Porsche 911 vs Subaru WRX

What's the difference?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The t-hybrid might be an entirely new propulsion system for the 911, but the net result is unchanged – power, poise and performance on tap.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Possibly one of the most perfect performance cars you can drive daily for the price. Dynamic and fun to drive, but also easy to live with thanks to the drive modes for extra comfort, the high ground clearance and the practicality that comes with four doors, lots of storage and a big boot.

The tS Spec B is the priciest WRX in the range, but compared to rivals it's also great value. A car I would buy with my own money for sure.

This facelift debuts a revolutionary exterior design that has completely reshaped the 911.

Just kidding. If it ain’t broke and all that. The front air vents and exhaust have changed, the former now an active intake system that deploys via vertical flaps, but elsewhere it’s largely evolution over revolution.

Instead, Porsche has focused most of the updates in then cabin. In here, you’ll find a new digital instrument panel, they’ve changed some of the levers and the steering wheel.

In true Porsche fashion, though, this new 911 mimics the older versions in that it's one of the more intuitive cabins you’ll ever sit in. Everything feels as though it’s exactly where it should be, and all feels entirely centred on the driver.

The WRX tS Spec B stands out from its siblings with 19-inch matte-grey alloy wheels with gold Brembo brakes and if you don’t notice any of that, then surely you won’t miss the gigantic rear wing planted on the boot lid.

The air scoop jutting out of the bonnet like a pizza oven is standard across the WRX range and it looks tough. There’s the rear diffuser which also looks beefy but also a bit plasticky, and the quad exhaust, that’s nice, and so is the note which wafts out of them at idle.

The tS Spec B’s Recaro sports seats are also in other tS grades – they do look and feel good, and offer outstanding comfort and support. 

The rest of the cabin is much the same as other WRX grades with a large portrait-style screen, physical buttons for climate control, and yes, that is a traditional, mechanical handbrake you can see in images.

This is a sporty-looking although slightly outdated cabin compared with more modern rivals.

This probably falls under the ‘next question, please’ umbrella, given that, while the Porsche 911 is known for a lot of things, vast acres of space with loads of practicality perks just ain’t a part of its portfolio.

The new 911 measures a not-insubstantial 4533mm in length, 1852mm width and around 1294mm in height, and it rides on a 2450mm wheelbase. Luggage space is a paltry 135 litres under the bonnet, plus whatever else you can fit in your pockets.

There’s seating for four, should you not like the people you’re squeezing back there very much, but really the 911 is best enjoyed as a two-seat proposition – which is why you can also delete the backseat, should you wish.

It also weighs a minimum 1595kg, or up to 1745kg, but Porsche says the hybrid tech only adds about 50kg to the total kerb weight.

What’s so appealing about the WRX is that despite it being a performance car, it’s based on a regular 'small' sedan and with that comes all the practicality of a four-door, five-seater with a big 411-litre boot.

Space inside is excellent with plenty of room up front, while rear legroom is ample enough for me, at 189cm tall, to sit behind my driving position with plenty of headroom, too.

That all said the Recaro seats up front are on the snug side and I know they’re supposed to be, but I’m just saying they might not suit everybody – and by that I mean everybody.

Those with long legs might also find they have to adjust their driving position when letting out the clutch.

Big door pockets throughout, four cupholders, and hidey-holes for items throughout make for good cabin storage.

There are four USB ports and one 12V outlet, but no wireless phone charging to be found.

The WRX tS Spec B sits at the top of its range and lists for $61,490 plus on-road costs, making it expensive for the model compared to say the entry-grade WRX which is only $48,190 and pairs the same engine with the same gearbox.

Still, it comes with some unique features which makes this grade stand out from the other lower rungs in the WRX hierarchy.

The tS Spec B comes standard with 19-inch alloy wheels, six-piston front and two-piston rear high-performance Brembo brakes with ventilated and drilled discs, an enormous rear spoiler, STI Performance Mufflers at no extra cost, Recaro sports bucket seats in the front, a leather STI steering wheel and a 12.3-inch instrument cluster.

