It 911 Turbo was always going to be fast, thanks to that 3.6-litre twin turbo engine that blasts out 480 raging horses and 457lb/ft of torque from as low as 2000rpm. That’s thanks to Variable Turbine Geometry which helps the engine fire on all cylinders at low and high revs, and helps send the Porsche down the road as if it was pulled by elastic. It could do with a little more volume, though, as the speedo is the only true indicator of speed, the 911 Turbo Cabrio is almost too calm for its own good and I could easily have found myself pleading ignorance with the police – such was its composure.

The manual version of the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet fitted with the Sports Chrono kit with overboost hits 60mph in four seconds, 0.2s behind the computer controlled Steptronic, and keeps going all the way to 192mph thanks to controlled boosts to 501lb/ft of torque. Even though the manual 911 is a slower Porsche it’s still the one to go for, as the clutch is no more troublesome than the softest hatchback’s and the payoff on the back road is ultimate control.

Cars like this simply obliterate free space and it wasn’t long before the middle pedal came into play and the ceramic brakes hauled outrageous speeds from the clock and gave a brief time to reflect on the balance of the Turbo Cab.

Incidentally those Porsche Ceramic Brakes are still an expensive way to ruin the experience and a relaxed; finger light car like this deserves brakes that match the character. That’s the perfectly weighted steel units with red calipers, not the optional yellow ones that cost the Earth and offer a snatchy, hostile bite in return.

The soft-top Porsche weighs just 70kg more than the Coupe and 5kg less than the outgoing 996, thanks to a lightweight 31kg, triple layer hood, bracing in the side sills and rollover protection in the back of the seats and the window frame. Most of that extra weight is designed to eliminate scuttle shake and tuners have taken this shell up to 910bhp without too many traumas, so this is undoubtedly a stiff car.

Those 1655kg can’t disappear in the corners, and at the first sign of trouble the Cabriolet shares the load with the front wheels thanks to the computer controlled viscous clutch-controlled four-wheel drive. There’s a host of other electronic goodies going on, too, with the giant electronic brain applying the brakes, squashing the suspension to the road and doing everything it can to keep the man with the money to buy this car through to the next service.

Underneath the skin, the 911 Turbo Cabriolet is a technological masterpiece. The car works so much faster than the driver ever could that it will fix almost any problem before antiquated concepts like opposite lock even matter. While it won’t engage as much as Porsche GT3, it also has no sting in the tail, and crucially, no shudder in the chassis even through the most challenging bend. It will simply push wide under duress, the nose drifting gently off the line before cutting into the tarmac once more.

Over the years Porsche has found a way to get downforce at the rear so through the high speed bends this car is every bit as effective as the hard-top sibling. But to test that theory you’d have to push the local law enforcement to the very limits of their understanding, and had it not been our job to do so the character of the car would really have encouraged a more conservative approach.

Yes it’s face-twistingly fast, but it’s also a long-distance cruiser with deep, comfortable seats that are far more suited to the public road than the bucket offerings in other super sports cars. Most of the Turbo’s life is spent on standard roads, doing standard things; this Porsche is no trackday warrior and doesn’t pretend to be.

As for the looks, well the LED warpaint on the nose of the 911 Turbo Cabriolet is a little vulgar. Overall the Carrera is more elegant, but we have all been intrinsically programmed to recognize the Porsche flagship on sight. This is, after all, a shape that has been distilled over four decades and the 811 has become a design icon in its own right.

Wide hips allow those big intakes to feed the engine and the subtle rear spoiler stays out of things until the car is going fast enough to need the bi-plane downforce. At the rear, the famous italic letters and gaping exhausts, together with more vents, mark this car apart from the rest of the breed.

The only image problem it faces is one of its own making. The price of this Porsche is not far shy of a Lamborghini Gallardo or Ferrari F430 and both have that exclusivity that the Porsche simply cannot match. However, the Italian alternatives also have catastrophic depreciation and nowhere near Porsche's record for reliability, so you pay your money and take your choice.

But on the road the loss that once marked the Cabriolet out as the hairdresser’s choice is now only on paper, a theoretical margin we never get to explore. People whose particular needs go beyond that point buy the GT3 and a trackday season pass.

The Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet is now a completely different car for a different sector, one that will be happy to cruise round town with the wind blowing through their immaculately coiffed hair. Purists will scoff, but what do they know?

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