One hundred fifty mph is damn fast no matter what car you're driving. Imagine doing it enclosed in a glass pod. Although I've never flown an F-16 Tomcat, driving the new 911 Targa must provide many of the sensations--flesh-twisting g-forces, blurred scenery and an eerie calm under the canopy. At about 165 mph I had to back down; the sweat from my hands made gripping the steering wheel a less stable proposition. Porsche's Targa engineers tell me the car will do upwards of 177 mph. I'd need to wear gloves to get anywhere near that.
Porsche first unveiled the Targa at the 1965 Frankfurt auto show, where Ferry Porsche himself claimed, "The Targa is neither a convertible nor a coupe--it is an entirely new kind of car."
The idea was that Porsche's Targa would be the perfect solution to the lack of a cabriolet, as both re-tooling the 911 and a convertible's safety were then major concerns. Although several manufacturers at the time fitted their cars with sizable cloth sunroofs, none had the visual elegance of the 911 Targa.
With the advent of the 993 model, Porsche discontinued the removable roof and replaced it with a huge, sliding glass unit. The new 996-based 911 Targa boasts a whopping 1.5m of glass and features a large rear window that can be opened for access to the rear seating area, which by the way is bigger than the 911 Coupe's. It's a great feature that, unfortunately, is specific to the Targa. Flip a one-touch switch on the dashboard, and the glass top retracts in 8 sec. via two silent motors, providing 0.45 meters of open sunlight. If it gets too bright, an automatic diffuser shade cuts down on the glare when the top is closed.
The entire glass roof--with its sliding cover, wind deflector, rear lid and mechanicals--is one complete module. During assembly the roof is passed through the windshield and lifted into place from beneath into the roof opening with the seals already in position. Porsche states fitting the roof from below prevents the roof from being pulled off at high speeds, a bad thing. Porsche spent considerable effort in diverting the wind flow with a wind deflector, and from what I could tell its efforts were successful. Well into triple digits, the cabin remained calm enough so as not to disturb my co-driver's carefully coiffed hair. Just to check our speed, I sat up and stuck my head out of the roof, a bad idea. The blast of the wind turned my eyes into little parachutes and my mouth filled with gravel. Later I washed it all down with several pints of Spaeten.
The penance for enjoying the Targa's amazing sightlines is weight; the car is some 150-lb heavier than the Coupe. Like the Porsche Cabriolet, the Targa's frame has been strengthened. The new Targa features 30mm-thick steel reinforcements running from the A-pillars and extending back through the roof frame to the C-pillars. Junction plates then weld everything together, with additional bracing extending from the B-pillars into the roof frame. With 325 bhp on tap, the new Targa has more than enough beans to pull the extra weight--0 to 60 mph in about 5 sec.
You won't see many 911 Targas; its production will be limited to a few thousand, 500 of which are destined for North America. But Porsche would be happy to make more should the demand exist. The MSRP is around $70,000.
If you need a room on the move with the ultimate view, the new Targa will do just fine.