The ‘T’ models in the 911 range are supposed to be some of the purest Carreras out there, taking the brilliant, but supposedly ‘basic’ 911 Carrera’s body and powertrain, then sharpening the whole thing up by cutting the weight and installing a manual gearbox. Traditionally, the ‘T’ has only been offered in hard-top form, as befits the lightweight image, but with the arrival of the latest-generation 911 (known in Porsche circles as the 992.2), Porsche has bitten the bullet and released an open-top Carrera T Cabriolet.
Like the hard-top, it comes with a six-speed manual transmission - in fact, it’s the cheapest manual 911 you can have - but the idea of a convertible Carrera T might seem contradictory in the eyes of some fanatics.
We have reference points, in the shape of the standard 911 Carrera Cabriolet and the Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet, both of which are brilliant in their own ways, but this is our first taste of the new Carrera T, which has to justify its place in the 911 stable. So, will a lightweight Carrera work without the roof, or will it feel like a pointless addition to an already diverse 911 range?
How does the Porsche 991 Carrera T Cabriolet look?
Generally speaking, there isn’t all that much to differentiate the Carrera T Cabriolet from the standard Carrera Cabriolet, but given the mechanical similarities, that’s no great surprise. Look closely, however, and you’ll spot the grey wheels, grey door mirrors and grey badging, as well as the grey stickers down by the door sills. There are manual gearbox motifs on the rear windows, too and Porsche has fitted the spoiler from the 911 Carrera GTS models to further differentiate the Carrera T from its siblings.
Other than that, though, the Carrera T Cabriolet looks like any other 911 Cabriolet, with its slightly hunchbacked body that looks much better with the roof up than with the roof down. Nevertheless, it stops just short of ugly, even if the Targa models are a bit better looking.
How fast is the Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet?
Straight-line speed isn’t really the point of the Carrera T, which has exactly the same 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six engine as the basic Carrera models. But while those base cars have Porsche’s twin-clutch automatic gearbox for ultra-rapid, silky smooth gear shifts, the ‘T’ has a more lightweight, more old-school six-speed manual gearbox.
Through that transmission, the T sends 394hp to its rear wheels, but despite the Carrera T being about 40kg lighter than the equivalent Carrera, the 0-100km/h time of 4.7 seconds is hardly rapid - partly because even Porsche’s test drivers can’t change gear as fast as a two-clutch auto. Shaving off 40kg by fitting lighter glass, removing some of the soundproofing and adding a lighter gearbox doesn’t make up for that.
When the standard Carrera Cabriolet is four tenths of a second faster to 100km/h, as well as being very marginally more fuel-efficient, you might wonder what the point of the Carrera T might be, but there’s method to Porsche’s madness. Because while the T might be slower and less efficient than the base model, it is designed to be more visceral, more engaging and more exciting.
Naturally, the manual gearbox is half of that equation, with a clutch and a mechanical feel to the lever’s action, but the lack of soundproofing helps, too. And with the roof down, the Cabriolet brings you even closer to the snarl of the six-cylinder engine. And if you engage the sports exhaust, you get an even naughtier soundtrack, regardless of whether you have the fabric roof up or down.
Driving the Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet
With the focus on handling, the Carrera T hasn’t just been on a diet. It also has its own suspension set-up, designed to make it that bit sharper and more engaging, while the Sport Chrono Package and rear-axle steering are included as standard. Adaptive sports suspension is standard, too, lowering the car by 10mm compared with the standard 911, while the steering rack is more direct than before.
It’s quite a notable change, and it makes an accordingly sizeable difference to the way the car corners. The four-wheel-steering system allows the car to turn more tightly at lower speeds, yet become more stable at high speeds, while the new steering rack makes it feel sharper and more responsive. And as the standard Carrera Cabriolet was hardly unpleasant to drive, the results are remarkable. The Carrera T feels even more tactile and lively, with more feedback and more control.
The sports suspension makes it more controlled, too, with minimal lean in corners even in the softest damper setting. Ramp things up a bit and the body stays almost completely flat, even in fast corners.
That allows you to take full advantage of the massive grip provided by the fat tyres, and you can hurl the nose towards the apex of a corner with gusto. We haven’t sampled the Carrera T on track yet - it didn’t seem right with a Cabriolet - but it makes the Porsche a stellar road car that’s as well-suited to a good back road as the more powerful, more expensive GTS models. It has the same controllability and stability, but it feels even more tactile and raw, despite having less power. But the involvement provided by that gearbox makes an enormous difference.
With a nice, mechanical feel to the shift and a well-judged clutch, it’s really easy to use, while the open-pore wood gear knob feels pleasant in your palm. It’s an analogue set-up and combined with the noise provided by that flat-six engine, it makes the experience even more visceral than the GTS. You feel much more like a part of the machine, and you’re more in tune with the car as a result.
