prices for the Porsche 911 start at £105,200 at the time of writing. That’s almost identical to the starting price of the Mercedes-AMG GT coupe and vastly cheaper than an Aston Martin Vantage, although a Lotus Emira can be had from quite a bit less.

That base price gets you a 911 Carrera coupe with the standard-fit PDK automatic gearbox. The same spec in Cabriolet form is £115,200. Standard equipment on the Carrera includes 19in alloys on the front and 20in alloys on the rear, Matrix LED headlights, keyless entry and start, part electrically adjustable and heated seats, a heated steering wheel and wireless phone charging.

The 911 Carrera T, which starts from £117,000 (or £127,000 in Cabriolet form), is the sole 911 available with a six-speed manual gearbox. It doesn’t get any more power than the base Carrera, but it does feature upgrades including lowered PASM Sport suspension, rear-wheel steering, a sports exhaust, bigger brakes and a limited-slip differential.

The next step up is the 911 Carrera S, priced from £122,000 (£132,000 in Cabriolet form). That ditches some of the Carrera T’s chassis upgrades but does add significantly more performance. The Carrera 4S is £6,500 more expensive and adds all-wheel drive.

The Carrera GTS brings performance up another level. Priced from £139,400 (£149,400 in Cabriolet form) it gets a bigger engine and hybrid assistance along with kit upgrades including a Bose surround sound system and the Sport Design Package. The all-wheel drive 4 GTS is, once again, a £6,500 upgrade.

Alongside the cabriolet, the 911 is also available in Targa form, with an electrically folding central roof section but a fixed rollover bar and rear window. It’s priced from £144,004 in Targa 4S form and £160,805 in Targa 4 GTS form.

The more hardcore, track-focused 911 GT3 is priced from £159,700, featuring a more stripped-out interior, a thrilling naturally aspirated engine, big chassis upgrades and the option of a manual gearbox. The Touring package, which removes the chunky rear wing, is a no-cost option. From latest this year the outlandish 911 GT3 S/C convertible will be added, priced at just over £200,000.

Topping the standard production variants in performance terms is the £199,500 911 Turbo S. It offers supercar surpassing acceleration combined with plenty of luxuries including 18-way electric sport seats and all-wheel drive. There’s also a Cabriolet version, priced at £209,500.

Rivals

The Porsche 911 range is so extensive that it spans both sports car and supercar market segments. But core alternatives include the Mercedes-AMG GT, Aston Martin Vantage and Lotus Emira.

High-end variants compete with cars like the Ferrari Roma and 296, the McLaren Artura and Maserati MC20. None of these alternatives offer the same breadth of capability as the 911, however.

Interior comfort, quality & technology

Simple, solid and with styling cues from classic models, the Porsche 911’s interior is driver focused and comfortable in Carrera or Turbo forms. In the GT3 models things are a bit more bare-bones, but still liveable.

The design is definitely less showy than something like an Aston Martin Vantage, with Porsche preferring a subtler, more purposeful feel. But material quality is excellent overall, and you can specify bright leather or suede finishes to liven it up a bit.

While modern screen-based technology has clearly crept into the latest 911, there are still plenty of physical buttons and switches for accessing key features while driving. Our favourite is the drive mode switch, which just out from the steering wheel boss and falls nicely to hand, with a pleasing action.

The driving position is nigh-on perfect for a sports car, sitting you low down in the car with perfectly positioned pedals. The standard seats have four-way electric adjustment, but the real balance of comfort and support comes with the optional 14-way adjustable electric sports seats. You can further option 18-way adjustable seats with a memory function if that matters, and further add ventilation.

Regardless of which seats you go for, the 911 is easier to see out of than you might expect. Slim windscreen pillars, an upright windscreen and those bulges at each end of the bonnet make it very easy to place the Porsche on the road – more so than just about every large sports car rival.

Rear visibility is pretty good, too, and you get a suite of parking sensors and a reversing camera to ensure you avoid any low-speed prangs.

Infotainment, sat-nav, stereo and connectivity

Every Porsche 911 comes with the same 10.9in widescreen infotainment system integrated into the dashboard. It features wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, along with Porsche’s in-built navigation.

The display itself is very bright, high resolution and responds quickly to inputs. Some of the menus are a bit convoluted and the icons are a bit small, but overall this is one of the better touchscreens in the sports car market.

Alongside this, every 911 has a 12.7in digital dial display, replacing the now iconic Porsche multi-clock analogue dials. The display mimics the look of these original dials, but can also be customized to feature numerous data points or even a full-screen map. The only minor issue is that some of the display can be obscured by the steering wheel for certain drivers.

