Canadian pricing for the 2024 Porsche 911 S/T starts at $343,900
Published Sep 25, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 7 minute read
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Porsche showed its 911/901 sports car for the first time at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September of 1963. And here I am, 60 years later almost to the day, driving the new Porsche 911 S/T which celebrates that milestone in a most spectacular fashion.
To bring us this special edition 911, once again Porsche mines its heritage — here looking back to the lightweight 911 ST of which only about two dozen were produced from 1969 to 1972. Built on the 911S, the ST used a combination of lightweight parts from the 911 R race car and by 1972, a 2.5L flat-six making up to 270 hp. A very rare car indeed.
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As will be this 60th Anniversary 911 S/T, with only 1963 (get it?) slated for production. Fittingly, for the launch of the highly-focused, trimmed down 911 S/T, the roads Porsche has chosen here in mountainous Calabria, Italy resemble an endless strand of spaghetti — left, right, up, down, repeat — and largely deserted except for a few wandering dogs and the occasional trundling Fiat Panda. It’s a driver’s dream (and a passenger’s nightmare) but by gawd, these roads were made for the raucous S/T, a special that has been in the works for about two years.
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As with the original ST, Porsche has taken its sportiest 911 and added a host of go-faster bits while cutting weight. The donor car in this case is the 911 GT3 Touring with its epic 4.0L naturally-aspirated flat-six that spins to 9,000 rpm and, among other things, can have the most ardent atheist believing in a higher power. With the S/T, Porsche’s intent was to create the purest, most driver-focused version of the GT3 Touring it could muster, which is a tall order considering the latter is arguably the Holy Grail of road-going 911-ness. Or at least it was until the S/T came along.
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What is the Porsche 911 S/T? Porsche stresses the S/T is not a track car. It is not chasing lap times, down-force numbers or top speed. There’s not a fixed wing to be found, nor multi-adjustable suspension or even an available PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission. Only a bespoke close-ratio six-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive, thank you very much. Porsche even ditches the rear-wheel steering to save weight.
Wedge yourself into the standard carbon bucket seats, twist the key (to the left of the steering wheel, ‘natch) and the engine barks to life and settles into a busy idle. You won’t see the expected drive mode selector on the steering wheel or selectable active exhaust. The S/T has only one drive mode, and it’s balls-out, loud and all business. Toe the throttle and the revs rise and fall — whoop, whoop, whoop — like there’s no flywheel. There is one, but it’s a lightweight, noisy single-mass unit that is paired with a special, smaller diameter clutch (180 mm vs. 240 mm) that shaves an additional 10.2 kg.
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