Afer few months of going gaga over Boxster looks, I have come to the conclusion that I enjoyed driving the 991 911 more than the boxster.


Now The 911 4 coupe or 4-cab is the dilemma , just curious as to what made coupe owners chose it with or without sunroof over a cab


Sunroof owners : How is the 991 sunroof from a draft and wind perspective? I belive the rear windows in a Coupe do not open right?

 

I would recommend driving both to help in your decision. I drove both and found them to be quite different animals. For me, the coupe handled better than the cab. Really depends on what you want. I got the coupe with the glass roof and could not be happier.

I have not had the sunroof open as much due to the weather so I cannot comment on the wind issues.

 

For me, I never thought about a cab so I ordered the coupe. I do love the look of the cab, but I know I would almost never drive with the top down. The sunroof is so large on the coupe it really does bring the outside in. Just my 2 cents on the subject.

 

Glass roof has a major squeak.... Porsche has no fix as of yet....

 

Mine had a rattle at first, but it was from the headliner fasteners. This issue was not specific to the glass s/r. In any case, after a simple fix, the car is now completely silenced.

Spyder

 

My opinion is that a sports car should be a cab. I'm 72 and have had 10 cars since I was 16 all converts or cabs. There is nothing better than a crountry road with the top down. Driving around the city lakes is the only way to go top down. yMMV do what you like.

 

Cab and coupe are totally different.

For me personally there's nothing better than top down, windows down, wind blowing, stereo blaring, engine howling.

 

Yep me too... I like her topless all the way!

Previously it was true that cabs had a lot more body-flex and weight... never mind the roof which looked like a canvas stretches over a set of poles!
However that hasn't stopped me from owning a cab of one form or another for the last decade and a half.

The new 991 is a totally different animal... the 991C2S coupe with pdcc/sc on stock tires was something like 9 seconds faster than a 997.2 GT3 around the N'ring..
The C4S coupe was even faster than that.
The C4S cab...has been tested to be only 2 seconds slower than the coupe and as such will make GT3 997 owners have an aneurysm if you do decide to take it to the track... the only thing that could be worse is putting a girl behind the wheel!

Then there's the shaped magnesium roof panels which gives the cab the exact same roof-line as the coupe while adding minimal weight.
Then thers's the fact that even errants feel like a holiday with the roof down!

I personally think the coupe looks better and handles better (to a degree) but the cab is more versatile... and there's just nothing like hearing that exhaust with the roof down.
I'm dreaming of taking my C4S cab down some twisty county road..sigh... soon!

Good luck!

 

Cab seems to be the best of both worlds, at least with the 991. When up, it feels like coupe and down - well, I live in So Calif! :-)

Any route you go will be a great one indeed!

 

I think a lot depends on whether where you live and whether you've owned a convertible in the past.

For me, living in SoCal and never having owned a convertible, I decided that I'd want one when I got my previous car. I ended up getting a BMW 335i hardtop convertible and it was fantastic. It hardly rains here and I tried keep my top down as much as possible, at least when I was driving on local roads. I didn't really like having the top down on highways due to the wind and noise, except of course for the Pacific Coast Highway; there's nothing like cruising down the PCH with the top down And I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't enjoy the "Look at me in my fancy convertible" showboating aspect of it

There were two main reasons why I ordered a coupe and not a cab for my 991S:

1. In general, I'm not a fan of the way soft top convertibles look. Personally, I like the look of a metal roof. Most people didn't even realize my car was a convertible until I told them, and even then they were surprised. But then again some people like to show that they "splurged" for the convertible version.

2. I think I'm over my convertible "phase" lol

I will admit that the soft top on the 991 has some significant advantages over the 335i that I had. The 335's top took almost 30 seconds to raise or lower and could only be done when at a complete standstill, where as the 991 only takes about 10 seconds each (I think? Someone please confirm) and can be done at up to 30 mph!! Had the 335i's top been so convenient to use, I think I would've put it down a lot more often. It was such a pain to pull over just to put the top down that most of the time I just said, "F* it, I'll just leave it up."

