KEY POINTS:
Is it possible to "sneer excitedly"? I believe so, because I think that's what I did when offered a road test of the Porsche 911 Tiptronic cabriolet. Anything involving a 911 is exciting. You can keep your Caymans and (especially) Cayennes, impressive as they may be. Nothing captures the essence of what makes Porsche the world's greatest sports car-maker like the curvaceous profile and bobbing bum of the rear-engined 911. It's magic.
But if any 911 is worth a sneer, it's this one. For a start, it's a cabriolet, which not only removes some of that classic rounded-roof styling - it makes it a sports car for non-car-people.
This model is the entry Carrera, with a 3.6-litre engine and rear-drive - there's still plenty of power (you can also get a 3.8-litre S version) and the "C2" is arguably a bit more involving in the corners than the all-wheel-drive C4.
But this car also has an automatic transmission, a concept I struggle with in a purist machine like a 911. Especially since Porsche is sticking with a five-speeder, in the face of six, seven and eight-speed gearboxes from other premium brands.
An automatic-transmission 911 cabriolet needs to work quite hard to justify itself in my opinion.
Dynamically, it does. The engine sounds even better with the roof down, the cabriolet weighs just 70kg more than the coupe and I defy anybody to feel a difference in body rigidity.
The steering, chassis behaviour and sheer involvement are undiminished in the cabriolet (although it does mean that you can hear people shouting "merchant banker" a lot better).
The rear seats, tiny in the coupe, are more so on the cabrio, but serviceable in a short-distance emergency.
They fold down for extra storage, which is handy - and much easier to access with the top down, of course.
But I still don't like the Tiptronic-automatic. It's true that Porsche's self-shifting system is a lot more interactive than the average auto: even if you don't want to slide into the manual mode, you can easily manipulate the software with the throttle. But real-world performance is blunted, and with only five cogs you do not get the best access to that deliciously raspy exhaust note. The main reason this 911 is doing the road-test rounds I've left until last: the addition of satellite navigation as standard to 911s except the hard core, racing-inspired, GT3 and GT3 RS (it's an option for weight reasons).
It's integrated into the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system - that's the fancy colour screen in the centre console - and is dead-easy to operate without so much as opening an instruction manual. I've often thought the Porsche PCM single-button twist-and-click setup a little crude for audio operation, but it makes a lot of sense when the various sat-nav functions are added. The screen is a little low for the safety-conscious, but the graphics are superb and the software was bang up to date on the evidence of my week-long Auckland-based road test.
Conclusion: you can still deliver my 911 with a roof and manual transmission. The cabriolet is a wonderful car in a wider context and an impressive engineering achievement - let's face it, even the least impressive 911 is still off the scale in terms of desirability and driver entertainment. But without roof and clutch pedal, it's a reminder that not all Porsches are created equal.
