“I want to quit,” Zende threw his resignation letter onto Steffy’s desk and left B&B Spoilers

40 Years of Driving Porsche 911s: My Top 5 Most Unforgettable Models The first time I drove a Porsche 911, it was a white 3.0-liter Carrera. Black Fuchs alloys, narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, five-speed manual—it was a pure, raw experience. I was fresh to Porsche, and frankly, I didn’t quite get it. Back then, in my home country of Australia, a 944 Turbo cost about the same, but it was faster, with far less effort. I remember thinking, “Is this what everyone’s raving about?” But the 911 tugged at something deeper. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote, “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 conclusion I came to readily. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good,” I said. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” 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.” Fast forward to today. I’ve spent four decades driving 911s, and with every iteration—apart from the 964, which I thought might signal the end of the line—I’ve been amazed by how Porsche has refined this icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Today, in 2025, the 911 is still one of the few new cars I’d actually spend my own hard-earned dollars on. Over the past 40 years, I’ve driven dozens of 911 models, and some have stuck with me more than others. Here are the five that truly made an impression. The Original 911 Turbo: A Legend of Raw Power When I first drove the original 911 Turbo—the 930—veteran journalists spoke of it in hushed, awed tones. It was a car that demanded respect, a car whose binary boost system made the traditional 911 tightrope walk between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a task for quick hands and big courage. They called it a “widowmaker.” It took me 35 years to actually drive one and see if the legends were true. The car I drove was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s incredible classic fleet. Aware of its fearsome reputation, I started slow, feeling the throttle, watching the tach, trying to build a mental map of the power band. The engine was surprisingly tractable at low revs, happy to murmur along at 2,000 rpm in top gear. But once it hit 3,500 rpm, the turbocharger hit full boost (0.8 bar), and I felt a noticeable surge. But that sledgehammer blow I expected? It wasn’t quite there. I learned the secret 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 turbo fully spooled. Yes, there’s turbo lag—very noticeable by modern standards—but it’s manageable. Even half a century later, this 911 is impressively fast. First gear runs to 50 mph, second to 90 mph, and third to almost 130 mph. You can destroy most winding roads using just second and third gears. And while it only has 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, making it agile in corners. Back in its day, its performance would have seemed otherworldly. The 993-Generation: The Last Air-Cooled Perfection For purists, the 993 is the end of the line, the last of the “real” 911s. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash and the metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six right behind you. But when I first drove it in 1994, the 993 was the future of the 911. It was the first to challenge physics with engineering. Of course, the 993 still had that classic 911 feel—that nose-light front end that needed to be loaded properly on corner entry, and that rear end that still danced a bit through rough turns. But there was much more harmony between the front and rear. The 993 still did 911 things, but within a much safer and more controlled margin. The real game-changer was the new rear suspension. It replaced the old semi-trailing arms with a modern multilink setup. This allowed for slight initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, while drastically reducing the camber change that had always been the Achilles’ heel of the 911. This was combined with steering that was 16% quicker (2.5 turns lock-to-lock), making the front end feel much more decisive. Plus, there was a new six-speed manual transmission that made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six, which now made 268 hp at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a new dual exhaust. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades led by Ulrich Bez (later the head of Aston Martin): the exterior redesign by design chief Harm Lagaay corrected the visual flaws of the 964 (which he thought was too tall at the front and too low at the rear). The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons scattered around. The 993 was faster and more forgiving than ever. And most importantly, it was more desirable. The 996-Generation: The 911 That Saved Porsche At the time, it was heresy. Porsche’s decision to put a water-cooled flat-six in the back of the 996-series 911 was, to the fans, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan giving up his acoustic guitar for an electric Fender at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But the 996, the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s unstoppable sports car in 34 years, was a hero to me. It was the 911 that saved Porsche. Engineered and developed under the direction of R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was brilliant. It shared 38% of its parts with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster called the Boxster. Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking knew the Boxster was essential to give dealers something else to sell when the aging 928 and 968 models went out of production. “We built two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design boss Lagaay said smiling after the unveiling. But while the media focused on the Boxster partnership 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. The modern 911 had arrived: roomier, equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, but still recognizably Porsche. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911. Only better. Yes, there was a new layer of sophistication, but the 996 retained that delicious tactility and urgent response that made the 911 unique. Along with the original Boxster, it saved Porsche from disappearing. The 991.2-Generation Carrera: Pure Driving Bliss Of all the 911s I’ve driven, it was a base 991.2 Carrera that truly stole my heart. It stole everyone else’s too, judging by the feedback from colleagues who drove it. Most press fleets are loaded with high-spec cars stuffed with options, presumably because PR people think we’re impressed by that stuff. So Porsche Cars North America’s decision to include a base 911 Carrera in our 2017 MotorTrend Car of the Year testing was brave. But it was actually inspired. The 991.2 introduced a new 3.4-liter turbocharged engine, delivering 370 hp in the base Carrera or 420 hp in the Carrera S. Even the 370-hp version had massive torque and excellent efficiency. This Carrera proved that even with the base wheels and tires, the chassis was unbelievably communicative and adjustable. Visually, the 991.2 was a subtle update to the bigger, skillfully reproportioned 991.1—a beautiful, modern interpretation of classic