MAC AND TEASE

Porsche bringing along a sublime example of its awe-inspiring 904 Carrera GTS to park alongside the new-for-2020 Macan GTS at the model’s international media launch last year may have seemed a little incongruous. What, you might wonder, has a dinky little mid-engined sports car from the swinging sixties got to do with a thoroughly modern hunk of high-performance SUV? The badge is the obvious link, but is the marketing connection as tenuous as it might first appear? If any other manufacturer pulled the same stunt, you’d be asking questions, but this is our beloved Porsche, is it not?

Following the 1963 904 Carrera GTS was the 1980 924 Carrera GTS, a lightweight version of the 924 Carrera GT, built in limited numbers. And while Porsche cites the 1992 928 GTS (incidentally, the only flavour of 928 available from launch until the transaxle family of products was discontinued in 1995) as the pioneer of its modernday GTS recipe, the GTS formula we now know and love was, arguably, first brought to market in 2007, taking the form of the Cayenne GTS. It set the template for where we are today, with more power, a firmer chassis, a louder exhaust and lots of black detailing. The model was such a success,