It’s cute to see what happens when you threaten to take something away. After years of lazy two-footers, the realization that H-gates might not be long for this electrifying world sent Porsche buyers into a frenzy. The 992 GT3 got a last-second manual, the limited 911 R went series with the GT3 T (eat it, speculators), we got a further string of manual-only specials, and then — an auto-only new-gen debut in the 992.2 GTS hybrid. The beginning of the end, it seemed.
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Such a record return to sticks is nothing to leave on the table, however. In answer to the enthusiast-incensing ‘T-Hybrid’ GTS then, the second phase of the 992.2 rollout plays to the purists with the launch of the 2025 Porsche 911 T.
The 2025 Porsche 911 T is the first of the new 992.2 series’ mainline manuals, and it makes a point of it. H-pattern sticker on the dash, H-pattern stickers on the quarter windows, H-pattern puddle-lamp projections, and an ‘MT’ badge under the stick (that’s a reference to ‘manual transmission,’ in case the H-pattern map atop the gear knob wasn’t indication enough). Really leaves you to wonder what sort of trans it’s running.
To clarify then, the 2025 Porsche 911 T fits a six-speed manual transmission and only a six-speed manual transmission. PDK thoughts be gone, this one’s for the gear-shifting enthusiast, the knob-kneading connoisseur.
And hey, for the most part it’s a good knob! Topped in contrasting layers of walnut, the shifter brings a gorgeous warming focal point at the heart of the car. Better still, the new T gets a shorter throw and a step back to the correct number of speeds (six; who ever heard of a seven-speed) — what more could you want?
Unfortunately, that step back to six speeds is just a straightforward seventh-gear overdrive delete with no adjustment to ratios, nor to final drive. That’s a great disappointment, for Porsches’ tall gearing doesn’t really leave any room to actually row that notchy shifter about. Second gear still takes you faster than you’re allowed to drive on any road in Canada, so anyone chasing redlines can treat those second and third columns along the H as decorative unless you hit the track.
It’s all the more a shame because it’s matured into such a pleasant shifter. The new linkages afford a wonderfully notchy, leather-wrapped feeling without the cold machination of a raw-milled bolt-action. Earlier 992 and 991 shift actions were no disappointment, of course, but this new iteration is a step sweeter still.
For what it’s worth, there’s still fun to be had in short shifting. The 982 and 991.2’s introduction of turbocharging across the ranges brought an abundance of low-end torque that makes it easy to keep accelerating from most any shift point. The 992.2 T, for instance, reaches full torque from 2,000 rpm. Notch it up and down for its own sake and there’s little in your way, with no disappointing rev hang and an easy menu option to disable auto matching on downshifts.
Mercifully too, the T’s tune is well tempered. It’s the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat six as before, but dialled to relatively mild marks of 388 horsepower and 331 pound-feet. That’s 85 horses and 89 torques less than we’ve felt from this engine previously, leaving it feeling capable but somewhat undertaxed — and that’s just as well. Combined with rear-only traction, that’s enough to propel the ~1,500-kilo T to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds, or just 0.2 more for the slightly heavier Convertible sibling.
Knob kneaders of the other type (our David Booth included, when he passed this drive on to me) will turn their noses at this shortfall in outright performance. These people are fools.
The 911 T’s 4.5-second acceleration is great. No you don’t get to row through gears to work for it, but it is paced out long enough to enjoy. There’s the feeling of a build, the time to savour and digest, the satisfaction of reaching the point when it’s time to lift off and peer around for flashing lights. It isn’t any sort of supercar pull; there’s no 2.4-second Taycan stomach churn, no Turbo S short-shift babysitting and denial. It’s just a properly proportioned, daily-drivable sports car.
Dynamically, it’s a modern 911. Clever, competent, well controlled; T may be a conquest-heavy line, but if you know enough to be reading an article specific to this trim you’re probably pretty well aware of what to expect of the 992. The rub is, of course, that these new Porsches can be a touch too clever for their own good, as lamented in this review of the blazing fast but uninspiring 992.1 C4 GTS. The new T is no exception, tugging tight to Appalachian apices even in wet weather — if making it all a little too easy in the process.
