New Porsche 911 Carrera T: the lightweight 911

It's T for Touring: new 911 is even lighter than the base Carrera S

Porsche 911 Carrera TPorsche has revealed a new 911 Carrera T model, a ‘back to basics’ variant where the ‘T’ stands for ‘Touring’ and the emphasis is on simplicity and light weight. It costs from £85,576 and ordering is open now.

Reviving the name of the original 1968 911 T, the new 2018 Carrera T has a focused mechanical specification. It is rear-wheel drive, comes with a manual gearbox and has a sporty rear differential lock as standard. It is also fitted with rear-axle steering, something unavailable on the standard 911 Carrera.

Porsche 911 Carrera T

Porsche also fits PASM adaptive suspension as standard, which is lowered by 20mm compared to the regular Carrara, as well as the Sport Chrono Package. This is why the new 911 Carrara T costs £7,685 more than the base 911.

Despite the extra features, it’s 20kg lighter than the 911 Carrera, courtesy of some neat weight-saving features. Porsche has fitted lightweight glass for the rear windows, and replaced the regular doorhandles with fabric opening loops. There are no rear seats and even the PCM infotainment system has been removed.

Both rear seats and infotainment can, however, be added back on – at no extra cost. A genuine ‘base spec’ 911 Carrera T is thus expected to be something of a rarity…

Porsche uses smart Sport-Tex fabric for the seats, in place of the default leather, and fits a shortened gearlever with the seven-speed shift pattern marked out in red. Full bucket seats are offered as an option for the first time in a 911 Carrera, and standard black dash trim can be enhanced by a ‘T’ interior package, bringing either Racing yellow, Guards red or GT silver seatbelts and seat stitching. Those new door opening loops are also colour-keyed.

Exterior colour choice is Black, Lava orange, Guards red, Racing yellow, White or Miami blue, plus metallic Carrera white, Jet black or GT silver. All 911 Carrera T have Agate grey metallic door mirrors, Titan grey 20-inch alloys from the Carrera S and ‘911 Carrara T’ decals on the lower body sides. At the rear, the model designation decals on the engine cover are also finished in Agate grey.

A sports exhaust system is standard, but the 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbo engine has, at 370hp, no more power than the regular 911 Carrera. Porsche has fitted shortened gear ratios though, which helps it accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds, 0.1 seconds faster than the normal model.

The firm will also fit the PDK automatic gearbox for those less fussed by the back-to-basics approach; this cuts the 0-62mph time to 4.2 seconds.

Porsche expects first deliveries for the new 911 Carrera T from January 2018.

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Richard Aucock
Richard Aucockhttps://www.richardaucock.co.uk/
Richard is director at Motoring Research. He has been with us since 2001, and has been a motoring journalist even longer. He won the IMCO Motoring Writer of the Future Award in 1996 and the acclaimed Sir William Lyons Award in 1998. Both awards are run by the Guild of Motoring Writers and Richard is currently vice chair of the world's largest organisation for automotive media professionals. Richard is also a juror and Steering Committee director for World Car Awards and the UK juror for the AUTOBEST awards.

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