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A 40-Year Pilgrimage: The 5 Most Unforgettable Porsche 911s I’ve Ever Driven It’s hard to believe four decades have passed since I first slid behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. I recall the car vividly: a white 3.0-liter Carrera, sitting on black Fuchs alloys. It was a pure, unadulterated 911—narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual transmission. I remember thinking it was fast, but flawed. In fact, for a moment, I wondered what all the fuss was about. That’s because I had just driven a 944 Turbo, a car that, in my native Australia at the time, cost nearly the same as the 911 Carrera. The 944 Turbo packed more power and torque and was unquestionably faster, handling twisting roads with far less effort than its legendary sibling. Yet, I found myself falling in love with the 911. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote in my review, “I’m certain. I know the 944 Turbo is the better car. But I also know that if it came down to it, if I were agonizing over where to spend my money, I’d take the 911 Carrera home.” It wasn’t an easy decision. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good,” I noted. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 tugged at the heartstrings. “The gloriously imperfect 911 Carrera is a sports car of a different age and reflects different values. It’s not tailored to meet the needs of most drivers. It demands understanding and respect. That’s why I’d take it home.” Since that day, I have driven dozens of 911s. With every iteration—except perhaps the 964, which in the early 1990s suggested the 911 concept might be past its prime—I have marveled at how Porsche has polished its icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Four decades after that first drive, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I would actually spend my own hard-earned dollars on. After 40 years of testing the world’s most iconic sports car, here are the five 911 models that stand out as the most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo: A 50-Year-Old Widowmaker? Back in the days of that 3.0-liter Carrera, seasoned road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo in hushed, awestruck tones. They said it demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent. Its notorious turbo lag made the traditional 911 tightrope walk between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer an act requiring quick hands and nerves of steel. The original Turbo didn’t forgive mistakes; it punished sloppiness. They called it a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original 911 Turbo and discover the truth for myself. The car I drove was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s mouthwatering classic fleet. Aware of its fearsome reputation, I took it very easy at first, playing with the throttle and trying to build a mental map of the turbocharged engine and its power delivery. Surprisingly, the engine was remarkably tractable, happy to murmur along at 2,000 rpm in top gear as the 930 Turbo trickled along at 45 mph. Once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, however, there was a noticeable acceleration surge as the turbocharger huffed 0.8 bar into the induction system. But the sledgehammer blow to the back of the shoulders I had been anticipating never materialized. I quickly learned the trick to smooth progress in the original 911 Turbo: keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning at 4,000 rpm or more to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there’s Porsche turbo lag—very noticeable by modern standards—but it’s manageable. Even with more than 50 years on the clock, this 911 is an impressively fast car on the road. First gear tops out at 50 mph, second at 90 mph, and third at almost 130 mph. This means you can destroy most winding roads using only second and third gear. And while it might have a mere 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing it to get into and out of corners with relative ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have seemed otherworldly. The 993-Generation: The Last Air-Cooled Masterpiece For many Porsche purists, this is the pinnacle—the last of the true 911s. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash, the air-cooled flat-six snarl behind you. But back in 1994, when I first drove the 993, it was the 911 of the future, the first in the line to challenge the laws of physics. Oh, sure, the 993 still possessed the classic 911 feel—that lively front end demanding careful loading on corner entry to hit the apex, and a rear end that still danced through rough turns. But there was much more simpatico between the front and rear. The 993 still did 911 things, but within a much tighter margin for error. The key to this transformation was a new rear suspension that replaced the aging semi-trailing arms with a modern multilink setup. This design allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, all while significantly reducing the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of 911s since their inception in 1963. This was combined with steering that, at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, was 16% quicker, making the front end feel much more decisive. And then there was the new six-speed manual transmission, which made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six. Lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust allowed the engine to zing harder to its 268-hp power peak at 6,100 rpm. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, spearheaded by Ulrich Bez—who would later lead Aston Martin. The exterior redesign, overseen by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual issues of the 964, a car he felt was too tall at the front and too pulled down at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons in random locations. The 993 was a 911 that was faster and more forgiving than ever. And perhaps most importantly, it was more desirable. The 996-Generation: The Controversial Hero At the time, it was automotive heresy. Porsche’s decision to install a water-cooled flat-six in the tail of the 996-series 911 was, to the aficionados, the equivalent of Bob Dylan switching from a six-string acoustic to a Fender Stratocaster at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But the 996—the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s indefatigable sports car in 34 years—was a hero car to me. It was the 911 that saved Porsche. Engineered and developed under the direction of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a clever piece of engineering. Not least because it shared 38% of its parts with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that the world would come to know as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was essential to give dealers something else to sell after the aging 928 and 968 models went out of production. “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design boss Lagaay said with a smile after the company unveiled the 996. While media attention focused on its relationship with the Boxster and the water-cooled engine, the 996’s real story ran much deeper. In 1994, it took Porsche 130 hours to build a 993-series 911. The 996 took just 60 hours to build. The modern 911 had arrived. It was roomier and equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, yet it remained recognizably Porsche’s icon. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911. Only better. Yes, there was a new veneer of sophistication to the way it went about its business, but the 996 retained the delicious tactility and urgent response that had made the 911 a sports car like no other. And along with the original