Porsche Macan GTS returns with more muscle

Porsche has reintroduced the GTS moniker to the Macan range that is expected to arrive in South Africa sometime next year.

Building on the S but slotting-in between it and the flagship Macan Turbo, the GTS’ exterior revisions includes the so-called Sport Design Package made up of unique front and rear aprons as well as side skirts, with the gloss black treatment of the mentioned facias being carried over to the rear LED light bar, the 20-inch RS Spyder Design alloy wheels and trim on the doors.

Also reserved for the GTS is the all-LED Porsche Dynamic Light System, a chassis lowered by 15 mm, sports exhaust whose quad outlet tips can be body coloured, red brake calipers with the optional Porsche Surface Coated brakes or Porsche Ceramic Composite stoppers, the optional Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus and a body coloured diffuser.

Inside, the interior receives sport seats with eight-way adjustment for the fronts and GTS embroidered headrests, Alcantara on the centre console, door panels and seat centre, brushed aluminium inserts, Crayon or Carmine Red leather upholstery with contrasting accents and an upgraded Bose sound system.

Fitted with the Porsche Active Suspension Management dampers as standard with Adaptive Air Suspension that can drop the overall ride height by a further 10 mm available from the options list, the GTS comes powered by the same 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 as the S, but which has been upgraded to produce 280kW/520Nm.

Hooked to the revised seven-speed PDK transmission, the smaller bent-six represents an uptake of 15kW/20Nm over the previous GTS’ 3.0-litre twin-blown V6, thus resulting in a top speed of 261 km/h versus 256 km/h, while the 0-100 km/h sprint drops by 0.3 second to 4.7 seconds with the optional Sport Chrono Package selected.

Available for ordering now in Europe, the Macan GTS retails from €77 880 (R1 252 517) in Germany but as mentioned, is only forecasted to arrive in South Africa next year with pricing set to be announced closer to the local launch date.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.