About the Base 911…

Regarding our family’s Panamera replacement, I recently wrote that we had finally decided on the new 911 (992), and today I’d like to share which grade of the new 911 we chose.

To get straight to the point, we decided on the 911 Carrera Cabriolet.

Back when we were debating “Cayenne? Taycan?…” I never imagined we’d end up with a convertible.

1 Why the Base Model

First, my husband explained why he chose the base 911 instead of the 911 Carrera S or 911 Carrera 4S like this:

Considering that most of our driving is around town and daily use, 385 horsepower from the base model is more than enough. Also, having driven various Porsche base models, I really appreciate their well-balanced nature.
Of course, the “S” is fantastic, but paying an extra roughly 3.37 million yen just to get 450 horsepower? I’d rather go with the base model and spend the difference on options I like.
And if I were to buy an S, I might as well go all the way to the Turbo S.

Indeed, I recently had the chance to drive a friend’s 991.2 GTS for a few days, and I felt, “For mostly city driving, this power is a bit too much and almost wasted… the base model is probably the easiest to live with.”

2 Why the Cabriolet

My husband has always loved luxury coupes like the Mercedes-Benz SL. (He once owned an SL500 (R129)) Initially, he thought, “I’ll go with a tough, no-nonsense base 911 coupe with just PCCB brakes,” but that would focus too much on driving performance and overlap a bit with our existing GT3.

So instead of leaning toward the GT3, I want to go in the opposite direction. Since I’ve always loved the SL, I want this 911 to be as close to that vibe as possible.
Plus, having a roof that opens is a big deal. To put it simply, in stop-and-go city traffic, whether you’re in a GT3 or an eco car, the mood doesn’t change much. But the moment you open the roof, it instantly becomes something special—that’s the charm of a convertible. I used to care about rigidity and such with convertibles, but unless you’re chasing lap times on a circuit, it really doesn’t matter at all.

He also wondered, “Won’t a Cabriolet overlap with our Boxster?” but said:

The Boxster is a naturally aspirated 6-cylinder manual GTS with amazing sound—truly a sports car. But this Cabriolet isn’t about speed; I want to enjoy cruising on the highway with the roof down, focusing more on comfort and a calm interior.
So by leaning toward a luxury coupe feel, I think it will be clearly differentiated from the Boxster.
Also, Cabriolets are relatively rare, so it won’t overlap much with other new 911s on the street, and resale value might be slightly better too.

3 About the Body Color

We chose the body color for the 911 as Aventurine Green Metallic, a new color introduced with the new 911. While navy blue looked cool, our current Panamera in Night Blue Metallic (navy) shows dirt very easily, so we decided to go with a different color this time.

Crayon is also beautiful, but since our GT3 is Crayon, we thought silver tones might be better, so we debated between GT Silver Metallic and Aventurine Green Metallic.

Since the 992’s design incorporates many classic Porsche elements, the calm tone of Aventurine Green seemed to suit it best.

So our car ended up being a 911 Carrera Cabriolet in Aventurine Green. By the way, the soft top is brown.

More on the 911 Cabriolet Specs Soon…

For this 911, we’re keeping the wheels standard and are still debating whether to add the sport exhaust. Once the specs are finalized, I’ll share more on the blog.

However, due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, Porsche’s factory will be temporarily shut down, so we don’t yet know when production or delivery will happen. Hopefully it arrives before the Panamera’s inspection is due… but it might be tight.