There is a catch, though. The ‘T’ might be more analogue and more tactile than the GTS, but it’s also less comfortable. The GTS is already borderline intolerable at low speeds, and the Carrera T is certainly no better. With the dampers in their ‘normal’ mode, it’s acceptable enough on the motorway, but hitting a pothole below 50km/h is an unpleasant experience, and it’s only a bit better at 100km/h.
In fairness, the Carrera T isn’t quite as boneshaking as a GT3 or GT3 RS, but it isn’t that far behind, and that limits its usefulness. Where a Targa 4 GTS or even a Carrera GTS Cabriolet will be soft enough to use on a daily or semi-daily basis, you’ll quickly tire of the Carrera T’s stiffness if you use it too often. Instead, this is really a toy for high days and holidays. A brilliant toy, but a toy, nonetheless.
All that being said, however, we have to praise certain aspects of the Carrera T Cabriolet’s design. Though it’s a stripped-out and lightened version of the Carrera, it still comes with plenty of creature comforts, including an electrically operated wind deflector that helps to make the cockpit much less turbulent when the roof is down, albeit fractionally noisier. And though soundproofing isn’t exactly plentiful in the Carrera T, with the roof up, it strikes a good balance between refinement and aural excitement.
A look inside the Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet
The Carrera T has much the same interior upgrades as every other latest-generation 911 model, with the classic dashboard design punctuated by a touchscreen infotainment system and the new digital instrument display, which replaces the old ‘hybrid’ arrangement with an analogue rev counter flanked by screens. You can see the new system from the driving seat, which is a marked improvement on the old 911, but it doesn’t quite have the soul of the traditional clocks.
However, Porsche has tried to give the Carrera T a bit more character with a few interior upgrades. The black-trimmed cabin is lightened by the beautiful open-pore wooden gear knob, which finishes off a short gear selector, while there’s a 911 logo in the head restraints of the black, four-way electrically adjustable sports seats and there’s an ‘MT’ logo (which stands for ‘manual transmission’) on the centre console. Customers also get the heated GT sports steering wheel as standard, complete with a driving mode switch for the Sport Chrono Package, while there’s another manual gearbox logo on the passenger side of the dashboard.
Naturally, Porsche is offering all manner of optional extras and personalisation options - our test car came with blue plaid fabric seat inlays and blue dashboard trim accents - but the quality remains the same regardless of the specification. The materials are great and everything feels well made, including that glorious gear lever.
The amount of space available doesn’t change either, although it isn’t as impressive as the build quality. A 135-litre boot looks pretty pathetic on paper - you’ll get more space in a Kia Picanto - but the tub under the bonnet is practically shaped and surprisingly roomy when you start loading it up. There’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to use it for a weekend away if you use soft holdalls rather than solid suitcases.
And if you do run out of room, you can always use the back seats as a kind of glorified parcel shelf. You can even do it when the roof is folded, thanks to the wind deflector that effectively seals off the back seats. And anyway, it’s much kinder to put luggage in there than people. Those seats are only really suitable for children, and then only if those in the front are relatively short.
The Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet’s on-board technology
The Carrera T doesn’t really get any high-tech updates compared with the standard Carrera, but it doesn’t lose out on anything, either. While Porsche may claim to have lightened it, the Carrera T still comes with electrically adjustable seats, climate control and navigation, which is accessed via a big touchscreen with Porsche’s latest operating system. It’s slick and easy to use, but it isn’t quite as impressive as the new digital instrument cluster, which was pinched from the Taycan and offers more configuration options and a pin-sharp display.
Aside from that, however, the Carrera T (and the Carrera generally) is still fairly analogue. Yes, the ‘turnkey’ ignition switch has been replaced with a boring button, but Porsche has kept plenty of conventional switchgear on display, including the climate control system and steering wheel buttons. That makes it easier to operate on the move, and when you’re driving as hard as the Carrera T demands to be driven, that’s a positive thing.
How much will the Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet cost in Ireland?
At just shy of €240,000, the Carrera T Cabriolet is an expensive car. So expensive, in fact, that it costs almost €25,000 more than the basic Carrera Cabriolet with which it shares so much. That’s a lot of extra money for something less comfortable and no more powerful, not to mention little better equipped.
Admittedly, the T comes with the Sport Chrono Package and all its driving modes as standard, and you get the grey details and the manual gearbox, but that’s about it. Otherwise, you get the same standard equipment as the Carrera Cabriolet, with heated seats, a reversing camera and climate control all thrown in. You get a touchscreen navigation system and a digital instrument display as standard, too, which is a surprise for something supposedly lightweight...
The reasons you’d buy a Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet
A lightweight convertible 911 isn’t especially easy to justify on paper, and unless you can afford a €240,000 toy, it’ll be hard to justify in the real world, too. But despite being too stiff for everyday use and mightily expensive, the Carrera T is still brilliant at what it does: putting a smile on your face. It’s more engaging and more exciting than a Carrera Cabriolet, and while the standard car is much more user-friendly on a mundane commute, the Carrera T is the car you want on a country road on a sunny Sunday. In that situation, it suddenly becomes worth every cent of its asking price.
Ask us anything about the Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet
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