Introduction to the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
The eighth-generation Porsche 911 launched in 2019 and is known in enthusiast circles as the '992'. Now, the entire range is going through its midlife facelift, with the German company methodically and sequentially working through the variants to give each one a freshen-up, which means that pre-updated cars become known as 992.1s and these new ones are 992.2s. The latest to go through this treatment is the Carrera S, a model which sits towards the lower end of the 911 family.
That's a relative term, mind, because the lower end of the 911 hierarchy is an exalted level that most other sports-car manufacturers wish they could operate at. The Carrera S is a notable example of this: it has been given a 30hp shot in the arm, resulting in a car which can run 0-100km/h in as little as 3.3 seconds and go on to a top speed beyond 300km/h.
That it also costs the best part of €250,000 is an issue, though, and there also seems to be quite a lot of product congestion in the 911's line-up these days, so the big question is whether the Carrera S gets lost in a sea of other models in and around its power/price ballpark, or whether it in fact stands out as the new pick of the Porsche's range.
To find out, we went to the company's home city of Stuttgart to drive a couple of examples of the revised Carrera S Coupe to the Black Forest and back, in order to give it a proper assessment. Here are our findings.
Pros & Cons of the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
Pros: Amazing to drive, straight-line speed, noise, interior, looks
Cons: Expensive to buy and run, is it strictly necessary as a model?
Exterior & Design of the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
• Subtly tweaked exterior appearance
• Mixed-size alloy wheels as standard
• Sports exhaust also included
Like all the updated Porsche 911s, the Carrera S looks barely any different to the cars which went before it. There are oh-so-subtle tweaks to the headlights, bumpers and the rear lamp strip, but in essence it's a familiar form. Luckily, it's also an appealing form, the 911's basic shape not diminishing in its sense of awe even after more than six decades on sale.
Defining features of the 2025 model-year Carrera S are the derivative-specific badging on the car's back (repeated in the illuminated interior door sills), as well as a set of mismatched 20-inch front, 21-inch rear alloy wheels as standard; a 911 Carrera runs 19s/20s instead.
The Carrera S also gains the uprated braking system from the new Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, which means the 408mm front, 380mm rear discs are denoted by red brake callipers peeping out from behind those wheels. And it further comes with the sports exhaust system as standard, identified by its silver-finished and ovoid exit pipes at the back.
The 911 Carrera S's dimensions are:
Length: 4,542mm
Width: 1,852mm
Height: 1,300mm (1,291mm on optional PASM Sport suspension)
Wheelbase: 2,450mm
An optional upgrade to the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) dampers on the Carrera S is the PASM Sport kit, which lowers the car by another 10mm and firms up the spring rates considerably, providing the Porsche with a ground-hugging stance.
We tried a car with this kit fitted, before comparing-and-contrasting it with another 911 Carrera S with just the standard PASM set-up. The latter was painted in the highly distinctive colour of Cartagena Yellow metallic - a pale, watery yellow with a slight green tinge in certain lights that won't be to all tastes.
It sits in the six-strong palette of Dreams paints at €2,853 apiece, but buyers can go even further from there with four more hues in Legends (€5,414 each) or even the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur 'Paint to Sample', which'll match your Carrera S's body to any colour swatch you can think of... for €15,108. The 'cheapest' upgrade finishes for the 911 S are the four Shades at €1,787, these being a variety of blacks, silvers and greys; the only no-cost options are non-metallic white or black.
Interior, Practicality, Tech & Comfort of the 2025 Porsche 911
• Superb ergonomics and quality
• Decent level of standard technology
• Rear seats optional - but at least free
Like every updated 911, the new Carrera S has a superb passenger compartment that mixes together high-quality material finishing, a studious adherence to ergonomic correctness and a good smattering of top-end tech into one glorious confection.
The familiar 10.9-inch Porsche Communication Management (PCM) infotainment and 12.6-inch all-digital Curved Display instrument cluster are present and correct, but there's a welcome panel of physical climate controls, plenty of useful switchgear and the gorgeous Porsche steering wheel - thin of rim, just the right size and diameter, and mercifully perfectly round. All other manufacturers, take note: this is how you do the main, most crucial interface between car and driver to the best possible standard.
Furthermore, to fine-tune your driving position and then operate all the 911's main controls easily becomes second nature in the Porsche within minutes of becoming acquainted with it. This makes it a very unintimidating car to drive, especially as the visibility out of it doesn't feel compromised and sports-car-like.
About the only slight concern with the Carrera S is the practicality because it - like every other 992.2 Coupe - doesn't come with rear seats as standard. If you don't tick a certain box at ordering time, you'll only get the two seats up front. Luckily, the rear seats will at least not cost you anything, monetarily speaking, as they're a no-cost option.
