Styling
While a Porsche 911 Cab is obviously designed to draw the eye, and indeed detractors of the whole S/C premise on principle will say soft-tops are 'cars for poseurs', the GT3 S/C is actually quite subtle in many ways. Sure, it has the twin-vented bonnet of any 992.2 GT3 derivative, and a big front splitter with an S/C graphic above it in the lower airdam, and gold centre-lock alloy wheels, and the central twin exhausts at the rear in a meaty diffuser... and, by crikey, using Paint To Sample (£14,664 a go) and the S/C-specific Street Style Package (£24,110), the injudicious operator of Porsche's configurator could end up with some jaw-dropping, eye-popping combinations. Witness the example in our pic gallery which was 914olympblue PTS with the SSP fitted, equating to a baby blue S/C with bright red graphics. And wheels. Umph.
However, done right (and there are many, many ways to do that with this car), we'd still say that aesthetically speaking, the S/C is much more in the demure wheelhouse of the
Touring than it is the
wild winged car with the Weissach and Club Sport Packages fitted.
And it's just glorious. Spare of gaudy details but oozing menace from its hunkered stance and understated purposefulness, the S/C is a magnificent piece of design. Those 20-inch front, 21-inch rear rims are forged-magnesium items, lifted from the old S/T, as are the spats at the trailing edge of the front wheel-arches and the scalloped-out wings, which lead to a sharp lateral crease running into the S/C's doors. Little 'S/C' decals and badges can be espied everywhere, the fabric roof (opens and closes fully automatically in 12 seconds, even on the move at speeds of up to 31mph) has magnesium inner parts to shave weight, all of the S/C's front wings, bonnet and even its doors are made of carbon fibre, and the ultra-discreet Gurney flap on the 911's rump is a particular delight. Overall, the S/C is visually bang on the money. There's not a thing about it we would change.
Interior
Taking the basic GT3 architecture and sprinkling upon it a few marvellous little touches, the cabin of the 911 S/C is another Porsche work of art. Really, the only key differences in here are the 'S/C' logos in various places (notably, behind the six-speed manual H-gate shifter and embroidered in a huge form on the rear bulkhead), the carbon door-pulls and fabric-loop openers, and the yellow-tinged dials in the 12.6-inch Curved Display instrument clusters. Seats are four-way electrically operated Sports Plus items as standard, but upgrades include the 18-way adjustable Adaptive Sports Plus chairs, or the exquisite carbon-shelled buckets with the folding backrests. They're not the easiest things to get into or out of, mind. Especially if you're of the bulkier persuasion, like this writer.
Practicality
The big news for the S/C, among all 992.2 Cabriolets, is that it's the only variant without rear seats. This, again, is a weight-saving mechanism and it does make the open-top GT3 feel that bit more special than all its stablemates. It's also no great loss to the 911's overall usability, seeing as the second-row pews in any Cab are pretty tight (and that's being kind), and it also leads to Porsche claiming this open area of the passenger compartment then serves as a
de facto boot of 373 litres, to go with the 132 litres of stowage under the bonnet.
Performance
In no way wishing to underplay the powertrain in the Porsche 911 GT3 S/C by making it (even if only distantly) sound anything as gauche as 'common', it shares the same 4.0-litre, normally aspirated, flat-six petrol engine with the other GT3s. Which in turn means, since the 2025 updates to bring it into line with global emissions regs, it develops 510hp and 450Nm. Wonderfully, Porsche positions the S/C as a kind of retro-gazing special that harks back to nostalgic times, so it is only sold with the six-speed manual transmission, with the PDK being strictly off-limits. Fabulous stuff from Stuttgart.
What with the carbon body panels, the forged-mag rims, the lightweight roof innards, the junking of the rear seats and the standard fitment of Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB), the company has managed to keep the S/C's weight down to less than 1.5 tonnes (it's specifically 1,497kg DIN). That means it is no less quick than the GT3 Touring manual, clocking off 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and able to run on, where legal and appropriate, to a V-max of 194mph.
Now, those of you who obsess about official performance data will note that the S/C is therefore not one of the quickest 911s you can buy right now. In fact, in accelerative terms, it's one of the slowest and it's separated by a significant gulf from the monster
Turbo S T-Hybrid Cabriolet, with which the S/C shares 911 soft-top flagship duties in a kind of dual-pronged assault on the senses.
But lasering in on the boring data is to entirely miss the point, and the irresistible allure, of the GT3 S/C. It might not be the outright swiftest, but it is, by a matter of miles, the most engaging 911 Cab, as it is the only manual in the line-up apart from the
Carrera T at the other end of the scale. And the Carrera T, as brilliant as it is, can never emit a symphony like the S/C does when it's working through its full vocal range.
