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A 40-Year Obsession: The 5 Porsche 911s That Defined a Career For four decades, I have been testing Porsches, and in that time, the 911 has remained my benchmark for what a sports car should be. From the raw, untamed beginnings to the hyper-aerodynamic track weapons of today, each generation has offered a distinct experience, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Looking back, certain models have stood out, not just for their performance, but for the visceral connection they create with the driver. Here are the five Porsche 911s that have left the deepest impression on me over the years. The Early Days: A Love-Hate Relationship When I first encountered the 911, it was a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs alloys. It was a pure, mechanical machine—no power steering, no rear wing, just a five-speed manual transmission and an engine that demanded respect. At the time, I was also testing a 944 Turbo, a car that was faster and more forgiving, yet I found myself drawn to the flawed beauty of the 911. It was a car that didn’t coddle you; it made you work for it. “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.” The 911 demanded understanding and respect, and that’s precisely why it captured my heart. While I have driven dozens of 911s since, and watched it evolve with every iteration, it is the early models that still hold a special place in my memory. The 1975 Porsche 930 Turbo: The Original Beast Veteran road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo in awed tones, referring to it as a “widowmaker.” They claimed it demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent, and that its binary boost made the traditional 911 tightrope between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a dangerous game. It was a car that didn’t forgive mistakes. When I finally got behind the wheel of a 30-year-old 930 Turbo from Porsche’s classic fleet, I was prepared for a fight. The car was one of the first 30 ever built, and the weight of its reputation was heavy. I took it easy at first, testing the throttle and trying to map the power curve in my mind. The engine was surprisingly tractable at low revs, easily managing 2,000 rpm in top gear. But once the turbo spooled up at 3,500 rpm, the acceleration was palpable, though not the sledgehammer blow I had expected. The trick to mastering the 930 Turbo is to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there’s noticeable turbo lag by modern standards, but it’s manageable. Even today, the original 930 is an impressively fast car on the road. First gear tops out at 50 mph, second at 90 mph, and third at almost 130 mph, meaning it can destroy most winding two-lanes using only second and third. While it may have only 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, making it nimble and responsive. Fifty years ago, its performance would have seemed otherworldly. The original 930 Turbo remains one of the most exhilarating and demanding cars I have ever driven. The 1996 Porsche 911 993: The Perfect Balance For Porsche purists, the 993 is the last of the real 911s—the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash and 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, a car that started to argue about the laws of physics. The front end still had that familiar 911 feel, demanding to be loaded on corner entry, but the rear end was more settled through rough turns. The 993 did what a 911 should, but within a much better margin of error. The key to this transformation was a new rear suspension that replaced the old semi-trailing arms with a multilink setup. This allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry and 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 steering that was 16 percent quicker than the 964’s, at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, making the front end feel much more decisive. Plus, a new six-speed manual transmission made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six that zinged harder to its 268-hp power peak at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust system. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, done under Ulrich Bez (later the head of Aston Martin): The exterior redesign, led by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected visual problems with 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 scattered randomly. The 993 was a 911 that was faster and more forgiving than ever. And, most importantly, it was more desirable, too. It remains one of the most sought-after air-cooled 911s for a reason. The 1996 Porsche 911 996: The Unlikely Savior 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 guitar for 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, 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 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 had taken 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 Porsche’s icon. Most important, 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. And along with that original Boxster, it saved Porsche from extinction. The 2017 Porsche 911 Carrera 991.2: The Everyday Masterpiece 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 from the feedback I got at the time from colleagues who drove it. Most press fleets tend to be stacked with high-spec vehicles loaded with options, presumably because automotive PRs think we’re impressed by such things. So Porsche Cars North America’s decision to include a base 911 Carrera among the roster of then-new 991.2 models available for our 2017 MotorTrend Car of the Year testing seemed a brave one. In truth, though, it was an inspired move. The 991.2 bowed a new 3.4-liter turbocharged engine, available with 370 hp in the base Carrera or 420 hp in the Carrera S. Even in 370-hp trim, it delivered a broad band of torque and impressive efficiency. This Carrera also showed that even on the base wheel