THE 911 RANGE WAS ONCE SO SIMPLE. Go back 25 years to when the 996 first landed (yes the water-cooled 911 really is 25 years old; makes you want to say 'I remember when they were new' but then you realise how old that makes you sound) and you had the Carrera and the Turbo. Oh, and there was something called the GT3, soon followed by the GT2. Then four-wheel-drive Carreras appeared alongside their rear-driven brethren, cabriolet models followed the original coupes, and the Targa-cum-hatch-back arrived soon after. And that appeared to be that - until the Carrera 4S arrived and Porsche plugged itself into the derivatives mainline, something it's been hooked on ever since.
The latest round of 'which new 911 should I pick today?' has recently gained a new entrant in the guise of the T. It's a variant that was introduced as a run-out for the 991-generation 911 and, before that, in 1967 when Porsche went looking for a way to offer a 911 for broadly the same money as a four-cylinder 912 but with the more desirable flat-six motor. The result was the 911 T, which went on to win the Monte Carlo Rally a year later.
Today's 911 Carrera T won't be going anywhere near a competitive rally stage, although the Angeles Crest Highway where we're enjoying our first taste would make a cracking tarmac stage. The new 'T' sits between the Carrera and the more powerful Carrera S and tempts you in with a specification that mixes elements of the two. And the result is... well worth waiting for.
It's a simple recipe that takes the regular Carrera's lower-powered 380bhp 3-litre twin-turbo engine and adds Porsche's active dampers and 10mm lower sports chassis, a sports exhaust and mechanical differential and, for the first time, offers the combination of the lower-powered engine with the seven-speed manual gearbox. It's a recipe that certainly hits the spot.
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