The whole purpose of making an open-top GT3, effectively the first of its breed (more on this in the Value section), is so you can hear what is already one of the greatest engines ever committed to production in the automotive world that little bit better than you can in the two tin-topped alternatives from the same manufacturer. And it is simply
heavenly to be driving the S/C around, hood down, and listening to that 4.0-litre six barking into the air. That facet alone of the GT3 S/C is enough to turn every single moment in this singular 911 into a thoroughly memorable event. And it'll worm its way deep into your affections and never let you go if you never once so much as venture the far side of 6,000rpm; but once you do, and you take the Porsche all the way to the 9,000rpm redline, well... then it's a flawless acoustic showing. Flawless. There's no other adjective for it.
Ride & Handling
Terribly lazy of us, but if you want a thorough rundown of why the 992.2 911 GT3 is such a dreamy car held in the highest of petrolhead esteem by all and sundry, read one of our three reviews of the Touring and winged models on the links above. There are two articles in the Styling section to go at and one in the Intro. Please to enjoy.
What's absolutely crucial to understand, then, is that the S/C has lost
nothing of those GT3s' most venerated kinematic abilities. It doesn't feel heavier in the corners. It doesn't have a frame which feels like it is flexing as it glossily rides the bumps. Anyone who tries to tell you that the soft-roofed GT3 has any meaningful scuttle shake is, quite frankly, having you on.
The S/C is every bit as scintillating and talented and joyous and invigorating to drive as either the Weissach 911 or the Touring. It has the same exemplary, cushioned damping from the very highest of echelons, aided and abetted by the minimum of unsprung mass at all four corners of the car. The same phenomenal steering. The same ultra-eager front end, so dependable and sharp and informative. The same approachability in the corners, the same rapier-sharp and linear throttle response, the same magical blend of everyday civility and peerless twisty-roads engagement.
And then it layers on top the fact you can drive it around with an infinite amount of headroom above your bonce, if you so wish. And the immensely gratifying action of that manual transmission. This car is utterly, utterly tremendous to drive. Unsurpassed. Blissful. It's our new favourite thing, of them all, on four wheels.
Value
You could look at the black-and-white numbers and argue that the £200,500 S/C doesn't look great value, when it's already £40,800 more than either of the other two GT3s before any options boxes have been ticked whatsoever. But let's head this one off at the pass early doors: to get close to the S/C's aura and trimness, you'd need to equip the GT3 Touring manual with the £29,223 Leichtbau Package, which rather wipes out the financial gap in one fell swoop. And, of course, even then the Touring wouldn't have carbon doors or wings and so on, either.
Then there's this point about the S/C being the first open-top GT3. But that's not
strictly true, is it, Porsche? Because you went and did the
911 Speedster in 2018, didn't you? We suppose the key difference here is that the Speedster was a limited-build model of just 1,948 units (to celebrate Porsche's then-70th birthday), and it had a fiddly roof which had to be partially manually operated. Oh, and it never formally used the GT3 badging, despite employing its 4.0-litre engine.
The other aspect to consider is that those who bought into the coupe-bodied 911 S/T in 2023, at £231,600, might now be a bit miffed that here's an even more retro-tastic option for 30-grand less, three years down the line. Although they could fall back on the value-enhancing limited status of their 992.1 (only 1,963 S/Ts were built to mark 60 years of the 911), perhaps protecting their investment that touch better.
Because there is no cap or limit to S/C build numbers. Depending on how much of a dyed-in-the-wool Porsche aficionado you are, you might view that as a bad thing, but we think the opposite. Thank you for making it available to everyone, Porsche. Sure, at £200k-plus before getting busy with the extras, the S/C is hardly the paragon of either affordability or attainability... but we can dream, right?
Right?!
Verdict
The only thing that Porsche could have done wrong with spinning the S/C off the current 992.2 GT3 family is to have ever-so-slightly dulled its galactic levels of dynamic ability. But, of course, it hasn't done any such thing. Andreas Preuninger himself says no one, save for racing drivers operating the 510hp Cabrio right on its physical limits on a track, will discern the difference between the S/C and its fixed-roof brethren, and having sampled the open-top GT3 in all its stupendousness, he has unsurprisingly been proven correct in his assertion (who are we mortals to argue with the head of the GT department?).
The 911 GT3 S/C is not the weak link of the 992.2 GT3 array. No, rather, it is the kind of car that makes you want to drive, and drive, and drive, and drive some more. And then keep on driving until all the fuel in the world runs out, just for the hell of it. The kind of machine that makes you say to yourself 'you know what? I don't think I've ever driven anything better in my life, and nor do I think I ever will, either'. A masterpiece. Sublime. Pretty much sports-car perfection.