As well as the wireless phone charging pad, there are a couple of USB-C ports in the cabin for charging other devices.

Every 911 comes with Porsche’s ‘Sound Package Plus’, which includes eight speakers and 150 watts of power. There are two upgrade options: a BOSE surround sound system with 12 speakers and 570 watts, and an expensive Burmester system with 13 speakers and 915 watts.

How practical is the Porsche 911?

The 911 isn’t exactly a family car, but by sports car standards it’s reasonably practical.

Both front seats have a lot of adjustment rearwards, meaning there’s loads of legroom even for six-footers. Headroom is decent, too – anyone under 6ft 5 shouldn’t have any complaints – and while the cabin it’s snug it’s wide enough for two broad adults to fit.

In every 911 bar the hardcore GT3 models there are also rear seats available as a no-cost option. These are a bonus as very few sports cars offer rear seats, but bear in mind that they’re only suitable for children – and do come with ISOFIX sockets for child seats. The front seats also have ISOFIX anchor points, while the wide opening passenger makes it easy to fit a child seat.

Small adults can just about squeeze into the rear seats for a very short drive down the road, but they won’t exactly be thrilled. Doing so in the 911 Cabriolet or Targa is nigh on impossible thanks to even more upright backrests.

If you choose not to opt for the rear seats, the cut outs in the floor for them remain. This means the area becomes useful as an extra storage space.

Storage and boot space

Cabin storage in the 911 for odds and ends is hardly going to match your average family car, but at least there is some – unlike some sports cars.

You get a decent sized glovebox and a cupholder in the centre console (although it’s not much use in manual versions as you’ll spill your drink) along with some small door bins. There’s also a small tray under the centre armrest for charging your mobile phone.

For those in the back seats there’s no real storage whatsoever. But the seats themselves are partitioned by the central tunnel, meaning you could put soft backs or rucksacks on them without your valuables rolling about.

Those seats do have split-folding backrests in most versions, allowing longer items to sit in the space above the engine bay. That space doesn’t have a capacity figure, but we reckon a medium sized suitcase should just about fit.

Being rear-engined, the 911 also has a small front boot. At 135 litres it’s hardly going to be much use for a trip to the tip, but an airplane carry-on suitcase or a few shopping bags will fit. The front-engined Mercedes-AMG GT does offer more outright capacity in its rear boot.

Performance & drive: What is the Porsche 911 like on the road?

There’s no version of the latest 911 that you wouldn’t call ‘fast’. Even the entry-level Carrera, with its 394hp and 0-62mph time of just under four seconds, is plenty rapid enough for UK roads.

All Carrera models bar the GTS use a 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six engine. You don’t really miss the theatre of the old naturally aspirated engines, though, because the latest engine still zings right to its 7,500rpm redline with energy, and sounds great doing it.

The Carrera S and 4S up the output to 480hp and feels even more energetic, while the Carrera GTS uses a 541hp 3.6-litre turbo flat six mated to a mild hybrid system to deliver supercar-baiting acceleration. The hybrid system also fills in any lag that the normal Carrers models experience, making it feel even more like a naturally-aspirated engine.

The PDK dual-clutch automatic gearbox is superb, too, offering smooth shifts when cruising but class-leading response and shift speed when you’re on it. But our favourite ‘normal’ 911 is the Carrera T, which doesn’t have it.

The Carrera T is comfortably the slowest 911 on paper, losing 0.6 seconds in the 0-62mph time over the base Carrera. That’s all down to its slick six-speed manual gearbox – an increasingly rare feature in any sports car. While the PDK ‘box is ruthlessly capable, nothing can beat the level of engagement the manual offers.

Cabriolet and Targa models are fractionally slower across the lineup due to the extra weight. With the top-of-the-range Turbo S, that difference is irrelevant because it’s so obscenely fast in any guise. With a massive 711hp from the 3.6-litre engine, it’s quicker than far more expensive supercars from Ferrari and Lamborghini.

You can argue that the ruthlessly rapid Turbo S is simply too fast and too effective for the road. And if that’s your school of thought, then perhaps the 911 GT3 is more your thing.  

Developed by Porsche’s motorsport division, the GT3 is a effectively a racing car that’s had some creature comforts bolted back in to make it usable on the road. It’s actually slower than some of the high-end Carreras, but rewards you instead with visceral sensations.

You see, the GT3 has a race-derived 510hp 4.0-litre flat-six engine that revs to an amazing 9,000rpm – and sounds astonishing as it does so. It’s much more of a sensory overload than the turbocharged 911s, and delivers real thrills in the process. You can have the GT3 with a super-fast PDK automatic gearbox or as a six-speed manual, and both are excellent.

