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After Four Decades Behind the Wheel: My Top 5 Porsche 911 Icons It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since I first got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. I remember the car vividly: a white, 3.0-liter Carrera with classic black Fuchs alloys. It was raw, unfiltered—no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual transmission. It was, in many ways, one of the purest iterations of the 911 idea. At the time, I tested it alongside the 944 Turbo, a car that cost virtually the same in my home country of Australia. The 944 had more power and torque and felt quicker with significantly less effort. It was the logical choice, the better car on paper. Yet, something tugged at my emotions. As I wrote at the time, “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good… but the 911 tugged at the emotions. 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.” The Modern Icon: How the 911 Survived and Thrived I’ve driven dozens of 911 variants since then, and while the 964 generation—the early 1990s model that seemed to be losing the 911’s soul—was a momentary worry, Porsche has managed to polish its iconic design, keeping it relevant, exciting, and deeply engaging. Four decades later, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I would still spend my own hard-earned dollars on. Among the countless models I’ve had the privilege of testing, these five stand out as the most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo (930): A 1970s Wild Child Back in the days when I was just getting acquainted with the 911 Carrera, veteran road testers spoke in hushed tones about the original Porsche 911 Turbo. The 930 was the stuff of legend—a car that demanded absolute respect when pushed to its limits. It was notorious for its “binary boost,” which created a dramatic power delivery that required quick hands and unwavering focus. The 911 Turbo did not tolerate mistakes. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of a first-generation 911 Turbo, a rare gem from Porsche’s own historic collection, and discover the truth behind the “widowmaker” myths. As I set off, hyper-aware of its fearsome reputation, I started slowly. I experimented with the throttle, feeling the surge of boost and watching the tachometer, trying to map out the powerband mentally. To my surprise, the 3.0-liter flat-six was remarkably docile at low revs. Cruising at 45 mph in top gear, the engine remained calm and compliant. However, once the revs hit 3,500, the turbocharger would spool up, delivering 0.8 bar of boost into the intake. The massive shove in the back I had been bracing myself for never fully materialized in the way the legends suggested. I soon realized the secret to smooth, rapid progress in the 930 was to keep the engine spinning above 4,000 rpm. Yes, there is turbo lag—a very noticeable amount by today’s standards—but it is entirely manageable. Despite being over 50 years old, this 911 remains incredibly fast on modern roads. First gear reaches 50 mph, second hits 90 mph, and third pushes nearly 130 mph. This means you can utterly dominate twisty backroads using only second and third gears. While its 256 horsepower might sound modest, the car weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing it to corner with agility. Half a century ago, this level of performance felt otherworldly. The 993 Generation: The Final Air-Cooled Masterpiece For Porsche purists, the 993 represents the end of an era—the last of the air-cooled 911s. This is the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash, the visceral, metallic clatter of the flat-six filling the cabin. But back in 1994, when I first drove the 993, it was the 911 of the future. It was the first model to challenge the very laws of physics. Admittedly, the front end still required a bit of loading to hit the apex, and the rear end still had its rhythmic dance over rough patches, but the 993 created a new level of synergy between the front and rear. It still felt like a 911, but within a much safer margin of error. The key to this transformation was a radical new rear suspension. The old semi-trailing arms were replaced with a sophisticated multilink setup. This design allowed for slight initial toe-out on corner entry, then progressive toe-in as lateral forces increased, all while virtually eliminating the camber change that had been the 911’s Achilles’ heel since 1963. This engineering brilliance was complemented by a new, quicker steering rack (2.5 turns lock-to-lock) that made the front end feel far more responsive. And then there was the new six-speed manual transmission, perfectly matched to the 3.6-liter flat-six, which delivered 268 horsepower at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a dual-exhaust system. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the technical upgrades under Ulrich Bez (later head of Aston Martin); the exterior redesign by Harm Lagaay corrected the proportions of the 964, which he considered too tall in the front and too low in the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with better button placement. The 993 was a faster, more forgiving 911, and, most importantly, more desirable than ever. The 996 Generation: The Water-Cooled Savior At the time, it was nothing short of heresy. Porsche’s decision to switch the 996-series 911 to a water-cooled flat-six engine was, to the purists, the equivalent of Bob Dylan ditching his acoustic guitar for an electric one at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. But for me, the 996—the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s legendary sports car in 34 years—was a hero car. It was the 911 that saved Porsche. Developed under the leadership of R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a masterstroke of engineering. Its genius lay in sharing 38 percent of its components with the all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that the world would soon know as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking knew the Boxster was essential to give the dealer network something else to sell once the aging 928 and 968 models were phased out. “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design chief Harm Lagaay joked after the unveiling. But while the media focused on the Boxster connection 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. By 1996, the 996 could be built in just 60 hours. The modern 911 had arrived: roomier, packed with all the features expected of a late-20th-century sports car, yet still recognizably a 911. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911—only better. While it possessed a new layer of sophistication, the 996 retained the delightful tactility and urgent response that defined the 911’s character. Alongside the original Boxster, it pulled Porsche back from the brink of extinction. The 991.2 Carrera: The Everyday Masterpiece Among all the 911s I’ve driven, it was a base model 991.2 Carrera that truly captured my heart. It captured everyone else’s too, judging by the feedback I received from colleagues at the time. Press fleets are usually stacked with high-spec vehicles loaded with options, presumably because automotive PR departments think we’re impressed by such things. So, Porsche Cars North America’s decision to include a base 911 Carrera among the new 991.2 models for our 2017 MotorTrend Car of the Year testing seemed brave. In truth, it was an inspired move. The 991.2 introduced a new 3.0-liter turbocharged engine, delivering 370 hp in the base Carrera or 420 hp in the Carrera S. Even in base trim, it offered a broad torque band and impressive efficiency. This Carrera also proved that even on the base wheel and tire setup, the chassis was staggeringly communicative and adjustable