Also unique to the grade are drive modes which allow the suspension, engine, and steering to be customised for comfort or performance.

Standard on the ts Spec B, too, is equipment you'll find on lower grades in the WRX range, including LED headlights and daytime running lights, privacy glass, dual-zone climate control, an 11.6-inch touchscreen, a 10-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, proximity locking and push-button start.

Rivals to the WRX tS Spec B include the Hyundai i30 N Sedan that's $10K cheaper, and the Honda Civic Type R and Volkswagen Golf R which are both at least $10K more. The value for money in the tS Spec B is great compared to competitors, but there’s even better value to be found in the lower-grade WRXs.

A new (or at least, massively altered) 3.6-litre petrol engine has been developed for this T-Hybrid, which combines with two electric motors to produce a total 398kW and 610Nm. It’s only available with Porsche’s very good eight-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) automatic, largely because the brand admits it would be… well… unpleasant to drive as a manual.

Now, there is lots of magic at work here, and I don’t want to bore you, but the Porsche setup sees a lightweight 1.9kWh battery placed basically in the middle of the front axle, and a 12-volt battery now behind the front seat. Then, a tiny e-motor lives as part of the gearbox (it’s just 55mm long) and delivers up to 150Nm at low speeds to supplement the petrol engine.

It’s joined by what Porsche calls an “electric exhaust gas turbocharger”, which essentially removes the spooling time from the turbo, delivering instant power.

The aim of the game here is excitement, not efficiency, and the launch-control-aided spring to 100km/h takes just 3.0 seconds. And it somehow feels, and sounds, faster.

The latter being important, with Porsche aware that if the new powertrain didn’t sound good, "nobody would like it”.

Who doesn’t love the sound of a boxer engine? Well, probably your neighbours if you own a WRX. And while the tS Spec B doesn’t have any more power than any of the other WRXs – with it sharing the same 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder boxer engine as the rest of the line-up – the 202kW and 350Nm feel like the perfect amount of power and torque for this package.

It’s probably been about six months since I last drove a car with a manual gearbox, and that shows how rare they’re becoming when you’re testing a new car nearly every week.

The six-speed manual in the tS Spec B has satisfying clunky shifts and a heavy-feeling clutch pedal, but it all plays along perfectly with this engine, sending the drive to all four wheels.

If you’re looking for a version of the tS Spec B with an automatic transmission you’ll be searching forever because this grade only comes with a manual gearbox. There are WRXs with autos – well, a CVT – the entry grade, the RS and the tS.

Porsche in Australia is yet to lock in local fuel use for the Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, but international testing has it at 10.5-10.7L/100km, C02 emissions of between 239-244g/km. 

Those aren’t exactly Toyota Prius numbers. But again, that was never Porsche’s intention. The electric power on offer here is intended to improve acceleration, not fuel use.

It’s fitted with a 63-litre fuel tank, which should deliver a driving range of around 600km per tank.

The WRX tS Spec B manual really likes its fuel – it’s a hungry beastie and everybody who’s about to get into the WRX life should be aware that, like most petrol performance cars, it’s not super fuel efficient.

Subaru is beautifully honest with its fuel consumption figures, which have the the WRX tS Spec B using 10.4L/100km in combined driving and 14.2L/100km in urban environment, which is so close to what we recorded - ours was 14.1/100km after mainly urban driving. You'll also have to feed it 95 RON.

The fuel tank is a healthy 63 litres in volume and that should give you a range of 606km – in theory. Do not test this theoretical range somewhere remote, okay?

Porsche did just about the Porschiest thing to ever Porsche in launching the 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, in that we piled into cars in Melbourne, drove the many, many hours (well, it feels that long, at least) to the Phillip Island race circuit, beat the hell out of the cars on track and on the drag strip for several hours, then trundled back out on the road and drove them back to Melbourne.

The subliminal messaging here is pretty clear. This new 911 might have a new powertrain, but it can still deliver the road-track-road experience without breaking a sweat — or, more importantly, without breaking any expensive bits.