They will cost you some luggage space, though. No 911 is a paragon of practicality but choose the rear seats carefully if you're considering having them. The Porsche's typical 135-litre front 'boot' (in fact just a deep, cuboid and carpet-lined cubby under what would be the bonnet on any car where the engine wasn't in its backside) is augmented by 373 litres of space in what the company optimistically calls an 'open luggage compartment behind the rear seats'. In other words, the back of the cabin. Fit the miniature chairs back there, however, and that figure drops to 261 litres.
Performance of the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
• Additional 30hp for 992.2 model
• Plenty of desirable chassis hardware
• Avoid the PASM Sport option
Prior to this update, the Porsche 911 Carrera S had 450hp and 530Nm, slotting it in neatly between the 385hp Carrera and the 480hp GTS. But both of those models have been uprated in terms of output as they have morphed into 992.2s, the Carrera rising modestly to 394hp while the GTS - the first hybrid 911 in history with its petrol-electric drivetrain - leapt rather more significantly to 541hp.
Therefore, the Carrera S had to move in step with its relations and so has gained another 30hp for a new peak of 480hp - the same as the pre-facelift GTS. Indeed, given Porsche says this is the 'most dynamic Carrera S' yet seen, perhaps the best way of viewing it is as a 'Diet GTS' of sorts.
For instance, it has the uprated brakes of the latest GTS, and the sports exhaust too. It also comes with PASM and the option of the firmer PASM Sport with its 10mm-lower ride height - this item is not an option on the Carrera as it must be specified with Rear-Axle Steering (RAS) on the S - and you can't have RAS on a Carrera.
You also can't have Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV Plus) on the Carrera, even as an option, when it is standard equipment on the S. This is the electronically controlled limited-slip differential and it sharpens what is already a car with a steelier edge than the entry-level 911 into something even more dynamic. Equipped with PTV Plus, its big wheels and beefy brakes, and then layering PASM Sport and RAS on top, you do end up with a sublime driving experience.
It's incredibly difficult to fault the 911 Carrera S for anything about the way it handles. Like any model in the line-up, truly fantastic steering - in terms of weight, feel, accuracy and rate of response - provides a direct, crystal-clear line of communication to a chassis that is one of the best in the business.
Switched into Sport mode, you won't ever lament the stunning levels of both body and wheel control the 911 S possesses, nor will you find it wanting for much in the way of mechanical grip or traction. True, as a rear-driven 911, if you're bold with the throttle then you can make it easily 'slide' out of corners with a good degree of opposite lock, but it's not scary to do this in the Porsche, as it would have been in some of the spikier 911s of yore - it's just a riot.
No doubts, either, that the 30hp and meatier torque curve bless the revised Carrera S with extraordinary performance. There's next to no lag from the engine, a lovely and sharp throttle pedal, and the ultra-slick machinations of the dual-clutch PDK, all of which add up to a car which can blast off into the middle distance at a moment's notice from pretty much any speed. It makes a fantastic noise too, thanks to the sports exhaust, even if it's not the most spine-tinglingly tuneful 911 in history.
Yet it works just as wonderfully when driven more sedately, with good, grown-up manners when motorway cruising and enough compliance in the chassis that rucked-up town roads don't become unpleasant to traverse.
But here we sound a note of caution: unless you're going to regularly take to the track in your Carrera S (and there are better alternative derivatives in the 911 range for that sort of work), we'd steer clear of the PASM Sport package. In either Normal or Sport, the only two stages you can switch the PASM to, the 10mm-lower set-up doesn't ride with the same grace and fluidity as the supple regular suspension.
In fact, even in Normal, there's more thumping from the Porsche's springs, dampers and big wheels on the PASM Sport than there is from the 'normal' PASM when it's in Sport mode, and as we think the Carrera S isn't the most hardcore car in the range - no matter what Porsche itself proclaims about this iteration - we'd prefer it to ride more like a Carrera than a GT3.
But yes, otherwise, everything the 911 Carrera S does from a kinematic perspective is glitteringly good. It's just a thoroughly well-sorted, rewarding and deeply engaging sports coupe.
Running Costs of the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
• No cleaner nor more efficient than hybrid GTS
• Sits in highest tax band
• Three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty
To be fair, no car with a 3.0-litre, twin-turbo, six-cylinder petrol engine installed is going to be a paragon of parsimony, so marking the 911 Carrera S down in this section would hardly be fair. Despite this, though, it's clear the hybrid gear on the GTS is effective, because the quoted eco-stats of the 3.0-litre Carrera S and the 3.6-litre GTS are similar.