I did get a chance to test drive a 991 S cab and remember thinking it was significantly noisier than I expected it to be (I drove it with the top up). I thought that the coupes that I drove later (though not on the same day) felt quieter, although I'm not sure how much of this was due to adjusted expectations (the 991 is a lot louder than the 335i and I was not expecting that the 1st time) vs actual decrease in noise. Of course, some people prefer to hear louder engine noise so you may consider this point to be a plus over the coupe. Also, supposedly the soft top in the 991 blocks out sound a lot better than most soft tops. I've never owned any soft tops so I can't compare, but another reason I like hard tops is that they act like a regular roof in terms of sound deadening.

Another thing I noticed was that the rearward visibility on the 991 cab was quite poor with the top up, like looking through an airplane window. I think that's why it comes standard with rear park sensors.

I do envision scenarios in which I'd miss a convertible, like revisiting the PCH or just driving along a scenic route. But from what I've seen and read, the sunroof in the 991 is huge, so that kind of softens the blow.

Sorry for the long post but bottom line is, if you've never owned a convertible before, and especially if you live in an area with good year-round weather, I'd say go for the convertible. As long as you can live with the compromises of course.

 

I struggled with the coupe/cab decision and finally went with the the cab. The last drop top I had was a '66 Corvette about 30 years ago. Anyone who has driven a cab from that era will know why I had some reservations about a cab. I've had my 2012 2CS Cab for about 5 months and couldn't be happier. I live on the gulf coast and if the sun is shining the top is down. With the heated seats, automated wind screen and windows up; sunny winter days are perfect top down days. There is little wind or wind noise with the windows and wind screen up even at highway speeds. I've even managed to take a hands free phone call with the top down on the highway in this manner. Since the wind screen is automated it's easy to switch between everything open on city streets to windows and wind screen for a short run on the highway then everything back down again.

I've also added the SmartTop module from Mods4cars. It allows you to convert to one touch operations and use your factory key fob for remote top operations.

If you plan on tracking your car, better go with the coupe, but that's the only reason that I would recommend the coupe over the cab.

 

I'm 70 years old and the 991S coming is a Cab. It's my 13th Porsche and my 58th car. This will give me 3 high performance Cabs in my Garage. The new 991S X51 Cab, my '04 996 TT Cab and the '12 650i Cab. I've always had at least one open Porsche in my garage since my first Porsche in 1972. Prior to that all sports cars I had were open topped also. To me a Sports Car is an open car.

John in Vancouver

 

john that is insane! 58 cars is impressive. we both live in non traditional cab locales. but I couldn't live without a cab, whatever the make may be. open air driving is a simple pleasure of life that everyone can and should enjoy. even if I only put the top down a fewtimes a year, it is still worth....

 

Certainly you should test drive both. Most everyone agrees that performance of the two is now very close, probably imperceptible to all but the most experienced drivers.

Personally, I find that in your (and my) area, there aren't enough days when it isn't either too cold or too hot for a cab. I'm sure others will disagree on that point. Just a question of whether you consider 90 degrees with humidity to be cab weather.

There consider the question of flashiness/privacy. Again a somewhat controversial topic, and my usual opinion on these things is do what makes you happy.

The sunroof wind draft is a non-issue to me, at any speed. The deflector is really good. That means you can drive sunroof open at almost any ambient temp, especially with heated seats. The rears windows don't open on any 911 coupe. My metal version sunroof doesn't sqeak at all even in freezing temps. I def could not say the same for my 997 Targa!

In my case, I've decided to buy an early model cab or targa to collect (maybe investment grade - haven't decided yet) and drive it ~500 miles a year, backroads only, on perfect sunny days. Also bc as much as I adore my 991S, part of me is very hungry for the purely mechanical 911 experience... and heritage. But that's a topic for another thread...

 

open-air engine sound with the cab and PSE is sex. pure sex.