There’s the limited-run GT3 RS that boosts power further to 525hp. But that’s even more focused and stripped-out, meaning it’s compromised on the road in favour of pure track performance.

Power, 0-62mph times

• 911 Carrera: 394hp/ 4.1 secs
• 911 Carrera T: 394hp/ 4.5 secs
• 911 Carrera S/4S: 480hp/ 3.5 secs
• 911 Carrera GTS/4 GTS: 541hp/ 3.0 secs
• 911 Turbo S: 711hp/ 2.5 secs
• 911 GT3: 510hp/ 3.4 secs
• 911 GT3 Touring: 510hp/ 3.9 secs
• 911 GT3 RS: 525hp/ 3.2 secs

Ride and handling

Arguably the biggest draw for 911 buyers – alongside its iconic flat-six engine  - is the way it handles. Whether it’s the most basic Carrera or the most highly optioned Turbo S, all models have exceptional levels of composure, engagement and agility for a new car.

The stand-out feature is the 911’s steering, which is wonderfully weighted, accurate and sharp without being too nervy for cruising. It means you can flow through a series of bends with high confidence that the car will do exactly what you want it to do. Minimal body roll and immense grip levels mean you won’t find the limits on any UK road.

Rear-wheel drive models are the most agile and playful variants – the Carrera T , with its rear-wheel steering, lighter weight and limit-slip differential is the best of the standard variants.

Four-wheel drive versions sacrifice a little in the way of thrills for all-weather stability and security. Meanwhile, the GT3 and GT3 RS are visceral, challenging and exciting to drive even on the road, let alone the track.

Porsche’s PASM adaptive suspension also allows you to juggle tight body control with ride comfort. In Normal model this makes the 911 Carrera models relatively comfortable, dealing with potholes and speed bumps without rattling your spine to pieces, while Sport model keeps the body more controlled on challenging country roads.

The 911 GT3 is firmer but still tolerable on most roads, while the GT3 RS is only for the most dedicated enthusiast on the road – its home is undoubtedly a track.

Noise and refinement

Anyone who’s owned a modern Porsche 911 will be familiar with the issue of tyre noise. With very wide, performance focused tyres combined with sporty suspension, it’s still noticeable on poor surfaces. It’s a lot better now than on earlier versions, but an AMG GT is still a quieter cruiser.

Wind noise can be heard at speed, too, although the engines (particularly the turbocharged models) are surprisingly hushed at a cruise. By sports car standards, non-GT 911s are perfectly acceptable on long-distance drives. The exception is models like the GT3, which loses seat padding and sound deadening in the quest for raw thrills.

Euro NCAP: is the Porsche 911 a safe car?

The Porsche 911 has never been tested by Euro NCAP. That’s like due to the huge cost of crash testing versus the smaller volume of cars sold compared to, say, a family SUV, and no 911 rival has been tested either.

While we can’t comment on the car’s structural integrity and safety performance, every car gets all the kit you’d expect including six airbags, automatic emergency braking, lane keep and lane change assistance and driver monitoring.

Adaptive cruise control is optionally available (and really should be standard on a car at this price) while there’s plenty of other extras including blind spot monitoring, a surround-view camera system with parking collision prevention tech, remote self-parking and a night vision system.

Although this isn’t exactly a family car, 911s with standard seat options feature ISOFIX mounts for the front passenger seat and (no-cost option) rear seats.

Running costs and fuel economy

Fuel consumption is probably not top priority for the average 911 buyer, but it’s nice to know that Porsche’s icon can be reasonably efficient – and go some distance on a tank of fuel.

The base 911 Carrera PDK is officially the most fuel efficient, managing up to 28mpg on the WLTP combined test depending on spec. Most Carrera models promise between 25-27mpg, however – about the same as the four cylinder Mercedes-AMG GT 43.

Cabriolet and Targa models have a 1-2mpg official penalty, while even the insanely fast 911 Turbo S promises up to 24.6mpg combined.

Due to its track-ready gearing, race-bred engine and drag-increasing downforce, the 911 GT3 is officially the least fuel efficient, promising 20.5mpg combined.

How much does the Porsche 911 cost to insure?

Every Porsche 911, regardless of version or price point, sits in the maximum insurance group 50. Unsurprisingly, then, it won’t be a cheap car to insure for most people.

However, the same applies to every comparable sports car or supercar rival. If you’re looking for a cheaper to insure sports car that’s still fun to drive, check out the Porsche 718 Cayman/Boxster or Alpine A110.