If you walk into a dealership of any of Porsche’s competition, you can plonk down a big stack of cash and drive out in a drop-top version of the company’s highest performance model. Ferrari has open top versions of its 769 horsepower hybrid mid-engine monster, as well as the standard F8 Spider, and even an Aperta version of the V12 track car 812 Competizione. OK, maybe none of those are direct competitors to Porsche’s 130,000 dollar 911 GT3, but you get my point, right? On the opposite end of the spectrum, Chevrolet is moving a ton of open-top track-ready C8-generation Corvettes. Everything else in the competitive set in between those two outliers is available as a convertible; R8 Spyder, AMG GT Roadster, Aston Vantage Roadster, Lexus LC 500, BMW M8. Why no GT3 Cab?
We’ve been over this before, but with a new 992-generation GT3 now on sale, it bears repeating. Porsche could sell a whole boatload of GT3 Cabs. And before you get started on the fact that Porsche sold a Speedster with the same 500-horsepower 4-liter engine found in the GT3, that’s not quite the same thing. The 991 Speedster was an amazing feat of Porsche engineering, but that car is not a GT3. For one thing, the Speedster was an extremely limited production vehicle with just 1948 units sold worldwide. There are that many GT3s sold in a single quarter, and I’d venture that at least a quarter more could be sold if it were offered with a convertible option.
If you want a more-than-standard convertible from the 911 lineup, your options are currently limited to the newly-launched pumped up 475-horsepower GTS and the bonkers fast Turbo and Turbo S. They’re great cars, don’t get me wrong, but none of those offer the flat-out track performance that many 911 owners love. Lots of other companies will build you a track-ready drop top, so it’s time for Porsche to stop losing potential market share to those inferior products and get the GT3 Cab on sale ASAP! They have the chassis, they have the engine, they have the gearbox. Let’s have it!