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REVIEW: Porsche 911T provides speed you need

According to West Vancouver Police, vehicle impounds for speeding have approximately doubled this year. Of particular note is the rash of impounds that happen on Cypress Bowl Road, which was roughly two dozen at last count. Some advice then.

According to West Vancouver Police, vehicle impounds for speeding have approximately doubled this year. Of particular note is the rash of impounds that happen on Cypress Bowl Road, which was roughly two dozen at last count.

Some advice then. First, watch your speed everywhere. Second, definitely watch your speed on Cypress, especially on the downhills. And third, maybe having the fastest car on the road is something of a liability.

Good news, then, for Porsche fans, because there’s a new iteration of the 911, and while it’s not the fastest one, it might be the best. There are currently 23 versions of the 911 (one wonders if the West Van Police will end up catching one of each, like Pokemon), and as far as road cars go, the 911T slots in just above the basic Carrera, and it might be the best of the bunch.

Bench racers obsessed with data need not apply. Those who want a sporting machine from Stuttgart that doesn’t feel like you’ve got to drive around on eggshells all the time might want to take a closer look.

Design

When discussing the 911, there’s a temptation to just write in, “Design: see previous,” and leave it at that. Porsche’s design department often takes a great deal of mockery for being the laziest on the planet, as the cars look the same, year after year.

Mind you, that’s the trick. Given the chance to reinvent the breed time and again, a designer can let their imagination run wild. With the 911, you’ve got to balance modern requirements for efficient aerodynamics and safety with a purist-pleasing shape.

Anyway, meet the new 911, roughly the same as the old 911. Compared to the entry-level Carrera, the 911T sits 10 millimetres lower, and comes with 20-inch wheels as standard. You can get a “911T” script on the flanks and rear, to let everyone know it’s a bit special, and the standard sports exhaust features dual tailpipes that are a little closer together than the base model.

Everything’s pretty subtle (assuming you don’t get a yellow one), which is kind of the point of a 911. The 911T doesn’t have flashy aero-kit or huge wings – it’s what’s inside that counts.

Environment

Porsche makes much of the 911T being the lightest model in the 911 range, but don’t be fooled. While the three rear glass panels are made of lighter glass (the same stuff as your iPhone screen, actually), and the inner door pulls are fabric, it’s only slightly lighter than standard.

Most of the shed weight comes from optioning the fixed-back carbon-fibre seats, which come with a no-charge rear-seat delete. As optioned, the 911T becomes a sort of GT3 Lite, with less power than Porsche’s track-focused terror, but the same stripped-down ethos.

You would have to be nuts to order a 911T this way. Yes, you can’t get this seat option in the base Carrera, but it’s a near-$6,000 cost. Further, what’s the point of buying a 2+2 street car and deleting the +2 part? And last, while the fixed-back seats are great for a day at the track, anyone who wants to use their 911T for touring won’t love the lack of adjustability when you’ve been on the road for a while.

Instead, buy the 911T as basic as you can, keeping as close to the $116,500 entry price as possible. Everything in Porsche World costs an arm and a leg, so be aware that contrasting colours will set you back $2,740, although it does spice up the spartan interior a little. If you’re parsimonious with the add-ons, it should be possible to get out the door for around $120,000, with a lightly personalized car.

With the lightest of equipment, the 911T is comfortable for driver and passenger, has a usefully sized front-trunk, and the rear seats accommodate kids far better than the previous-generation 997-chassis 911 ever did. You could drive it every day.

Performance

Now, when I say that the 911T uses the same engine as the basic Carrera and is thus at the low end of the power scale, that’s not to say it’s slow. The 370 horsepower twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre flat-six produces torque at a much lower r.p.m. than the old naturally aspirated engines, with 331 foot-pounds of torque from 1,700 r.p.m.

With Porsche’s excellent PDK double-clutch gearbox optioned, the basic Carrera will sprint to 100 km/h in a claimed 4.4 seconds, and almost every instrumented test has produced lower times. With a little less weight, the 911T should be even quicker, but again, buying the PDK version might be a mistake.

Instead, go for the seven-speed manual, which features shorter throws, and slightly different weighting. You will be a few tenths slower around a track, but the payoff is huge.

Where the top-end Porsche products are built around flattering the driver into thinking they’re faster than they actually are, a manual transmission 911T requires a bit of effort. That effort leads to reward, and as the 911T also has much of the standard sound-deadening material removed, the reward comes at lower speeds.

With less power on tap, a shifter to manage, and more noise filtering into the cabin, the sensation of speed is greater. You could be pacing a Cayenne Turbo on the highway, and while its occupants would be riding in an isolation chamber, you’d feel like you were flying.

And, because this is a modern 911, it’s not wearying. The standard sport suspension is stiff but not rough. The engine note is thrilling, not droning. And the base seats are a near-perfect blend of lateral grip and long-distance comfort. You don’t fall into them the way you do with the optional carbon-fibre buckets.

Cornering grip is immense, more than you’d ever need on the street, and while the steering isn’t the road-braille feedback of the old air-cooled models, it’s direct, accurate, and keeps you engaged. In fact, the whole car is built around keeping the driver engaged, which means that you are aware of your speed without being afraid of wandering over the limit.

Turns out the ideal way to avoid ending up with your car on a flatbed en route to the impound lot isn’t to buy the dullest machine out there, but to opt for a car that keeps you in the moment and paying attention. The 911T makes you want to drive farther, not faster, and what better accolade could there be for a 911 than that?

Features

Available in fewer colours than the regular Carrera, the 911T does come with a huge list of optional extras. Skip almost all of them, but do consider the upgraded headlights and perhaps the upgraded BOSE stereo for audiophiles. Note that the selectable drive modes are standard on the 911T, so you don’t need to pay extra for Porsche’s dash-mounted stopwatch.

The turbocharged 3.0-litre engine requires premium, as if you didn’t already expect such, with real-world mileage dipping if you lay into the boost. Official fuel economy is livable at 14.6 litres/100 km in the city and 9.4 l/100 km on the highway. Porsches are quite slippery, aerodynamically speaking, and highway mileage should be quite achievable at a trot.

Green light

Practical enough for touring, sporty enough for the track; well-packaged standard features; driver-first dynamics.

Stop sign

Not much lighter than the standard car; options can get crazy expensive; just-another-911 curb presence.

The checkered flag

The best 911 for the street, assuming you’re judicious with the extras.

Competition

Mercedes-Benz AMG GT: Pricing isn’t out yet for the most basic model of Mercedes’ sporting coupe, but with the GT C models priced similar to the higher-end 911s, this should be a straight across comparison. The AMG GT is down two seats compared to the 911, but it’s equally thrilling to drive.

With a beefy 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V-8 making some of the best noises out there with 469 h.p. on tap, the GT is possibly too fast for its own good (and your own good). However, compared to more composed machinery, it has a bit of that AMG hairiness about it, with a tendency to lift the nose when you dip into the throttle.

It’s a totally different experience than the 911T, but the idea is the same: keep the driver involved in what’s going on. As Mercedes is also headquartered in Stuttgart, make sure that you opt for European delivery on either one you choose, just so you can stretch their legs on the unrestricted Autobahn, and get the need for absolute speed out of your system.

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