There’s a little bit tweaked from the base handling setup to this very end, with a 10-mm drop and helper springs to keep the primaries tense, along with the T-standard addition of active damping to hold appropriately taut on rebound (‘PASM’). Porsche’s electronic power steering and brake boosting are the best of their sort, the steering in particular feeling distinctly more earthly than you’ll get from a BMW.
Also unintrusive (for modern kit) is the 992.2’s slightly updated infotainment and the unfortunate albeit well-designed full-digital cluster display. The physical tach now entirely abandoned, the sweeping screen offers handy navigation integration along with the promise of next-gen Apple CarPlay mobile projection into this screen as well. It’s all a little glossy for the nostalgist, but apparently nostalgic writers aren’t a key new-product market demo in this segment.
Traditional at least is the 911 T’s adherence to proper rear-wheel drive. Traction control makes refreshingly unobtrusive work of the wiggles, reining the tail in without an unrefined or disproportionately long power-cut penalty as is so often felt in peers. That ought not be too frequent a problem in dry conditions, for traction spans 305-millimetre tires on the 21s out back in staggered complement to the 245-section 20s up front. In the wet, however, splash-detecting wheel-well microphones are quick to recalibrate power and active aero deployment to suit.
Compensating for that high-tractive quiet out back is now-standard fitment of the barrel-piped sport exhaust you probably would’ve specced anyway. A satisfying dash-placed switch can switch this between civil and silly, or it can be left to match drive modes — all of which are now customizable, obviating the need for an ‘Individual’ mode. The ugly, plasticky mode selector remains a wart on the otherwise handsome wheel, but so it goes.
This sport-exhaust sound is an important element though, not least of now that everything’s gone turbo. Reduced insulation be damned, turbocharging means more stuff now in the way of proper induction sound and a muffling effect as those gases try to whoosh back out. The standardization of the sport exhaust upgrade brings the cake in inoffensive everyday versatility, but also the eating in raising the auditory ceiling in sporty driving. This is especially true of the 911 T Convertible, where the open rear leaves for that noise to circle right back up to your ears. Thanks to a very effective power wind deflector as well, that’s a good burble track without wind noise to ruin the fun.
Whether coupe or convertible, the character of the soundtrack is pertinent to those earlier points about revving the flat-six out to redline. The 3.0’s turbocharging lends to a curious compromise: with rich torque available from barely above idle and turbines and compressors in the way of a traditional top-end scream, you don’t really need to rev this engine out. Redlining is louder and more powerful, sure, but it doesn’t sound so spectacular that you’ll feel shorted for shifting before the limiter. Instead, respectable mid-range grunt in both ear and butt lend well to busybody shifts. There’s a manual in this car, you see, a six-speed — that’s what the stickers are all about! Might as well make good use of it.
What the 992.2 T tells us about the 992.2 Porsche 911 S
Porsche is always particularly precise in its language, so what we’ve learned about the 992.2 T and GTS give us a pretty clear sense of how the perennial S trim — hinted at in the name of one of the T’s new wheel options — will slot in.
First to note is that while Porsche is making a great post-hybrid hullabaloo about the fitment of a manual transmission to the non-hybrid 911 T, nothing in its verbiage implies that the T will be the only way to grip a proper knob. Massive and growing manual uptake rates mean there’s too much money in manuals for Porsche to leave them to one niche trim, but still to be debuted are the new-gen S and 4S. It thus stands to reason that product planners have left room for this next step up after the brand cashes in its 911 T coverage. Hopefully Porsche has saved some stickers for those trims.
On power, Porsche has suggested incompatibility between its manual box and the GTS’s ‘T-Hybrid’ 3.6L, so another manual offering would presumably mate to an uprated version of the twin-turbo 3.0 fitted to the T. Given that the 3.0 has previously offered power in the high 400s, there’s plenty of headroom for Porsche to split the delta between the T’s 388 hp and 3.0L 992.1 GTS’s 473.
Porsche has traditionally offered rear-drive Carrera S (‘C2S’) and all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 S (‘C4S’) models in parallel, but we’ve yet to hear whether both will return or whether the T’s growing emphasis may obviate the C2S. Either way, expect to see press heading to drive something with a curly suffix once this 911 T excitement quiets down.
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