Road Test: Porsche 911 2dr

That's it. After four happy years at Top Gear magazine, I'm off. I've got my mitts on a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 cabriolet, so my mission here has finally ended. See ya...The reason is quite simple. The flashest, most highly specified 911 that Porsche currently sells is just too nice to give back.

It has a four-wheel-drive system that sends 98 per cent of the torque to the rear wheels for all the thrills of a regular Carrera, yet that can swap 40 per cent to the fronts should conditions become worryingly slippy. This means the Carrera 4 is still the world's easiest supercar to live with day-to-day.

And if the AWD isn't enough to prevent things going too far, this car also boasts Porsche Stability Management - used, not to nanny the driver, but to keep the car from the brink by combining tweaks to the power delivery and ABS to grasp back control.

It also sports one of the world's most charismatic engines, a 24-valve flat six, replete with Variocam valve adjustment to help pump out a hefty 300bhp. And despite now being water-cooled, when properly thrashed it churns out the most fantastically spooky howl.Oh, it's got a surprisingly slick-shifting six-speed manual 'box too. And a speedy electric soft top. And a free aluminium hard top to keep bad weather (and yob's flick knives) out. And an auto-matic pop-up roll bar to prevent scalp-scraping moments should you find yourself upside down. There's even a very pleasant key fob thrown in too. Mine, mine, mine.

Even the cost is lower. In an attempt to keep up with increasing numbers of cheap personal imports from Europe, Porsche GB has wiped £3,070 off the old price - it's now a still-hefty £71,580.

But this investment does buy you one of the very best cars in the world. Just a trip to the local garage turns into the sort of experience that stays with you for years. There's fulsome pull on offer, instantly, with a stab of the drive-by-wire electronic throttle. Trips over previously tedious roads turn into howling, challenging epics, due to the car's superb cornering ability; despite an engine still protruding, baboon style, at the rear.

I'll let you in on a secret, the Boxster S would be an even better car, should it ever be blessed with the same power output. Its detuned flat-six engine sounds every bit as good, there's near-unstickable grip and with the powerplant in the car's centre, the Boxster S's road-holding is the more finely-balanced of the two. And annoyingly, it looks near-identical.

But you didn't want to hear that. Even if the Carrera 4 costs almost twice as much as the Boxster S? It's still an utterly fantastic car.

They'll need to saw my arm off if they want the keys back.