As it emits more than 225g/km of CO2 no matter how you spec it, the S will cost you €2,400 a year to tax and we saw something like 17.5mpg (16.1 litres/100km) from the newcomer while enjoying its drivetrain potential in Germany, so it's not going to be a cheap thing to run on any score. But then, people who can spend upwards of €200,000 on a car probably don't care too much about that sort of thing, do they?
Irish Pricing & Rivals of the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
• Expensive without options
• Lengthy list of extras to tempt you
• Few sports coupes can get close to its appeal
The Carrera S is priced to sit almost exactly halfway between the basic Carrera (€206,750) and the driver-focused GTS (€266,696), with an opening ticket of €232,950. That places it slightly closer to the former model (the S is €26,200 more than a Carrera) than the latter (and €33,746 less than a GTS), but it's still an inordinate amount of money for a 911 Carrera S, however you cut it.
The good news is that gone are the days when Porsches came with nothing included in the standard price, as the Carrera S has a generous basic specification including Matrix LED headlights, the sports exhaust system, PASM, the PCM and the Curved Display, four-way adjustable and heated sports seats, heating for the steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and go (called Comfort Access), an eight-speaker and 150-watt Sound Package Plus stereo system, a 15-watt wireless smartphone charging pad, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and cruise control all included, among more.
Nevertheless, there is still a remarkably long and expensive options list, which could soon push the price of an injudiciously specified Carrera S from the realms of €233,000 to much closer to €300,000, so take your time when picking your extras.
As there's nothing else directly like the rear-engined, idiosyncratic 911 Carrera S available from other carmakers, rivals for the Porsche are varied. You can look upwards at exotic marques, including vehicles such as the Aston Martin Vantage, the Maserati GranTurismo and even the Ferrari Roma, or you could consider a 480hp version to be a better fit with the likes of the BMW M4, Ford Mustang and Mercedes-AMG CLE 53. In truth, it sits kind of between these two extremes, but none of the cars mentioned here drive quite as sweetly as a good 911 like this.
Verdict - Should You Buy the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S?
You absolutely should buy the Porsche 911 Carrera S, for all but one reason, because it's a blindingly talented sports coupe. Its fabulous drivetrain, exceptional chassis and all-round ease-of-use provide it with a unique blend of dynamic attributes that few products from other companies could hope to match. You remember every single drive in a 911, and the S is no exception to that rule.
So, what's the reason to avoid it? Well, it just feels a bit... lost in the current 911 line-up. All the other models have a clear raison d'être: the Carrera is the most inexpensive and comfortable, the Carrera T is a driver-focused thriller with the option of a manual gearbox, the GTS builds on the driver-centric chassis interactivity with its monster hybrid drivetrain, the GT3 is the point where road meets track to devastating effect in the 911 world, the incoming Turbo and Turbo S cars show what sheer speed and four-wheel drive can do. Therefore, what's the Carrera S's defined 'tagline'?
At this point, we're not sure. It's undoubtedly a sensational car in all respects, and if you end up with one you will not be disappointed with it in the slightest, but we feel it is slightly undermined by the sheer brilliance on offer in the wider 992 range, as well as the over-congested performance ratings of the cars; now every model (except the manual-only T) can do 0-100km/h in less than four seconds, the enhanced S doesn't feel strictly necessary any longer. That said, it remains a magical machine in all regards, so we're mighty glad it still exists as we move forward into the 992's dotage.
FAQs About the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S
Is the Porsche 911 Carrera S available with four-wheel drive?
Not as yet. When questioned about an impending Carrera 4S, all a Porsche spokesman would say is that they don't comment on forward product plans, but if you were to look at the model's history then you can infer that a four-wheel-drive Carrera S is very likely to appear before too long.
Can I get a Porsche 911 Targa S?
No, the Targa is only sold in Ireland as a GTS, so this 480hp specification won't be available for fans of the semi-open convertible 911. The body styles for the Carrera S are the coupe and the Cabriolet.
Is there no manual gearbox for the Porsche 911 Carrera S?
There used to be, and we're sad it has been taken away from the updated Carrera S. It was a seven-speed manual in the old '992.1' car, which differentiated the S more clearly from its Carrera source material. Nowadays, the only manual 911s you can get are the Carrera T (from €224,120) and the mega GT3 (from €301,909). Every other model uses a PDK of some sort.
Want to know more about the Porsche 911 Carrera S?
Is there anything else you'd like to know about the 992.2 Carrera S? Or anything you feel we haven't covered here? Then just head over to our Ask Us Anything section and, well, ask us anything. It's a free service and we'll do our best to answer your questions.
