April 01
911 Turbo cabriolet: a curate’s egg?
Ashley Highfield writes:
I was loaned a Porsche Turbo Cabriolet Tiptronic for a couple of days, and had high expectations. I had previously driven a 997 S Coupe as an everyday car, and whilst it did everything extremely competently, from daily commute to a high speed drive to the south of France to track days at Cadwell Park, it ultimately left me cold.
The engine note never inspired, the car never felt special, the handling an acquired taste that as a lover of mid-engined cars, I never acquired. And it never felt fast enough. So I approached the Turbo with the view that perhaps this was the answer: more power, better handling, a different noise, and perhaps a sprinkling of magic. To be honest, it missed by a mile.
The Turbo, in cabriolet Tiptronic guise is a curates egg, good in the engine department, but performance and ultimately my confidence to exploit that potential dampened by turbo lag, an unresponsive auto box, and a cabrio body with all the compromises that implies.
The straight line acceleration is breathtaking, but needs to be mated to a manual gearbox (preferably paddle actuated), and I’d rather have a supercharger personally.
But I am missing the point, as anyone who buys a pearlescent white cabriolet Turbo is not buying the car for performance but posing, and I guess it does that very well. Whether its the kind of attention you want to attract is another matter.
The interior was even more basic than I expected, and the carbon fibre handbrake looked and felt tacky. Again, fine with a honed track day car, completely wrong for a Kings Road cruiser. For the same money, over £100k, I’d have a fully loaded V10 Audi R8 anytime: Germanic reliability and quality, amazing performance, memorable driving experience, in a stunning looking package.
Ashley
More on the 911 Turbo Cabriolet:
Review: Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet
London to Geneva and back in a 911 Turbo Cabriolet
Review: Porsche 911 Turbo
View photos of the 911 Turbo cabriolet from Live Search
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