24 cars blue sky: NAIAS 2014: Porsche 911 Targa

The 1965 Porsche 911 Targa has always been a bit unloved by the Porsche purist. The higher roofline of the Targa compromised the slick silhouette of the 911 that made it so iconic. It was something of a knee-jerk reaction to impending safety regulations by the NHTSA. Porsche thought that convertibles were soon to be made illegal, so the Targa offered a steel roll bar and removable roof section to fill the gap.

Fortunately, that fearful day for Porsche never came, and they continued on building the 911 in coupe and convertible form since. This doesn't stop Porsche from occasionally playing with its history.

The new Targa closely resembles the aesthetics of the old, but with finer attention paid to retaining the overall shape of the 911. No longer a necessity, Porsche finally had a chance to make the Targa concept fit the car's profile.

As a supporter of the original Targa, at heart, I really enjoy the look and attention to detail here. Unlike the half-hearted 2002 Targa remake (which can be best described as an oversized sunroof), this one retains the steel roll bar look (with surface details, like the vertical "slots") and wrap around rear windshield — something that's so rarely pulled off now days. I can imagine the visibility out of the back of this 911 is pretty fantastic. In typical German fashion, it is overly complex. Where as the Corvette has used a manual targa roof for ages, Porsche has the mind to motorize it:

The rear hatch and glass lift up, and the roof tucks into the rear. It is neat, and given most of the buyers of this particular variant probably won't be track-junkies, but I would like to see a less top-heavy solution to this.

Otherwise, this is standard 991 Porsche 911. There's two motors available: the standard 3.4L 350 hp flat-six engine which will hit sixty in 4.8 seconds, and the Targa 4S grabs the 3.8L flat six engine which makes 400 hp and sprints to sixty in 4.4 seconds. Sadly, only Porsche's PDK transmission is available.