Hope decided to leave Logan and develop her own company with Zende despite Liam’s threats B&B

The Definitive List: My 5 Most Unforgettable Porsche 911s of All Time Forty years ago, my very first drive in a Porsche 911 felt like a rite of passage—and frankly, a bit of a puzzle. I remember the car clearly: a white 3.0-liter Carrera, purist spec with black Fuchs wheels, narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, and that precise, mechanical gate of a five-speed manual. It was fast, undoubtedly. But in my home market of Australia, it was being compared to the 944 Turbo, a car that cost almost the same and, at the time, felt brutally effective. The 944 was faster and easier, with less effort over any road. Yet, against all logic, I fell in love with the Porsche 911. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote in MotorTrend, “I’m certain. I know the 944 Turbo is the better car. But I also know that if it came to the crunch, that if it were me agonizing over how to spend my money, I’d take the 911 Carrera home.” It wasn’t a decision I made lightly. As I explained then, the 944 was “so competent, it can make a bad driver look good.” Its “soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 was different. It tugged at the emotions in a way no modern machine could. “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 911 Legacy: A 40-Year Evolution Over the decades, I have tested dozens of Porsche 911 variants. Apart from the 964 generation—a model in the early 1990s that honestly suggested the original concept might have reached its expiration date—I have been consistently amazed at how Porsche has refined its icon, keeping it relevant, thrilling, and incredibly engaging. Four decades on, the 911 is still one of the few new cars I would genuinely buy with my own hard-earned money. From the analog purity of the early days to the hyper-advanced GT3 RS, the 911 has remained the benchmark for what a sports car should be. It has been a battleground of engineering and philosophy, a testament to Zuffenhausen’s refusal to compromise its soul in pursuit of progress. Of all the Porsche 911 models that have passed through my hands, here are five that stand out for their pure performance, engineering brilliance, and sheer memorability. These are the cars that define what the 911 means to enthusiasts around the world. The Legend: 1975 Porsche 930 Turbo Back when I was testing that 3.0-liter Carrera, veteran road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 930 Turbo in awed, almost fearful tones. They described it as a car that demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent. Its power delivery was famously binary—a switch, not a flow. The 911’s inherent trait of understeer in corners, combined with sudden, savage acceleration when the turbo spooled, demanded quick hands and nerves of steel. It was, they warned, a “widowmaker.” It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original Porsche 930 Turbo to discover the truth for myself. The car I drove was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now proudly part of Porsche’s esteemed classic fleet. Approaching such an icon, fully aware of its terrifying reputation, I started cautiously, feathering the throttle, testing the boost threshold, and trying to build a mental map of the power curve. To my surprise, the 3.0-liter flat-six was remarkably docile at low revs. It happily hummed along at 2,000 rpm in top gear, cruising comfortably at 45 mph without complaint. But the moment the engine crossed 3,500 rpm, the character changed drastically. There was a noticeable surge of acceleration as the turbocharger forced 0.8 bar (about 12 psi) of pressure into the intake system. Yet, the sledgehammer blow I had braced myself for never truly materialized. I quickly learned the trick to smooth, rapid progress in the Porsche 930 Turbo was keeping the 3.0-liter engine spinning above 4,000 rpm. This kept the turbocharger fully energized. Yes, there is significant turbo lag by modern standards—very noticeable—but it’s entirely manageable once you understand the engine’s requirements. Even now, more than 50 years later, the 930 is an impressively fast machine on the road. First gear pushes you to 50 mph, second reaches 90 mph, and third can exceed 130 mph. This means you can tear through most two-lane roads using only the second and third gears. While its power output is a relatively modest 256 hp, the car weighs only 2,513 pounds, which allows it to dive into and out of corners with surprising agility. Half a century ago, this level of performance was simply otherworldly. For the serious Porsche enthusiast, the original 930 Turbo remains the raw, pure expression of turbocharged power. The Evolution: 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera (993) For Porsche purists, this car is often considered the last of the true line. The Porsche 911 Carrera 993 is the final air-cooled iteration—the one you feel and hear with your knuckles grazing the dashboard, the snarling metallic clatter of the flat-six behind you every time you accelerate. But back in 1994, when I first experienced the 993, it was the 911 of the future. It was the first model to genuinely challenge the established physics of the classic 911 design. Sure, the 993 retained the signature pat-pat-patter of the front end that demanded respect and proper weight transfer on corner entry, and the rear end still danced through rough turns, but there was a new level of simpatico between them. The 993 did everything a 911 should do, but with a vastly improved margin of error. The key to this transformation was the revolutionary rear suspension. Porsche replaced the decades-old semi-trailing arms with a new multilink setup. This engineering masterpiece allowed for very slight initial toe-out during corner entry, then progressive toe-in as lateral forces increased. Crucially, it dramatically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of the Porsche 911 since 1963. This engineering marvel was combined with a new steering system that proved decisive. At 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, it was 16 percent quicker than the previous generation, making the front end feel far more responsive and direct. Furthermore, the 993 introduced a new six-speed manual transmission that maximized the potential of the 3.6-liter flat-six. Thanks to lighter internal components, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual-exhaust system, the engine pulled harder, reaching its 268 hp power peak at 6,100 rpm with remarkable linearity. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the advanced engineering, developed under the leadership of Ulrich Bez (who would later become the head of Aston Martin). The exterior redesign, led by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected what he saw as the visual problems of the 964—a car he thought was too tall at the front and too pulled down at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons placed in random locations. The Porsche 911 993 was faster, more forgiving, and—most importantly—significantly more desirable than anything that had come before. It represents the peak of air-cooled 911 engineering. The Savior: 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera (996) At the time of its release, it was sheer heresy. Porsche’s decision to install a water-cooled flat-six in the tail of the Porsche 911 996 series was, to the purists, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan ditching his six-string acoustic and picking up a Fender Strat at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But the 996, the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s seemingly 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 stroke of genius, not least because it shared 38 percent of its parts with an all-new, lower-cost mid-engine roadster that the world would soon come to know as the Porsche Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking understood that the Boxster was essential to give