2019 gts versus Harrop e90 m3

[CamasM3e93]

I had a free afternoon during a conference in LA and turned to Turo to see what kind of trouble I could get myself into. My desire was a sporty manual with unlimited miles. I picked up the pictured blue ‘19 gts and drove 300 miles across SoCal’s best twisties, through suburbia of Thousand Oaks, and plenty of LA freeway in between. I was thrilled with the car in many respects but was astonished how well my e90 stacked up as modified.

My e90: Lemans blue on bamboo beige interior. 6MT with autosolutions short shift kit and redline transmission fluid. Harrop supercharger with corsa exhaust and test pipes. Stock brakes with ceramic pads, bpm steering tune and every control arm replaced front and back within the last 10k miles. Currently 265 on the rear, 245 on the front in conti ecs summers.

911 gts- 2019 awd with 7 speed manual transmission. Akrapovic exhaust, other mods unknown

GTS overall impressions: a really great car in the twisties, but because it doesn’t see around corners you can’t push it anywhere close to its limit on public roads with threat of wildlife, rock fall, construction vehicles, bicycles etc. a little rough on the socal freeways, would be ok as a daily but was quite jarring in the ride at times and felt as though it was launching as it traversed various irregularities of the interstate surface. I might think twice before taking this car on a long road trip- but who owns one and does? The car drives bigger than it is, in contrast to my 996 which always leaves me with a feeling of vulnerability behind the wheel. The turbo power is everything you would expect from a modern power plant in a 911. Though the awd keeps the car firmly planted, the combination of the awd and turbo power curve adds up to a less visceral experience than I would hope for in a sports car. The manual transmission is a brilliant highlight, smooth in shifting such that I wondered if it really had a physical linkage to the shifter or if it was all electronic, shift by wire. Suffice to say that this car and its tech makes driving a 450hp sports car easily accessible to the less skilled driver such as myself and I enjoyed my afternoon at the wheel, but didn’t leave the experience clamoring for this new generation. Why?

Comparison:

Ride & handling - I favored the ride of my non-edc e90. It does throw me around a bit more in similar twisties that the gts ran smoothly but used also as a daily, I never feel beat up on a drive and I’m more than happy to spend 10 hours behind the wheel of the e90. The gts is clearly superior in the twisties but because the abilities of the car so far outstrip what can be safely utilized on public roads, does it really matter? Advantage: e90

Power plant- the Porsche is faster than my e90 off the line and through first and second, no doubt. Part of that is my unoptimized tire and wheel setup on the e90 and its inferior shifting, and part of it is the silly abundance of turbo power down low in modern engines. Would note though that I recently matched an i4 m50 from 30 to 85 mph in the Harrop e90 and suspect the e90 would also hang with the gts in the speed range, too. The gts, though clearly faster, is certainly less thrilling than the supercharged s65 - so the advantage here goes to your personal preference- speed or experience. Push.

Transmission & shifting- the gearing of the gts was well matched to the motor and I never felt like I needed to dump out of a gear premature. The shifting was silky smooth and very fast and easy. I barely had to breathe on the clutch to move through the gears. The auto rev match was cute. The throws super short, such that it was hard to tell what gear i was in by feel of the shifter position and sometimes a little too easy to move into the wrong gear. In comparison, my e90 as modified and experienced has the classic bmw notchiness many describe and a year into manual e90 ownership I’m still learning this gearbox. More to learn still but I favored the gts here.

Interior- i was offended that the gts required a wired connection for carplay in a 2019 build in a 130k car. +1 for an analog speedometer and tach, though. I’m not a fan of alcantara, it looks and feels cheap to me and every inch of the gts interior was covered in it or a similar product. The seats were comfortable however and included heaters for my back which is always appreciated. I prefer the simpler interior of the e90 as well as the smooth leather of the era bmw was using. Advantage: e90

Exhaust: start up exhaust sound favored the gts, a nice definitive roar before it settles into an idle. But for the other 99% of the drive the e90 with Corsa was clearly superior. Advantage: e90 as modified

Utility: 4 doors, road trips with the family, days at the track, Home Depot runs for bags of gravel, pipe and tools. Advantage e90.


Overall: if things like cost and value didn’t matter to me I’d be happy to have a gts in the garage and I can certainly afford one if I wanted to. But after 9 hours and 300 miles in the car, I had zero desire to “move up” from the Harrop e90 to a gts. While I agree that the gts is a great car by many measures, the e90 checks more boxes for me in this phase of life and despite being a 15 year old platform is still a blast to drive.

[Redd]

Good read! Thanks for sharing.

[amrazM]

the gts is a hot car, I think that or a carrera S will be my move later this year.

[Beemer892]

Appreciate the write up.

[nycplumber]

Originally Posted by amrazM

the gts is a hot car, I think that or a carrera S will be my move later this year.

Just get a base and upgrade the turbo. Its the only difference between the lowest and highest trim. You can find a highly optioned base for a lot cheaper than the GTS

[Beemer892]

Originally Posted by nycplumber

Just get a base and upgrade the turbo. Its the only difference between the lowest and highest trim. You can find a highly optioned base for a lot cheaper than the GTS

The GTS comes standard with a number of differences besides higher power from the base or S models. Center lock wheels, lower ride height, stiffer suspension, Turbo brakes, and shorter shift lever on the manual. Not to mention other performance options available that are not available in the base or S trims.