Today’s new flavour of Porsche 911 is the weight-stripped Carrera T

You there! Been desperate to buy a brand new Porsche 911 but furious that Stuttgart wouldn’t allow you to combine the basic 370bhp Carrera engine with a manual gearbox? 

What’s that? You desired a 911 with no back seats but resented having to buy the GT3? Well we’ve got good news, friend. The new 911 Carrera T is here, and it’s basically a lightweight version of the least powerful 992 coupe. 

In the olden days, we’d call this a poor person’s GT3. But we won’t now, for two reasons. 

Firstly, it costs £98,500. That’s £8,700 more than a bog-standard Carrera. This ain’t a poor person’s anything. 

Secondly, the old 991 Carrera T was a pucker little hidden gem in the 911 line-up, low on weight and complication yet rich in feedback and fun. So this new version could be a sweet spot bullseye.

Row the seven-speed manual quickly enough and the Carrera T will get you and your one-and-only passenger from 0-62mph 4.5 seconds. If you’re in Germany it’ll stroll down the autobahn at up to 181mph. But this is not a top-speedy kind of car. It’s a nerdy-details kinda car.

So, you get a limited slip differential as standard, with torque-vectoring capability to help the car pivot around a corner. The adaptive suspension is lowered by 10mm and you get a sports exhaust as standard, while options not allowed on the normal Carrera – like rear-wheel steering – are unlocked for the T.

Weighing in at 1,470kg, the T is also 35kg lighter than a normal Carrera with the PDK paddleshifters gearbox. Besides the lighter gearbox, that’s thanks to tweaks like thinner glass, a lithium-ion battery, and less soundproofing. A 911 that’s less golf club, and more club-racer. 

So, is this the 911 you’ve been waiting for? Don’t worry if not – there’ll probably be another new version next month…