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40 Years of Porsche: My Top 5 Most Memorable 911s It’s hard to believe that four decades have passed since I first got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. I vividly recall that white 3.0-liter Carrera with its iconic black Fuchs alloys—a pure, stripped-down machine with no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual. At the time, I was test-driving it alongside a 944 Turbo, which cost virtually the same in my home country of Australia. The 944 was undoubtedly faster, more powerful, and less demanding to drive on twisty roads. But even then, I was captivated by the 911. As I wrote in my review back then, “After two days and 600 miles, 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.” I admitted the 944’s competence could make a bad driver look good, but the 911 tugged at the heartstrings. “The gloriously imperfect 911 Carrera is a sports car of a different age and reflects different values,” I noted. “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 then, I’ve driven dozens of 911s. With every iteration, except perhaps the 964 which seemed to signal the end of an era in the early 1990s, I’ve marveled at how Porsche has refined its icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Four decades later, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I’d still spend my hard-earned dollars on. From the earliest models to the latest track weapons, here are the five Porsche 911s that have left the deepest impression on me. The Original 911 Turbo (930) In the early days of my automotive journey, veteran road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo in hushed, awed tones. They described it as a car that demanded respect, a widowmaker that punished sloppiness with brutal swiftness. It was said that the binary nature of its power delivery—the sudden surge of turbo boost—made the 911’s inherent tendencies towards understeer and oversteer nearly impossible to manage without lightning reflexes and iron nerve. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of one and understand the legend. The car I drove was one of the very first 30 production Turbos ever built, now a cherished part of Porsche’s classic collection. Knowing its fearsome reputation, I proceeded with extreme caution, cautiously applying the throttle and watching the tachometer, trying to build a mental map of its power delivery. To my surprise, the engine felt remarkably tractable at low revs, chugging along at 45 mph in top gear without complaint. But once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, the 0.8-bar of boost from the turbocharger hit like a sledgehammer. It was intoxicating, violent, and utterly exhilarating. The trick to controlling the original 911 Turbo, I soon learned, was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbocharger fully spooled up. Yes, there’s noticeable turbo lag by modern standards, but it’s manageable if you know the secret. Even today, the 930 is an incredibly fast car. First gear rips to 50 mph, second to 90 mph, and third to nearly 130 mph. It can annihilate most winding two-lane roads using only second and third gear. And while its output of 256 hp may seem modest now, the car weighs just 2,513 pounds, making it agile and responsive. Half a century ago, this performance was simply otherworldly. The 993-Generation Porsche 911 For Porsche purists, the 993 generation is considered the last of the true air-cooled 911s—a visceral driving experience where the mechanical symphony of the flat-six echoes through the cabin as you grip the steering wheel. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future. It was the first model that dared to challenge Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. Sure, it retained the classic 911 trait of requiring a loaded front end for precise corner entry, and the rear still exhibited playful movements through rough turns, but there was a newfound harmony between the axles. The 993 still felt like a 911, but within a much wider margin of error. The key to this transformation was a revolutionary rear suspension redesign. The old semi-trailing arms were replaced with a sophisticated multilink setup that allowed for slight initial toe-out during corner entry and progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased. This dramatically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of the 911 since 1963. Coupled with steering that was 16 percent quicker, providing a much more decisive front-end feel, and a new six-speed manual transmission, the 993 felt fundamentally different. The 3.6-liter flat-six benefited from lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a dual exhaust system, delivering 268 hp at 6,100 rpm. Compared to its predecessor, the 964, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades—led by Ulrich Bez, who would later head Aston Martin. The exterior redesign, spearheaded by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual imbalance of the 964, which he thought was too tall at the front and too low at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with a more logical layout of buttons and controls. The 993 was faster, more forgiving, and, most importantly, even more desirable. It was the perfect bridge between classic air-cooled purity and modern engineering. The 996-Generation Porsche 911 At the time, it was heresy. Porsche’s decision to replace the iconic air-cooled engine with a water-cooled flat-six in the 996-series 911 was seen by purists as the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan trading his acoustic guitar for a Fender Strat at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But the 996, the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s legendary sports car in 34 years, was a hero to me. It was the 911 that saved the company. Developed under the leadership of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a stroke of engineering genius, not least because it shared 38% of its components with an all-new, more affordable mid-engine roadster known as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche CEO Wendelin Weideking recognized that the Boxster was essential to keep dealers afloat while the aging 928 and 968 models were phased out. As design boss Lagaay famously remarked, “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half.” While media attention focused on its relationship with the Boxster and the water-cooled engine, the 996’s true significance lay deeper. In 1994, it took Porsche 130 hours to build a 993-series 911; the 996 took just 60 hours to assemble. The modern 911 had arrived: roomier, equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, yet still unmistakably Porsche’s icon. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911. Only better. A new layer of sophistication was evident, but the 996 retained the delightful tactility and urgent response that had defined the 911 for decades. Along with the original Boxster, it pulled Porsche back from the brink of financial ruin. The 991.2-Generation Porsche 911 Carrera Of all the 911s I’ve driven over the years, it was a base-model 991.2 Carrera that truly stole my heart. It seems everyone else felt the same way, judging by the reactions I received from colleagues who drove it. Most press fleets tend to feature high-specification vehicles loaded with options, presumably because automotive PRs believe we’re more impressed by expensive extras. So Porsche Cars North America’s decision to include a base 911 Carrera among the new 991.2 models available for our 2017 MotorTrend Car of the Year testing seemed bold. In reality, it was an inspired move. The 991.2 introduced a new 3.4-liter turbocharged engine, offering 370 hp in the base Carrera or 420 hp in the Carrera S. Even in base trim, it delivered a broad torque curve and impressive efficiency. This Carrera demonstrated that even on the standard wheel and tire combination, the chassis was staggeringly communicative and adjustable. Visually, the 9