Unfortunately For Porsche’s 911 T, Perfection Isn’t One of Our Criteria
The Car of the Year judging criteria don’t look as kindly on this amazing machine as our heart does.
Alexander StoklosaWriterWilliam WalkerPhotographerOct 10, 2025
001 2025 Porsche 911 T
Pros
Satisfying manual transmission
Engaging driving experience
End-to-end excellence
Cons
Price needs Ozempic
Only way to get a manual Carrera
Long-travel clutch
How do you make a modern sports car with a twin-turbocharged engine, rear-wheel steering, a fully digital dashboard, electronically adaptive suspension, and Apple CarPlay deliver a throwback driving experience? Apparently, all it takes is a little wood—specifically, a knot of walnut formed into the knob atop that car’s six-speed manual shifter.
This is the latest Porsche 911 Carrera T to, well, a T. It’s a basic Carrera with the entry-level 911 engine, upgraded like past T models to include all Carrera performance options.
Unlike past 911 Ts, the new one is now the only way to get a manual transmission on low-end 911s. You can’t get a T any other way, in fact. And the stick shift does a lot of the heavy lifting in delivering as old-school an experience as you can get in the 992.2 Porsche 911 lineup, which also includes the new GTS Hybrid and shares showroom space with the Taycan EV and plug-in hybrid Cayennes and Panameras.
The 911 Carrera T is at once stripped-down and fully equipped, depending on your perspective or priorities. A rear seat is optional (a steal at $0!), and the base seats have plaid cloth patterned inserts that whisper “vintage.”
008 2025 Porsche 911 T
On the other hand, Porsche’s rear-wheel steering, 10mm-lower Sport suspension, Sport Chrono package (stopwatch, Sport Plus mode, and Sport stability control setting), 1-inch-larger Carrera S wheels, smaller-diameter GT Sport steering wheel, and Sport exhaust system are standard. All are optional on the Carrera, but, again, only with Porsche’s PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission.
Everyone on staff loves the Carrera T. We aren’t sure who wouldn’t enjoy it. No 911 drives poorly, and even though the manual transmission slows down the 388-hp Carrera somewhat in the race to 60 mph and beyond, it massively ups driver engagement and the fun factor.
Being able to play the flat-six’s music with both feet and that gorgeous walnut shift knob is a privilege in today’s world of stick shift extinction, though some complained of long clutch pedal travel.
But end-to-end excellence isn’t a MotorTrend Of The Year criteria. Well, sort of—in terms of performance of intended function, the 911’s off the charts. Ditto engineering excellence. It simply is one of the best sports cars you can buy at any price. We just wish that its price were … lower. Porsche pricing has marched steadily higher year after year, so much so that even the entry-level Carrera costs four years’ worth of out-of-state-tuition money; the 911 Carrera T costs $11,400 more, starting at $146,050.
016 2025 Porsche 911 T
Another criterion the 911 scores poorly on? Advancement in design. This is a trap, of course—the 911 looks like every other 911 because they all look like 911s. That’s the entire point. The T can make a case that, through its retro-ish stickers and plaid seat option, it stands out, but now we’re really reaching.
Is the Porsche 911 Carrera T good enough to be Car of the Year? Absolutely—but other competitors this year nailed more of our criteria, and better, leaving the T out of the finalist round. If anyone wants to start a crowdfunding effort for our editors, though, we’d plunk the cash down on one of these tomorrow.
This review was conducted as part of our 2026 Car of the Year (COTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.
Alexander Stoklosa
A lifelong car enthusiast, I stumbled into this line of work essentially by accident after discovering a job posting for an intern position at Car and Driver while at college. My start may have been a compelling alternative to working in a University of Michigan dining hall, but a decade and a half later, here I am reviewing cars; judging our Car, Truck, and Performance Vehicle of the Year contests; and shaping MotorTrend’s daily coverage of the automotive industry.
