► New Porsche 911 Carrera T review
► We drive latest 2023 Touring model
► One up from base version of 992
At a time when many manufacturers are streamlining ranges, stripping out complexity and reducing choice, Porsche is busy stretching its evergreen 911 into ever more varied nooks and crannies of the market. Spend any time on the online configurator (a lunch-hour time-vampire par excellence) and you’ll browse an extraordinary 26 derivatives, swollen by the newly off-road-prepped Dakar rally-raid version unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show and this Porsche Carrera T aimed at purists.
It’s not the first time Porsche has offered a Touring spec. The original T was a special offered from 1968-1973 and then in 2017 the Carrera T arrived as the second rung up the 991 ladder, proving so popular that it soon spread to the Boxster, Cayman and Macan line-ups.
Now there’s a 992-generation Carrera T surgically inserted into the narrowest of gaps between the base Carrera and Carrera S, priced at £98,500. Yes, you’ll soon struggle to join the 911 club for less than six figures, folks.
The new 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera T: what you get for your money
The appeal of the T lies in its careful blend of options thrown in for a modest uplift; this is pitched as a sensible step up from the base model and, now that the Carrera is no longer offered with a manual gearbox, this is the starter 911 for DIY cog-swapping enthusiasts.
It’s £8700 more than a 911 Carrera and just £4300 less than a 65bhp brawnier Carrera S. Boxes ticked on the 992-generation Carrera T include:
- PASM sports suspension package, which adds adaptive dampers and lowers the ride height by 10mm
- Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) with rear differential to boost traction
- Porsche Sports Exhaust for improved aural enjoyment of the Carrera’s flat six
- Electric sports seats to grip you firmly in place
- Sport Chrono package with timer and tyre temperature read-out
There’s also a host of lightweighting and spec changes, that we’ll detail shortly. Interestingly, there is no difference in price between the manual and the PDK transmissions. Take your pick and both will cost you £98,500 in the UK once first customer cars arrive in March 2023.
How to spot the Carrera T on the road
The visual makeover is so subtle that you may need an advanced degree in automotive anoraking to spot the new 911 T. Telltales are the smoked titanium grey Carrera S wheels (20 inches up front, 21s on the rear axle), rather more obvious Carrera T door decals, gloss black exhaust pipes and darker Agate Grey accents for the door mirrors and rear deck.
It’s a subtle makeover, but boy does this 911 look good: all modest brawn without the OTT addenda that dilute the purity of loftier (and fussier) Turbo and GT models.
Climb onboard and you’ll notice there are no back seats as standard (you can spec them back in for no extra cost). The Carrera T foregoes a rear pew to save weight. Ditto thinner glass saving nearly five kilos, a lightweight battery and the manual transmission, adding up to a handy 35kg weight saving over an entry-level Carrera.
The messaging is loud and clear – this is the lightest series 911 for purists. Time to fire up the 3.0-litre flat six and see what it’ll do…
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Porsche 911 Carrera T review (2023): how does it drive?
There’s less insulation, as befits the Carrera T’s more focused mission, and reduced soundproofing means you’ll hear more road noise. Loose road chippings clatter away at the underbody but the turbocharged engine is remarkably civilised at a cruise, humming away unobtrusively around town or on the motorway, only coming to life as we wend north out of Los Angeles on the eve of the motor show to the mountain ranges lying north of the city centre.
The gearlever is 10mm stubbier with a lovely, precisely machined action (though you’ll likely still get confused by the labyrinthine seven-speed gate) and soon we’re stoking the Carrera T up the Angeles Crest Highway.
Considering this is the entry-level 380bhp Carrera engine, many drivers will want for no more. With 1385 kilos of mass to move, performance is effortless and you’ll enjoy keeping the flat six on the boil, the PSE exhaust bringing sonic boom to accompany swift progress as we climb up the snaking mountain pass, littered with debris from a storm the night before.
Select Sport mode to engage rev-syncro for blippy downchanges, perfectly executed every time, or have a go yourself, with those trademark Porsche pedals well placed for heel ’n’ toe heroics.
Porsche quotes 0-62mph in 4.5sec and I’d question anyone who feels they need more than that on the public road, even on the steep gradients on offer in the Californian hillsides. Performance is exquisitely judged and you can exploit the Carrera T more often, more easily – especially on the fast-flowing roads you’ll find here. Spec the PDK twin-clutch auto and a full second is lopped off the 0-62mph sprint.
The Carrera T chassis keeps the 332lb ft of turbocharged torque in check, even during the twistiest mountain sections. All-wheel steering is an option (as is the PDK auto transmission), but our advice is to keep it simple. Two driven and steered wheels, gears selected by your left hand, no options really necessary.
Interior
There’s not much in here to give the game away, apart from the lack of rear seats. There’s a band of grey tint to the windscreen and decorative inlays on the dash combine matte and high-gloss black trim for a serious, focused demeanour. As with the exterior colour choices, you can obviously go wild with the options menu if you need more colour (for instance, the Carrera T interior pack conjures up Lizard Green seatbelts, if you’re feeling brave!).
Four-way adjustable electric Sports Seats Plus are standard, 18-way Adaptive Sports Seat and full buckets are offered as extras (though some seats are currently delayed by production glitches). The standard Carrera T seats are comfortable and grip you in place, but felt quite hard after a three-hour drive.
All core 911 attributes shine through: this is an easy car to see out of and position on the road. Interior logic is exemplary and the quality of fit and finish is exquisite throughout, with special mention to the oiled precision of major controls and pedals (a Porsche trademark). Shame our vehicle’s Apple CarPlay connection was unreliable, cutting navigation adrift on a couple of occasions during our test drive.
Porsche 911 Carrera T: verdict
Porsche’s genius is to evolve the 911 range into the most complete family of sports cars imaginable. When you check the company’s margins and results, you realise it is genius – to spin off every which bodystyle and flavour of nine-eleven profitably, to allow well-heeled enthusiasts to tailor the sports car to their whim.
How to summarise the new Porsche 911 Carrera T? It’s a Goldilocks moment: purists may demand more grunt and more go, track-day fanatics may still lust after the GT models and the open-air brigade will seek out a 911 Cabriolet – hell, rally-raiders with money to burn can even now pick the go-anywhere Dakar.
But this is 911kind at its purest: modest muscle that’s just enough, yet never not enough. T stands for terrific.
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