Great Expectations

The new Porsche 911 Carrera T has lightweight windows, no rear seats and a limited-slip diff; so is it the recipe for the perfect Carrera?

- Adam Towler

PORSCHE IS RETURNING TO THE Monte Carlo Rally.’ Yes! I digest the first line of Porsche’s Carrera T press material and my heart rate soars: images don’t come much more seductive than that of a factoryentered 911 Carrera broadside on compacted snow and sheet ice, its flat-six hysterically headbutting the limiter as it battles with a treacherous Col de Vence stage. The thought alone gives me goosebumps, and I’m designing the car’s livery in my head already.

Sadly and of course inevitably, this is not going to be the case, as the second line confirms with depressingly corporate bonhomie. It reads along the lines of ‘your test drive route today will take you to the place where Porsche made history’ etc, and there are the same accompanying images of times long ago – Vic Elford, the Alméras brothers, and so on. Raised expectations dashed by underwhelming reality: let’s hope that doesn’t turn out to be a metaphor for the new Carrera T.