Porsche’s 911 is iconic enough, so much so that the brand has been in production for over 50 years and is the best-selling sportscar of all time. Yet, some 911s are more iconic than others, and Porsche has just brought one of them back to life, writes Kushan Mitra
As the Porsche 911 turned 50 in 2013, just as the ‘991’ series of the car, the sixth generation 911 had gone on sale, and Porsche had sold an estimated 820,000 of these cars. In the scheme of things, that may not appear to be much, but for a car that costs a little fortune, it is truly remarkable that close to a million of them have been sold over the years.
However, very early on in the 911’s life, it faced an existential threat. In America it seemed the authorities were about to ban drop-top convertible cars after a slew of accidents that had killed several young people, particularly on the sunny west coast of that country. This was not specific to Porsche, but the (then) new 911’s convertible version was already a best-seller. A traditional convertible car quite obviously has no roof to take the load in case the car topples over.
So Porsche came up with a solution, that was to install a roll-bar on the car; but since a traditional roll-bar did not offer a large amount of surface area, Porsche fitted a loop of thick sheet-metal steel, leaving it in bare-metal finish. Behind the metal plate was (initially) a plastic rear-window. Porsche drivers could remove the small roof between the metal plate and the windscreen so the sun could shine in, and attach the roof again when the clouds let go of a load. Thus, the ‘Targa’ was born.
The name ‘Targa’ served two purposes for Porsche. First the literal meaning of the word, ‘plate’ in Italian, because the car had a plate of steel as a roof, ostensibly serving a safety purpose. The other meaning of the word ‘Targa’ was derived from the ‘Targa Florio’ race in the island of Sicily. One of the classic old European endurance races like the Mille Miglia in northern Italy, it was a place where Porsche enjoyed a huge amount of success in the 1960s.
Porsche after all, back then at least, was this upstart German company that did not have the heritage of Mercedes-Benz or the Italian carmakers. Yet, with the 911 and its predecessor, the Porsche 356, the company founded by Ferdinand Porsche was enjoying immense success on the racetrack. And this success translated into sales from the showroom, so the appropriation of the ‘Targa’ name was no surprise.
However what was a surprise was the fact that US authorities never did end up banning the traditional convertible. The Targa though did go on sale, and instantly became a design classic, the bare-metal steel loop helping the 911 stand out from the sports car crowd. Yet as the 1980’s rolled in, Porsche found itself selling more and more traditional 911 convertibles and as the company expanded their line-up to include more cars, the Targa found itself out in the cold. Production ended soon afterwards.
Yet, the Targa has just been reincarnated. And this is no ordinary reincarnation. Sure, the bare-metal finish steep loop has come back, but Porsche has made this Targa feel special by adding a whole new mechanism to retract the rather small roof. The amount of engineering effort that must have gone into making the retractable mechanism must have been huge, because watching the roof operate is like watching a work of mechanical art.
Folding metal roofs on convertibles have been around for some time, but this is no ordinary roof. As the curved rear windscreen is lifted up and out, two ‘ears’ pop out of the sides of the ‘Targa’ loop and the small roof disappears behind the rear seats as the rear windscreen comes down again. It is a stunning sight to see.
It is also a stunning car to drive. The new 911 Targa 4S shares almost everything with its coupe and convertible brethren; the same engine and gearbox — 400 horsepower delivered through an absolutely astounding dual-clutch PDK gearbox. Porsche was the first company to commercialise the concept of a dual-clutch gearbox, where the system pre-selects the next gear in the sequence thus making gear changes as near as instantaneous as they can possibly be.
The complicated roof mechanism is beautiful, but has a downside; it actually increases the weight of the car over that of the convertible. Thus, the price one pays for mechanical genius is that the 911 Targa is ever so slightly slower, it takes a fraction of a second more to get up to speed and has a slightly lower top speed. But when you consider that that 911 Targa 4S still manages to make 0-100 in around four seconds and has a top near as makes no difference to 300 kilometers an hour, it does not matter. Porsche India also sells the Targa 4; which like the 4S has four-wheel drive but loses 20 horsepower (and 20 lakhs from the sticker price).
Driving on a sunny February day with the roof down is a pleasure any which way you look at it. And once you manage to find a road where you can put the hammer down, the Targa can genuinely move very fast. But then again, you expect a Porsche 911 to move very fast; however with the seamless gear changes the takes off like a rocket and even the few bumps on the Taj Expressway are dealt with superbly by the car.
Given India’s obscene rates of excise for imported cars though the 911 Targa 4S is ridiculously expensive though. In Delhi it costs an eye-watering Rs1.78 crore, if one was to add a few options to the car it would easily cross the two crore mark. The Targa 4 is slightly cheaper, if one can call Rs1.59 crore cheap. But for a day, this car was a pleasure to drive, buying one we shall leave to the zillionaires of the country.