GENERATION GAME

Satisfying girth. Words more appropriate for a top-shelf magazine of a different nature, perhaps, but as I reacquaint myself with the 2018 Racing Yellow 991 Carrera T I was lucky enough to spend a week or so bombing around in when the car was new, I’m reminded how perfect the feel of its adjustable 360mm leather-trimmed GT sports steering wheel is. Steering wheel design seems to be something Porsche struggled with for many decades – I can’t be alone in thinking pretty much every one of the manufacturer’s production steering wheels have been a weak point of the host vehicle’s aesthetic from the mid-1970s all the way up to the arrival of the 991 exactly ten years ago, but here, in the sparse-for-modern-911-standards cockpit of the Carrera T, there’s nothing to complain about. The design was further refined for the 992 (and is a must-have £194 option on the current 911’s accompanying Individual Equipment list), but in the Carrera T, free of in-car entertainment control switches and PDK flappy paddles – yes, this not-so-mellow yellow narrow-body is equipped with a seven-speed manual gearbox – it’s easy to win the age-old argument less is more.

This is the theme Porsche wanted to promote with the 991 Carrera T (the T standing for ). It’s essentially a Carrera, but with luxury equipment stripped out, promoting something of a GT vibe. There’s “minimal” sound deadening, thinner glass, GT3-style door pulls, manually adjustable fabric-trimmed front pews, no rear seats, no air-conditioning and no audio equipment, all in the interests of reducing weight, though primarily for the benefit of Porsche’s marketing materials, rather than the development of a tangibly quicker Carrera. When