The Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet Is Deeply Impressive

Summer’s coming but you will need almost £210,000 to enjoy top-down sunshine in the new Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet convertible. Jeremy Taylor and Jessica Talbot-Ponsonby drive an astonishingly fast soft-top complete with an astonishing price tag.

Test Drive: Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet Convertible

Jeremy: Think all Porsche 911s are the same? There may be a plethora of models to choose from these days, ranging from £103,000 to upwards of £200,000 – before you spend more to make it your own with a list of must-have upgrades. However, the latest and most interesting is the new Turbo S Convertible – a car currently near the very top of that price band, with an electric motor fitted to the automatic gearbox and a couple of e-turbos for good measure.

Always a favourite with Porsche aficionados who enjoy a serious turn of speed, if the super-quick Turbo S wasn’t already fast enough, this new mild hybrid system blasts the 911 forward at an incredible rate of knots. And while those some Porsche fans might not appreciate the fact this is the heaviest 911 on sale – thanks to the added weight of that hybrid system – it does mean the new Turbo S Convertible will zing from 0-62mph in just 2.6 seconds.

Further confirmation that this is one of the quickest 911s is provided by some Top Trump performance figures that will impress your petrolhead friends: the 3.6-litre six-cylinder produces 711hp and will race up to 200mph. It also has plenty of grip thanks to all-wheel drive and large, 21-inch rear tyres.

On the downside, there’s no electric-only mode for silent progress through a sleepy village, or to help keep the peace with the neighbours when you are revving off on an early morning start. But this is still a deeply impressive car that rivals my favourite super-convertible of the moment – the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster.

Inside, the cabin is pure Porsche. The driver’s display and information screen are simple to navigate, the seating position is just about perfect and the build quality is worthy of the price tag. Being picky, a few more storage slots and cubby holes would be a useful addition. You will stay warm on a winter’s drive even with the roof down thanks to heated seats and steering wheel – and those same leather seats can be ventilated with ice cold air conditioning as a £900 option.

Need something even more raucous? Last week, Porsche announced it will soon make the high-performance 911 GT3 available as a convertible for the first time, too. Fitted with just two seats, the lightweight GT3 starts at £200,000 but can be equipped with the usual extras – including a Street Style pack at £24,110.

Jessica: It’s always raining when I drive a convertible, but any 911 puts a smile on my face. I also found the time to read about the extras fitted to our test car, which pushed the price up an additional £12,000. Among them, an upgraded Burmester sound system (£2,750) and a front axle lift system for driving over speed bumps (£2,033). Surely both of those should be standard in a car costing this much?

Apart from that gripe, this is a sports car that does everything: it can be sedate around town, carry a couple of grandchildren on the backseat and also features a decent-sized luggage space under the front bonnet. Top down, superb aerodynamics ensure the cabin is a haven of calm, too.

Discover more about the Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet at porsche.com

Jessica Talbot-Ponsonby is Director of Programmes at London College of Fashion, studying for a PhD in sustainable e-textile design.