Quote:
Originally Posted by 70SWT
For canyon carving in particular, longhood-era (and later) targas feel great compared to coupes, and provide the open-air experience coupes cannot. Of course, this assumes comparable cars with no chassis or setup issues.
The OP's question seems to arise from the culture created by so many who regard hardtop 911s as superior sports cars to the point of slamming targas and cabrios and their owners, as you see so much here and elsewhere.
This has always been one of the biggest head-scratchers for me over several decades of loving these cars. If you don't like open-top cars, great, but why the frank nastiness? I get that open-top cars can rattle and leak, but it's a taste/preference thing - beyond that, some of the discourse gets a bit silly.
I think a lot of the targa-slamming is "virtue signaling" - the implicit message that "I can only tolerate the coupe as sporting iron because I can detect performance advantages that the average guy cannot." Let's be honest, this kind of mentality fits the profile for a lot of Porsche owners who are obsessed with the coupe-based sports-purpose build and strive to be seen as the truly faithful.
It is a view that focuses on theoretical performance margins that only a pro can usually detect, vs. the total sportiness of the experience - the connection to the environment, sense of risk/danger/freedom, fresh air in your hair, etc.
When carving a canyon and in >95% of the driving of these cars, that sporty experience is what counts. A targa or later cabriolet can provide the same experience of a similarly set up coupe, but the reverse is not true. I'll take the targas and cabrios any day.
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I think you're right. That's kind of where the question originated. There is some of that in the culture. I'm no racecar driver but I do drive pretty hard. I cut the cage out of my targa, and am working on restoring it to a road car..so I still can't say from personal experience. I do think I'll be able to feel the car move a lot more. I've felt it just over bumps at slow speed flex a little bit once I removed the cage..
You can still drive a targa plenty fast and have a lot of fun. I think the open top experience should outweigh the slight loss in rigidity..hopefully mine is on the road early next year and I can decide for myself.
I thought about this topic and decided to make a little video. hope you guys like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAzm8nXQv3w