2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabrio Review: ‘I Felt My Brain Shift’

Electric cars have ruined a lot of things for enthusiasts. Personally, it’s hard to be impressed or feel excited by any gas-powered sports car’s acceleration after spending the two or three years after the pandemic driving mostly EVs. Their effortless propulsion has a way of numbing your senses to the point that once you get used to it, you’d need something like a top-fuel dragster or space rocket to make you giggle. Or so I thought, until the 2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet came into my life.

My list of things EVs have ruined goes beyond one item, but that’s another story for another day. What Porsche has done with the 992.2 Turbo S, whether it’s the Coupe or Cabriolet—is nothing short of heroic. Stuttgart’s delivered electric-car acceleration and daily-driving practicality while retaining supercar-level performance, quintessential Carrera driving dynamics, and all the lovely fanfare of a 3.6-liter flat-six engine turning air and fuel into horsepower and noise. Emphasis on noise.

The Basics

For 2026, the 911 Turbo S gets the T-Hybrid treatment, in the form of an electric motor stuffed within the eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle. A small lithium-ion battery lives at the front of the car and, combined with the electric motor, produces 80 horsepower and 138 lb-ft of torque. The 3.6-liter flat-six engine uses two electrically assisted turbochargers to produce 631 hp and 560 lb-ft of torque. All in, the Turbo S puts out 701 hp and 590 lb-ft, which is good for a 0-60 time of 2.4 seconds and a top speed of 200 mph. Even more impressive, however, is its ability to hit 30 mph in under a second (with warm tires and clean tarmac) and 124 mph in just six seconds.

In terms of styling, the Turbo S is typical 911, with its wide rear and sloping front. The cloth top provides a nice silhouette that closely resembles the coupe’s beautiful lines, but I actually still prefer to see the car with the top down. If I owned one, I’d very rarely have it up; otherwise, what’s the point of owning a cabrio? Overall, the new styling is more streamlined, smoother, and more muscular-looking than the outgoing car. And despite having spent time with the GTS last year, the active vertical slats in the front air dam haven’t grown on me. Visually, they just don’t match the car’s vibe. There’s also an active diffuser and rear spoiler to help with aero duty when needed.

At each corner, there are new, 10-mm wider Pirelli P Zero tires—255/35ZR-20 in the front and 325/30ZR-21 in the rear—which ride on, you guessed it, 20-inch wheels up front and 21-inch in the back. They also have new, larger, beefier brakes stuffed within them, to the tune of 16.5-inch vented, cross-drilled carbon-ceramic discs up front and 16.1-inch in the rear. And yes, carbon ceramics are standard in the Turbo S, because you’re already spending around $300,000, so why not?

All in all, the Turbo S Cabriolet tips the scale at 4,000 pounds.

Driving the 2026 Porsche Turbo S Cabriolet

“I felt my brain shift,” is exactly what my friend Rob said after showing him the Turbo S’ launch control. Over the course of my eight days with the car, I did the procedure about four times. Two of the people had never experienced anything of the sort, while the other two, my son and Rob, were veterans. My son because of my job, and Rob because he’s owned everything from a Z06 to a McLaren—though now he drives an ungodly large Silverado 2500HD ZR1. “I literally felt my brain shift to the back of my head,” he said.

Back to my opening line, the Turbo S is one of the few gas-powered cars that has snapped me back into the reality EVs forced me to abandon a few years ago. It’s brutal, it’s violent, and most of all, it’s so much fun. German cars, especially Porsches, are often seen as beautiful, precise driving machines, but they aren’t often described as wild or silly-fun. Well, this car is silly-fun.

The theatrics of the launch control are exactly that: pure showmanship. You feel the car hunker down, you see the rear wing rise, and you hear the turbos pre-spool, which sounds a lot like the car taking a deep breath, and the revs bounce off the preset limiter. It goes like this: step on the brake with your left foot, spin the driving mode dial to Sport Plus, step on the gas pedal all the way down with your right foot, and boom!

When the launching shenanigans are over and it’s time to drive the Porsche like a Porsche, the chassis and suspension are equally as impressive, if not more, because at the end of the day, it’s extremely difficult to pretend like those 4,000 pounds aren’t there. Compared to the previous car, this one weighs about 267 pounds more in coupe form, and then there’s a 180-pound penalty for the convertible. Still, Porsche’s Dynamic Chassis Control does its best to hide that weight and make you believe that you’re driving a lightweight, nimble sports car. And for the most part, it does. In fact, this car weighs nearly as much as the 849 Testarossa Spider I drove earlier this summer, and while the Ferrari boasts over 300 hp more than the Turbo S, it’s the Porsche that feels much nimbler in the corners.

From the 400-volt-powered anti-roll bars that help keep the car completely flat through the tightest of bends and the powered front axle that gives you massive grip and stability, the result is a hugely satisfying car regardless of the driving scenario. For what it’s worth, I had as much fun enjoying its comfortable cabin while running around town as I did bombing down country roads. Sadly, given the lack of an unrestricted highway system like the Autobahn in the States, I couldn’t test the car’s ridiculous top-end speed and stability.

Verdict

It takes real guts as an automotive journalist to sit here and say that the 2026 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet is the be-all and end-all car—jk, not really. But after driving it through all sorts of weather and driving conditions during my test (and even taking my daughter to her first day of high school in it), it never failed to shine, impress, and blow me away. Unless the situation required comfortably carrying a third person, of course. Keyword: comfortably, because I did transport a third person, but they were not comfortable.

Like it is with most Porsches of a certain caliber, or almost every 911 above the S, it’s really hard to justify spending a ton more money to get a ton more power and a ton more features when the core experience can be had for under $150,000—or about half the price of the car I drove, which has a starting price of $286,650. With its gorgeous Oak Green Metallic Neo ($3,160), stunning Truffle Brown interior ($2,000), and a long list of optional equipment, the total bill to bring this bad boy home pushed up to $304,330.

That’s a lot of coin, but then again, that’s a lot of car. And you gotta remember, it did make me forget about EVs—even under acceleration.

Porsche provided The Drive with an eight-day loan of this vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.

2026 Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo S Cabriolet Specs

Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com