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A fan of older Porsches, the renowned YouTuber was left astonished by one specific aspect of the limited-run 911, despite its steep $290,000 asking price
by Khris Bharath on January 1, 2025, 10:00After the Top Gear trio, I’m talking about Clarkson, Hammond, and May, one of the most influential personalities from the automotive world that has had a profound impact on my career has got to be Doug DeMuro. If you haven’t heard of the guy, he is most renowned for his ’quirks and features’ video format for reviewing cars. Now I had the pleasure of speaking with Doug last year to talk about his online car auction site ’Cars & Bids’ for modern classics (’80s) and I routinely keep tabs on the cars he reviews. I’m also a fan of his annual Doug awards, 8th year among the many categories that he had, I was surprised that he chose his ’Biggest Surprise of the Year’ to be the Porsche 911 S/T. Here’s why.
Doug DeMuro’s Biggest Surprise Of 2024
Now DeMuro may be a big name in the automotive YouTube world today and may have a Carrera GT in his garage, but before all of this, he actually had a stint with Porsche North America and even had a writing gig with Jalopnik. I personally believe there are three types of folks when it comes to defining a Porschephile, the collector, the purist, and the enthusiast. Doug insists that he is not a Porsche guy. Now this came as a bit of a surprise to me, given that I’ve always seen him give high praise for the brand. Well the guy literally had his wedding ring presented to him tied to little Carrera GTs. Anyway, now we know.
I like the 911, but I feel it’s gotten too big, too wide, too heavy, too luxurious. I like the older ones. I like the 996 GT2 - ’02, I like my Carrera GT - ’05, I like the 993 Turbo - ’97, cars from 20 years ago, and I drive the S/T and I’m like, Wow!! This is one of the greatest Porsches I’ve ever driven. - Doug DeMuro
So why’d he choose the 911 S/T as the Biggest Surprise Of The Year? Well, that’s because he truly wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was, given how 911s these days have really grown in size, which is something that also 911 Designer Michael Mauer agrees with. The 992 in particular, is quite a bit bigger and more luxurious than its predecessors. He says that the more analog 997 and even the 996 are really where his heart truly lies, so when the 992.1 S/T delivered the goods, he was astonished.
Yes, it has an insane sticker price of $290,000 before options and those dreaded dealer markups, but until the more recent 992.2 Carrera T and the 992.2 GT3, the 911 S/T was the only way to get a stick, that with the naturally-aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six that revs to the moon. As for what Doug’s overall ’Car Of The Year 2024’ was, you can find out in the video below. Spoiler alert, it’s NOT the Tesla Cybertruck.
Khris Bharath
Khris is a Mechanical Engineer and a classic car aficionado, who adores his Jags, Alfas, and old-school American muscle cars. He keeps tabs on everything from super exotics like an old EB 110 to the latest from Lucid and geeks out on three-row family haulers. Formula One remains very close to his heart, and he diligently makes time to tune in for the Grand Prix on Sundays. Khris also loves his road trips and he prefers a stick shift over an auto. Read full bio
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