Porsche 911 Carrera T review: the sweet spot of the range?

This is the car for those who want a 911 not as hardcore or hard-to-get-hold-of as a GT3 or GT3 RS, but that still offers some driver focus and lightweight goodies. Sitting somewhere between the base-spec 911 Carrera and the Carrera S the Carrera T doesn’t do anything new, but offers a collection of components and options you can’t get anywhere else, with a little heritage story thrown in to tug at your heart strings.

Yep. The T stands for Touring and harks back to the 911 T built between 1968 and 1973, at the time the entry-level 911. A race-prepped 911 T won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1968… Porsche’s first ever Monte win. The ‘T’ badge was resurrected as a lighter, more-focused version of the 991-generation 911 in 2017, before being slapped on the 718 Boxster and Cayman in 2018 and the Macan in 2022, all following a similar back-to-basics recipe. And now it’s back again, on the 992-generation car.

Go for the standard seven-speed manual (not normally offered on the entry-level 911), instead of the optional eight-speed PDK gearbox and total kerbweight is 1,470kg, 35kg lighter than the basic 911 Carrera (but still 20kg heavier than the 911 GT3). Achieving that figure isn’t all about pulling stuff out either, it’s a game of yo-yo between adding extra kit, and getting busy with the delete button. For example, the manual ‘box, removing the rear seats, lightweight glass and a lightweight battery all help to shed kgs, but 10mm lower PASM sports suspension, bigger 20- and 21-inch wheels from the Carrera S, a sports exhausts system and a mechanical rear diff add weight back in.

As a result, the 380bhp, twin-turbo, flat-six lifted directly from the Carrera launch it from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds and onto a top speed of 181mph. Pants will not be set on fire but, honestly, how fast do you need to go on the public road?