The Porsche 911 Carrera T Is A Lighter, Faster, Manual-Shifting Thrill-Seeker

Porsche has revealed a stripped-out, faster 911 called the Carrera T. Reviving a badge first seen on a 911 in 1968, the Carrera T, or Touring, has just two seats in the name of weight reduction (bro).

You’ll also find nylon door-opening loops instead of proper handles, plus thinner, lighter glass for the rear windscreen and side-rear panes. There’s less soundproofing material throughout, and you can remove the Porsche Communication Management system for an extra chunk off. Note the gaping centre console hole in the pic further down the page.

No Bluetooth also gives you another excuse not to answer the phone when you’re out in the Carrera T for a morning hoon.

The net weight loss is only actually 20kg, which is about a quarter of an average passenger. The engine is the same as that in the base 911 Carrera, so that’s a 365bhp turbocharged flat-six measuring 3.0 litres in displacement. Power to weight rises 3.5bhp per tonne, from 252.6bhp to 256.1bhp.

Torque is again identical, at 332lb ft between 1750 and 5000rpm. Of course, one of the best things about this engine is that, unlike a lot of its turbo’d equivalents, it still likes to be revved hard and happily tips its cap to a lead-footed driver.

Interestingly, the Carrera T swaps the regular car’s seven gear ratios for shorter ones for the first few cogs, which gives it a little more zest off the line. The slight weight cut alone isn’t enough to make the car measurably faster, but with shorter ratios in the manual gearbox (hooray!) it’s a cheeky tenth of a second quicker to 62mph, at 4.5 seconds. Equip the PDK and that falls to 4.2 seconds.

It’s still no GTS, but it’s sure as hell fast enough.

Top speed is ‘over 180mph,’ which appears to be significant to the brand. It highlights a long tradition of Carrera models that will pass the milestone on a long straight. Today’s standard Carrera will touch 183mph as a manual, and 182mph with PDK.

Classic Porsche behaviour is to charge more for less, and guess what? The stripped-out Carrera T is £7685 more expensive than the standard version for some reason.

Prices for the T start at £85,576 in the UK, and rest assured there’ll be a million ways for you to spend more on options, most of which will help eliminate your original weight saving. Orders can be taken now, but deliveries won’t start until January. We assume that it’ll also be offered as part of Porsche’s subscription service.