In a special episode of The Smoking Tire’s One Take series, Matt Farah brought along a friend in the form of Spike Feresten for a glorious drive in the canyons with a pair of special Porsches. Because Porsche loaned a 911T to Farah for the week, he called up Feresten who owns a GT3 Touring to bring it out for a back to back comparison. The two Porsches are actually quite similar when you think about it. They’re both driver-oriented 911s with scads of sporty packages made standard, manual transmissions, and a fistful of fun. The 911T was developed by the same people that made the GT3, Porsche’s GT team, so it bears some of the same DNA.
First up is the new Carrera T
With some lightweight touches, standard sport suspension and sport exhaust, a limited slip differential, plus the wider fenders of the Carrera S, this little monster punches way above its weight class. Even with the widebody, the 911T weighs about 44 pounds lighter than the lightest base 911. This one was optioned with carbon rotors and optional rear-steer (which isn’t an option on base Carreras, by the way), which made the 911T *feel* much lighter than it actually is. Interestingly, the 911 Carrera T is a handful of pounds heavier than the GT3, but both Matt and Spike commented that if felt lighter. That’s the suspension tuning and Porsche magic sauce making it feel that way.
As Matt said later in a comment on the YouTube video, “The weight isn’t that big of a deal. It’s much more how light it FEELS than how light it IS. The LSD, PASM, sport suspension, and most importantly, rear steer (not available on Carrera) add an extra level of agility to the Carrera T you don’t get with the base car. Sure, it’s a nuanced difference, but a difference nonetheless.”
Put back to back with the GT3, obviously that’s most of us would choose the GT3, and of course Spike and Matt both say as much in the video. However, that the Carrera T can even be mentioned in the same breath says a lot for this particular Porsche’s capability.
