991 CARRERA T
Rather than adding power, add lightness. Colin Chapman used this idea to great effect with his Lotus race cars. Porsche has done much the same with its road cars. The natural conclusion of this approach, as well as Porsche's seemingly tireless pursuit of niches within niches, was the 911 Carrera T. Launched as part of the 991 generation, it became one of the best — and, indeed, best value — options in the range and therefore one of the most desirable 911s of modern times. Is this still the case, though? With a new 911 Carrera T now on the market, we decided to revisit ‘old faithful’ to see whether it remains as compelling as we remember, and to find out whether progress is always a good thing.
The 991 Carrera T still looks the part, primarily because the 991 still looks the part. One of the advantages of the 911’s instantly recognisable shape is how it doesn't age — with the possible exception of the 996, pretty much every 911 since the 964 looks cool and contemporary. Nevertheless, the 991 was launched more than a decade ago, meaning we're dealing with no spring chicken. Even this Carrera T, now five years old, issingling out the Carrera T on launch back in 2017. The dark twenty-inch alloys, the aerodynamically optimised front spoiler, the sports exhaust and the dark mirror caps are all clues, as is the fractionally more aggressive stance afforded by the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) system, which sees the car sit ten millimetres closer to the ground than the standard Carrera.
