Porsche 911 Carrera T Cabriolet 2025 review: Not for the diehards, perhaps, but everyone else will adore it
Not everyone's cup of T
There are unwritten rules about what a “proper” driver’s car should be. Lightness is key, because weight is the enemy of handling and performance, while power is desirable, but not essential. You need enough of it, but not too much, otherwise it’ll become a monster that terrifies more than it thrills. But the non-negotiables are that the power goes to the back wheels — after all, nobody likes understeer — and there’s a manual gearbox.
All of which means the Porsche 911 Carrera T stands a fairly good chance of being the best driver’s car in the world. A lightly pared-back version of the basic 911 Carrera, it comes with a load of lightweight tweaks, including the glass, reduced soundproofing and a featherweight manual gearbox. You still get navigation and climate control, which makes it feel as though Porsche isn’t that serious about weight-shedding with this model, but you can have special seats that help to make the Carrera T about 40kg lighter than the equivalent 911 Carrera.
There’s more driver-orientated goodness, too. The Carrera T comes with the Sport Chrono Package as standard, giving access to a host of driving modes, and it gets Porsche’s sportier suspension, which sees the car hug the road a little more tightly.
What’s more, Porsche has fitted four-wheel steering as standard, as well as tuning the front steering rack itself.
In terms of power, though, Porsche hasn’t really changed anything. The Carrera T has the same 3-litre turbocharged flat-six petrol engine as the standard Carrera, complete with the same 389bhp output and the same rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive layout. So, there’s enough power — the Carrera T is still quick — but not so much power that you’re terrified by even the slightest twitch from your right foot.
So far, then, the Carrera T ticks all the boxes, but there’s nothing all that new about it.
But now, Porsche has done something a little bit controversial. You see, the Carrera T has always been available solely in Coupé form. It’s lighter than the 911 Cabriolet, which has a heavy electrically folding roof, and it’s stiffer than the Cabriolet, because the roof is structural and hasn’t been chopped away.
Now, though, there’s an open-top Carrera T on the market, and that’s a bit of a contradiction. After all, why shave 40kg from the car’s kerb weight if you’re just going to ruin it structurally and put that weight back in the form of extra strengthening and a heavy roof system?
It’s a good question, and one that Porsche hasn’t really answered. Although that might be because it would rather let the car do the talking.
And it definitely talks quite loudly. Porsche has fitted a sports exhaust as standard, so while the 3-litre engine is identical to that of a basic 911 Carrera, it sounds a bit gutsier. Especially when you engage the sportiest exhaust setting and give it the beans. It makes this animalistic snarl as the rev needle canters towards the red line, then you get pops and crackles on the overrun.
It’s fabulous, and because there’s no roof, you feel even closer to it than you would in a Carrera Coupé. Even when the roof is up, the lack of soundproofing makes it little quieter than when it’s folded away.
But the thing that really brings you closer to the action is the six-speed manual gearbox, complete with its open-pore wood gear knob and stubby lever. The idea is that it looks and feels classic and mechanical, and Porsche has nailed both briefs. It looks good in the cabin, it feels great in your palm and the action is beautifully engineered. It makes you feel as though you’re an integral part of the machine, and that’s exactly how a driver’s car should be.
The catch is that those who choose the Carrera T to show off to their mates will be doomed to disappointment. Because while you get all the chassis upgrades and the sports exhaust, the Carrera T’s performance figures are less impressive than those of the standard Carrera. As the base car comes with a double-clutch automatic gearbox, its gearchanges are lightning fast, so getting from 0-62mph takes about four seconds. The Carrera T Cabriolet, meanwhile, takes more than half a second longer to reach 62mph, and its top speed of 182mph is much the same.
It doesn’t even look all that different, although you do get plenty of stickers. Grey decals run down the doors, and they’re matched by grey badging, grey mirror housings and grey alloy wheels. You get grey manual gearbox motifs on the dashboard and the rear windows, too. The only real change to the bodywork, then, is the addition of the aerodynamically optimised spoiler lip from the Carrera GTS.
The interior isn’t much different, either. You get the same digital instrument display, the same touchscreen and the same basic dashboard layout, albeit with the manual gear lever rather than the toggle switch you find in automatic cars.
Yet, of all the latest-generation 911s I’ve driven, this is by far my favourite — at least for a blast through the English countryside. The suspension tweaks have made the Carrera T very firm, almost to the point of being intolerable at low speeds, where speed bumps smack your spine mercilessly and the car is battered by the potholes. It’s so unpleasant at times that we could never recommend using the Carrera T every day.
But it does settle down on the motorway, so long distances aren’t as intimidating as they might sound. And find a good country road and the downsides just melt away, lost in a promised land of mechanical engagement, steering feel and sound. Four-wheel steering may sound like an unnecessary barrier between your fingertips and the road, but Porsche has engineered it so well that you barely notice. All you really notice is the car tucking itself into corners willingly at lower speeds, and the immense amount of feel you have for the front wheels through the updated steering system.
The standard Carrera Cabriolet already had gorgeous steering, but the Carrera T just feels that bit livelier and involving.
But the manual gearbox is the biggest draw of the Carrera T. Unless you choose a GT3 model, in which case you have to have a Coupé, the Carrera T is the only current-generation 911 so far launched with a manual gearbox, and it’s all the better for it. The automatic is great on paper, and great when you’re cruising down a Spanish coast road, but the manual is what you want on a scream through the North York Moors.
And the car will definitely scream. There’s a sadistic joy in pinning the throttle and torturing the flat-six until the little yellow shift lights meet at the top of the digital instrument display. The noise is as biblical as it is addictive, and I found I could easily have lost hours on my favourite roads in the Carrera T. It’s a car you drive not because you have to, but because you want to. And when the sun’s out, the roof’s down and the exhaust note rumbles off the hillside, you really, really want to drive the Carrera T.
There are other problems, beyond a harsh ride, including the ‘scrub’ from the front tyres if you try to manoeuvre while they’re cold, the lack of rear visibility when the roof is up, and the cramped nature of the rear seats and luggage bay, the Carrera T still manages to be brilliant.
But on the right road, and on the right day, it’s worth every penny of the £121,300 price tag, with the manual gearbox and folding roof taking you to some kind of motoring Nirvana.
The rest of the time, though, the standard Carrera Cabriolet will offer 95 per cent of the capability and costs £10,000 less, which makes the T a tricky thing to justify.
It’s still one of the best drivers’ cars out there, if not the best, and if you judge such cars on whether they make you want to head out on the road, it takes some beating.
Every other car launched this year is going to have to be pretty spectacular if it wants to beat this as my favourite drive of 2025.
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