2023 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet

The mind boggles at all the permutations of 911 you can buy, and Porsche is making sure there's a trim for every taste and proclivity. If you're after the high-intensity thrills of the Turbo trims, but you want to amp up the experience by dropping the top, you'd be looking into the subject of this review, the 2023 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet - if its price doesn't put it out of reach. The upper echelons of 911 ownership require you to part with around $200k, and this is serious money that can also buy you an Audi R8 Spyder, though it actually seems rather reasonable if you remember a Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder's starting price is north of $270k. And the Porker's 572-horsepower twin-turbo flat six will get you to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds - or 2.7 if you opt for the even hotter 640-hp Turbo S. If you thought that this is enough to catapult the 911 to the front of the class, there's a car born and bred right here in the USA that will give you cause for serious thought. The mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible with its 670-hp, 8,600-rpm flat-crank V8 is a staggering achievement - for half the price. Which gets the nod?

The MSRP of the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet increases to $196,700 this year - up from the $187,100 it cost when we last reported on it. The Turbo S will cost you significantly more at $229,900. Remember that these prices still have to get the $1,000 gas-guzzler fee and $1,450 destination fee added to them.

Richard Parry-Jones, former Chief Technical Officer and chassis wizard of the Ford Motor Company, famously used the "50-meter test" (164 feet in US parlance) to glean very telling information from a car driver interface and how it's been set up. He essentially argued that if a car doesn't feel good to drive at low speed, it's not a good driver's car at any speed. And you only need 164 feet to determine that. Judged by that benchmark, the 911 Turbo is absolutely brilliant. Ensconced in the high-quality interior, the ride on the adaptive suspension is excellent for a car with something akin to a nuclear power plant in the tail. The eight-speed PDK automatic will shunt through the gears seamlessly, yet at the same time, is extremely sensitive to your right foot, not resolutely chasing higher gears for economy if you even hint at moderately upping the pace.

The controls are well-weighted, the messages relayed to the driver clear, and the car feels alert and ready to pounce, yet relaxed if you want to be. Drive it like you stole it, and the structural integrity of the open body is quite staggering, feeling just about as stiff, with handling nearly as precise, as the coupe - a remarkable feat. And the powertrain delivers a knockout punch that will leave you breathless as it bounds for the horizon. You can drop the top at a moment's notice at up to 31 mph, and it just turns up all the thrills to 11. This is as close to motoring heaven as many people will get, and the Porsche is a superb companion, with or without its top, and without ever losing its cool.

The 911 Turbo Cabriolet is a superb car and one of the ultimate ballistically quick convertibles on the planet. Compared to the wares from McLaren, Ferrari, and Lamborghini, it's stellar value too, with only the Audi R8 competing in the same price range amongst the Europeans. But the fly in the ointment isn't some exotic high flyer with a hard-to-pronounce name - it's a Chevy. The Corvette Z06 Convertible is a superb achievement and delivers different thrills to the Porsche. It might not come close to the interior quality of the 911, but costs half the money, and its mid-mounted 5.5-liter flat-crank V8 that revs to the high heavens as it produces 670 hp is the stuff of legends at any price, never mind the $114k it asks. If you have the wherewithal, it'll be a tough choice.

We could argue that if you have more than $200k to drop on an open-top sports car, you might as well go for the Turbo S and get the carbon-ceramic brakes, matrix LED headlights, and additional 70-odd horsepower. That was our opinion last year, and we stick to it. The convertible is probably not the type of car you'd drive on a track, but if you do, the carbon brakes will have the staying power to keep performing lap after lap. But that's not why we want it. We love that it removes significant unsprung mass from the wheels, adding yet another layer of excellence to the Porsche's ride/handling balance, and giving it a more delicate and light-footed response over undulations at low speed. In short, it's even better at Mr. Parry-Jones' 164-foot test, so it's an even better car every day, not just on the track.