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The Enduring Allure of the Porsche 911: 5 Unforgettable Models After 40 Years on the Road For four decades, I have had the privilege of testing and evaluating the Porsche 911, the marque’s most iconic and enduring sports car. It’s a journey that began with a humble, yet captivating, white 3.0-liter Carrera with its black Fuchs alloys. This early 911 was a purity of engineering and design—no power steering, no rear wing, a five-speed manual transmission—a machine that demanded respect and understanding. It was fast, yes, but it was also flawed, a car that made me wonder what all the fuss was about, especially when compared to the equally priced, more powerful, and easier-to-drive 944 Turbo of that era. Yet, despite the allure of the 944’s brutal efficiency, I found myself falling in love with the 911. As I wrote 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.” It wasn’t an easy decision. The 944 Turbo was a competent machine that could make even a novice driver look good, with soaring performance and an astounding chassis. But the 911 stirred the soul. “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 then, I have driven dozens of 911s, and with every iteration—apart from the 964, which in the early 1990s suggested the 911 idea was past its use-by date—I have marveled at how Porsche has polished its icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Four decades later, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I would happily spend my own money on. Out of the vast range of 911 models I have experienced, these five stand out as the most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo: A Raw and Unforgiving Masterpiece Back in the day, seasoned road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo in hushed tones, tinged with awe and apprehension. They described it as a car that demanded the utmost respect when pushed hard, a machine whose sudden, binary boost characteristics made the already delicate balancing act of corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a white-knuckle endeavor requiring quick hands and serious courage. The 911 Turbo did not forgive mistakes, nor did it tolerate sloppiness. It was, in the parlance of the time, a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to 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 a prized piece in Porsche’s breathtaking classic fleet. Out on the road, acutely aware of its fearsome reputation, I drove very cautiously at first. I played with the throttle, feeling the boost build and watching the tachometer, trying to build a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine proved to be remarkably tractable, happy to potter along at 2,000 rpm in top gear, cruising comfortably at 45 mph. Once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, however, there was a noticeable surge of acceleration as the turbocharger shoved 0.8 bar into the induction system. But the sledgehammer blow to the shoulder blades I had anticipated never materialized. I quickly learned the secret to smooth, rapid 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 is turbo lag—very noticeable turbo lag by modern standards—but it is manageable. Even though it is more than 50 years old, this 911 remains an impressively fast car on the road. First gear will take you to 50 mph, second to 90 mph, and third to nearly 130 mph, meaning you can destroy most winding two-lane roads using only second and third gear. And while it may have a mere 256 hp, it weighs only 2,513 pounds, allowing it to readily get in and out of corners. Half a century ago, its performance would have been considered otherworldly. This is a machine that combines the visceral thrill of a turbocharger with the pure driving experience of a classic Porsche, and it’s as exciting today as it was when it first hit the streets. The 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Last of the Real Air-Cooled Icons For Porsche purists, the 993-generation 911 represents the end of an era, the last of the “real” 911s. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dashboard, with the snarl of an air-cooled flat-six vibrating just behind your head. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first in the lineup to challenge the laws of physics. Sure, the 993 still had the somewhat unpredictable, almost jittery front end that demanded to be loaded onto the front tires on corner entry to ensure you hit the apex, and the rear end still exhibited a certain rhythmic instability on rougher turns. But there was a much better harmony between the front and rear axles. The 993 still did all the things a 911 should do, but within a much more generous margin for error. The key to this transformation was a new rear suspension that replaced the old semi-trailing arms with a new multi-link setup. This innovation allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry, followed by progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, all while significantly reducing the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of 911s since 1963. This was combined with a new six-speed manual transmission that made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six. This engine felt livelier, with a higher power peak thanks to lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, which were executed under the leadership of Ulrich Bez (later the head of Aston Martin). The exterior redesign, led by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual problems of the 964, a car he felt was too tall at the front and too low at the rear. The interior was also cleaner, with fewer buttons in random locations. The 993 was a 911 that was faster and more forgiving than ever before. And, most importantly, it was more desirable, too. This model redefined what a 911 could be, blending classic air-cooled charm with modern performance and refinement in a way that remains unmatched today. The 996-Generation Porsche 911: The Hero That Saved Porsche At the time, it was nothing short of heresy. Porsche’s decision to install a water-cooled flat-six in the tail of the 996-series 911 was, to the aficionados, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan ditching his six-string acoustic guitar and picking up 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 from financial ruin. Engineered and developed under the direction of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a clever 911, not least because it shared 38 percent of its parts with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster the world would come to know as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was needed to give dealers something else to sell when 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. But while the media attention focused on its relationship with the Boxster and the water-cooled engine, the 996’s true 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: roomier and equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, but still recognizably a Porsche 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