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Opening the 911 Top with the Porsche Targa

Although Porsche’s planners assumed that the 911 would come in both coupe and cabriolet form, creating an open version turned out to be no walk in the park. Once achieved, however, the solution seemed obvious.

A high rear view showed off the characteristics of the new Targa. At last the 911 would have an open as well as closed body option.

The Search for an Open 911

Did the phasing out of the Type 356 and its cabriolet model mean that in its new 911 coupe regime Porsche lacked an open car of any kind? Technically it didn’t but actually it did. In September of 1965, at the Frankfurt Show, Porsche introduced the third element in its new-car program, the body style named Targa after the company’s many racing successes in Sicily. But after this first showing the company took more than a year to put the unique, precedent-setting open-topped Targa into production.

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