I’m sure many of you have the same affliction as me, where instead of just going to sleep at night your brain forces you to spend an hour playing with online car configurators. Many brands have extremely advanced ones these days, with lots of options and fantastic 3D renderings, but Porsche’s might be the best. There is just so much stuff to add to modern Porsches, from the PTS colors and other cosmetic options to new technology features, and Porsche is constantly updating its configurator.
The other night when I popped into the configurator for the 2026 911 I noticed a new option I hadn’t seen before: Lightweight carbon-fiber wiper arms. And it’s not just relegated to models like the GT3 that already offer lightweight packages and lots of carbon options, you can get the carbon wipers on a base 911 Carrera. Best of all, the configurator even renders them onto the car.
They actually do save weight
Yes, at $1,310 these things are expensive as hell, but they do actually have a performance benefit, if a very minor one. Porsche says the carbon-fiber wiper arms are 50% lighter than the standard ones, and the design is “aerodynamically optimized.” Even the tiniest bit of improvement does make a difference, especially to nerds ordering something like this, and I will say they look pretty cool. (The photo below is what the normal ones look like in the configurator.) The base 911 Carrera doesn’t have many other carbon-fiber exterior options, aside from the $4,040 carbon-fiber roof, but the updated GT3 offers a $37,310 Lightweight Package that saves more than 48 pounds. So what’s another thousand-or-so bucks for some carbon-fiber wipers, too?
This isn’t the first car from Volkswagen Group to offer carbon-fiber windshield wipers — in fact, Bugatti was the first company ever to make carbon wipers with the Sport version of the Chiron that was revealed in 2018. Said Bugatti, “[They] no longer need the articulated joints which normally feature on conventional wipers. The function of these joints has been integrated into the carbon fibre structure of the wiper arms. In addition, the wiper arm tips, which are made from aluminium, are produced by a weight-saving 3-D printing process. This means that the new carbon fibre wipers are 77 percent or 1.4 kg lighter than their predecessors. In addition, thanks to the new material, the wiper arms have a new profile that allows improved aerodynamic properties.” That’s the trickle-down effect at work!
Porsche
