Brooke confronted Will and slapped him after learning that RJ had been beaten B&B Spoilers

A Lifetime on the Edge: My Top 5 Most Memorable Porsche 911s 40 years behind the wheel of Porsche’s iconic sports car reveals a legacy of constant evolution and enduring passion. It’s hard to believe that 40 years have passed since I first got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. I still recall it vividly—a pristine white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs alloys. The body was narrow, there was no rear wing, no power steering, and just a five-speed manual transmission. It was as pure a 911 as Porsche had ever built. I remember it being fast, but flawed. At the time, I had just driven a 944 Turbo, which cost nearly the same as the 911 Carrera in Australia. The 944 Turbo had more power and torque, and it was much faster on any road, with far less effort. Yet, I found myself falling for the 911. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote in my original review, “I am certain. I know the 944 Turbo is the better car. But I also know that if it came down to it, if I had to choose, I would take the 911 Carrera home.” It wasn’t an easy conclusion. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it makes a bad driver look good,” I noted. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 had captured my heart. “The gloriously imperfect 911 Carrera is a sports car of a different era that reflects different values. It is not tailored to the needs of most drivers. It demands understanding and respect. That is why I would take it home.” I’ve driven dozens of 911s since, and with every generation—with the exception of the 964, which in the early 1990s made me wonder if the 911 idea was past its expiration date—I have marveled at how Porsche has refined its icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Four decades after my first drive, the 911 is still one of the few new cars I would spend my own hard-earned money on. Of all the 911s I have driven over the past 40 years, here are the five that remain most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo: A Beast of Its Own Back when I drove the 3.0-liter Carrera, veteran road test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo with awe. They claimed it demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent, a car whose binary boost states made walking the traditional 911 tightrope between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a job that required quick hands and nerves of steel. The 911 Turbo did not forgive mistakes; it did not tolerate sloppiness. It was, they said, a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to finally 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 part of Porsche’s impressive classic fleet. Aware of its fearsome reputation, I took it very easy on the road at first, experimenting with the throttle, feeling the boost kick in, and watching the tachometer to build a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine was remarkably tractable, happy to murmur along at 2,000 rpm in top gear as the 911 Turbo drifted along at 45 mph. Once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, however, there was a noticeable surge of acceleration as the turbocharger pushed 0.8 bar of boost into the intake system. But the sledgehammer blow to the back of the shoulders I expected never arrived. I discovered that the secret to smooth and rapid progress in the original 911 Turbo was to 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 by modern standards—but it is manageable. Even today, this 911 is an impressively fast car on the road. First gear reaches 50 mph, second reaches 90 mph, and third reaches almost 130 mph, meaning it can decimate most twisting two-lane roads using only second and third gear. And while it may only have 256 horsepower, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing it to dive into and out of corners with ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have seemed otherworldly. The 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Perfect Synthesis For Porsche purists, this is the last of the line—the last of the true 911s. This is the Porsche you drive with your knuckles brushing against the dash, the snarling metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six behind you. 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. Oh, sure, the 993 still had the playful, chatter-prone front end that demanded to be loaded on corner entry to ensure you hit the apex, and the rear end still danced through the rougher turns, but there was much more harmony between them. The 993 still did 911 things, but within a much better margin of safety. The key to it all was a new rear suspension that replaced the semi-trailing arms of old with a new multi-link setup. This allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, all while 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. With lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust system, the engine zinged harder to its 268-horsepower power peak at 6,100 rpm. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, implemented under the leadership of Ulrich Bez, who later headed Aston Martin: The exterior redesign, directed by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected visual problems with the 964, a car he thought was too tall at the front and too low at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, 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. The 996-Generation Porsche 911: The Savior of Porsche At the time, it was 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 acoustic six-string 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. Engineered and developed under the direction of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a clever 911. It shared 38% 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 necessary to give dealers something else to sell once the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. “We made 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 media attention focused on its relationship with the Boxster 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 to build. The modern 911 had arrived: roomier, equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, but still recognizably Porsche’s 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 that had made the 911 a sports car like no other. Along with the original Boxster, it saved Porsche from extinction. The 991.2-Generation Porsche 911 Carrera: Pure Driving Joy Of all the 911s I have driven, it was a base 991.2 Carrera that truly stole my heart. It stole everyone else’s too, judging by the feedback I received from colleagues who drove it at the time. Most press fleets tend to be loaded with high-