New Porsche 911 Targa 4 official pics!

New £72,980 Porsche 911 Targa 4 and £80,270 Targa 4S revives image from October 25 2008.

From a time when Playboy-logo wallpaper, rolled up suit jacket sleeves and synthesiser muzak was the height of fashion, the seminal Porsche 911 Targa top embraced the slogan-rich 1980s and became the poseur’s ultimate pose.

The decades might have stacked up, but one of the most definitive status symbols shows no signs of changing with the times as the new Porsche 911 Targa 4 and Targa 4S square up. Until you pop the bonnet or take a look at its rear end that is.

Yes, the new Porsche 911 Targa 4 and Targa 4S is back for 2008, and, for the second time of asking, maintains its timeless appeal. That’s why there’s not a huge amount to report here if we’re frank - and you’re called whatever it is Porsche owners like to be called in polite company - as the stereotypical German car manufacturer roll back the years, give or take.

In keeping with the new Porsche 911 range as a whole, the most notable difference is what lurks beneath the bonnet. Or boot, as Porsche drivers refer to it as.

The new 911 Targa grabs the same direct-injection engines as its standard coupe sibling, which started this whole 911 revision ball rolling, so therefore the Targa 4 bags a 345bhp 3.6-litre furnace to stoke, while the Targa 4S makes the appropriate arrangements to welcome a 385bhp 3.8-litre power source.

So as not to differ with the outgoing model, the new 911 Targa can only be requested in four wheel drive functionality, though a new traction management system roughly – although not, obviously - translated from the one found in the bowels of the 911 Turbo, gives permission for up to 100% of the car’s total grunt to be deployed to the rear wheels should it want/need.

Porsche’s new-fangled Doppelkupplungsgetriebe assemblage, sorry, double-clutch PDK – acronym’s always make for steadier ground - transmission gets a run out on the new 911 Targa 4 and Targa 4S, and with it it’s introduction to a new workplace.

Again, as evident on the new box-fresh 911 coupe, both Targa guises go a bit J-Lo in the rear quarters, although don’t necessarily double as shelving, being only 44mm wider. To the uninitiated, LED daytime running lights are the only real outer concession to any styling accruements.

Other than glassware.

Porsche wouldn’t be Porsche unless it paid further homage to its segmented glazed ceiling on which much of its fame lies, which it does by ensuring that time is of the essence in the Targa 4. In just seven seconds, the glass roof slides electronically back beneath the tailgate as the driver slips into smooth operator mode and cranks up that Crockett's Theme soundtrack he still lives his life to.