So let’s do this in order, shall we? On the road, this new 911 is every bit as sweet as it has ever been. Comfortable, quiet enough when you want it to be, and — save some road noise from those big wheels – quiet enough to let you forget you're driving something with one of Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactors hidden beneath its svelte metal work.

Mind you, that T-Hybrid powertrain will happily remind you of its presence every time you press the accelerator in anger, the exhaust erupting into life and the 911 genuinely rocketing into the future, but stay gentle with your inputs and this hybrid 911 is a genuinely comfortable, genuinely liveable daily driver.

Its split personality appears when you rumble out onto a race track though, where you quickly discover the electrified, and electrifying, Porsche is properly, properly rapid, both in a straight line or around Phillip Island’s fast and flowing circuit.

It’s so rapid, in fact, that it feels most closely related to a performance EV, like the Taycan. Of course it is louder and more engaging, but that’s the best way I can think of to describe the instant power on offer here. There’s no ICE-like lags or lumps in the way that 398kW and 610Nm finds its way to the tyres and into the tarmac. Instead it’s just this constant, savage flow of power that never seems to let up.

Porsche says this new powertrain is about 50kg heavier, but you’d need to be plugged into the race track like its the Matrix to ever feel it, with the T-Hybrid feeling lithe, grippy and athletic, aided by near-perfect steering, the best automatic gearbox in existence, and exactly zero roll through the body. In fact, the only thing that really moves when cornering hard in this new 911 is the driver, and I genuinely got out after several laps with a sore neck from trying to stay vertical.

Downsides? Well, it’s faster in a straight line (it will be some 7.0m further down the road after 2.5sec when compared to the older GTS) and faster around corners (8.7sec faster around the Nurburgring than its predecessor), but there’s something delightfully analogue about the outgoing car, which also manages to feel more aggressive under heavy acceleration, too, owing to the little ebbs and flows of power, and after driving both back-to-back, I still can’t decide which one I like more.

This may sound strange, but a few months ago I was squished into the tiny cockpit of a 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 sitting at the traffic lights wishing I was in the 2020 Subaru WRX STI beside me. And having driven so many supercars and muscle cars in the past, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, I still see the WRX as being such a perfect daily driver performance car.

Sure, it doesn't have Porsche 911 dynamics or the straight-line acceleration of many electric cars, but it's the way the way this boxer engine interacts so beautifully the six-speed manual gearbox, combined with sticky all-wheel drive, a wonderful balance and such direct steering that make the WRX ts Spec B feel exactly right.

The tS Spec B is very much at home in the suburbs dotted with roundabouts and obstacles like speed bumps, but they all become part of the fun of driving this car in the same way that when you let it loose and open road it performs happily and so well, too.

The suspension does feel firm, but part of the big news of this tS Spec B is that it now has a drive mode function and this allow you to adjust the suspension, the steering and the throttle response to either sporty or comfort settings. This just makes this car an even more agreeable thing to live with daily.

The WRX hasn’t been given an ANCAP rating and up until only last year manual versions weren’t equipped with safety tech such as autonomous emergency braking.

The WRX tS Spec B manual has AEB, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and high-beam assist. 

It’s interesting but not particularly good that manual versions of the WRX don’t have parking sensors. I  don't need to tell you that parking sensors on cars in the city are so helpful for squeezing into tight spots without nudging the vehicle or railing behind you.

A space-saver spare wheel instead of a full-sized spare isn’t ideal either in Australia where dirt and gravel roads beckon the WRX.

For child seats there are three top-tether anchor points and two ISOFIX mounts across the second row.

The 911 Carrera GTS is covered by a pretty underwhelming three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with servicing required every 12 months or 15,000kms. We don’t have the hybrid service pricing yet, but as guide, the last 911 split the services into minor and major, and charged either $785 or $1285 for each.

The WRX tS Spec B is covered by Subaru’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which while the standard for the mainstream segment, is behind the seven-plus terms we're now seeing from a lot of Chinese and Japanese car brands.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km/12 months and can be expensive compared to other brands, with the five years of capped price servicing coming to $2692.