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40 Years of Icons: My Top 5 Porsche 911s It’s hard to believe it’s been four decades since I first got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. My very first encounter was with a white 3.0-liter Carrera, fitted with black Fuchs wheels. It was a purebred 911 experience—narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual transmission. It was fast, certainly, but also flawed. At the time, I was still getting accustomed to Porsche’s quirks, especially when testing it against a 944 Turbo in Australia, a car that cost almost the exact same price. The 944 Turbo had more power, more torque, and handled demanding Australian roads with far less effort. Despite the 944 Turbo’s superior competence, I found myself inexplicably drawn to the 911. As I wrote in my notes: “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, if I were agonizing over how to spend my money, I’d take the 911 Carrera home.” It wasn’t an easy decision. I acknowledged the 944 Turbo’s ability to make even average drivers look good, its soaring performance perfectly balanced by a chassis of astounding ability. But the 911 was something different. It was a sports car from a different era, catering to different values. It wasn’t designed to please everyone; it demanded respect and understanding. That’s why, even back then, I would have chosen the 911. Since that first test, I’ve driven dozens of 911 models. Apart from the 964, which in the early 1990s hinted that the 911 concept might be losing relevance, I’ve been continuously impressed by 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 would spend my own hard-earned money on. From the original turbo-lag monsters to the aerodynamic marvels of today, here are the five Porsche 911 models that have left the most lasting impression on me over the past 40 years. The Original 911 Turbo (930): A Raw, Unforgiving Masterpiece Back in the 1970s, seasoned road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo in awed tones. They warned that it demanded the utmost respect, describing a car whose binary boost characteristics made the traditional 911 tightrope walk between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a task requiring quick hands and serious nerve. They called it a “widowmaker,” a car that tolerated no mistakes and no sloppiness. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original 930 and discover the truth behind the legend. The car I tested was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s esteemed classic fleet. Aware of its fearsome reputation, I took it very easy at first, cautiously playing with the throttle, feeling the boost come in, and watching the tachometer, trying to build a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine proved surprisingly tractable; it happily hummed along at 2,000 rpm in top gear, allowing the 911 Turbo to cruise at around 45 mph without complaint. However, once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, there was a noticeable surge as the turbocharger spooled up, forcing 0.8 bar of boost into the intake system. But the sledgehammer blow I had been expecting didn’t materialize. The trick to driving the original 911 Turbo smoothly and quickly, I found, was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there’s turbo lag—very noticeable turbo lag by modern standards—but it’s manageable. Even more than 50 years old, this 911 is still an impressively fast car on the road. First gear reaches 50 mph, second hits 90 mph, and third climbs to nearly 130 mph. This means you can decimate most winding two-lane roads using only second and third gears. And although it only produces 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing it to rocket in and out of corners with ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have been considered otherworldly. The 993 Generation: The Last Air-Cooled Icon For many Porsche purists, the 993 is the last of the true 911 line. It’s the 911 that lets you feel the engine thrumming behind you, your knuckles grazing the dash, with the snarling metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six as your soundtrack. But when I first drove it back in 1994, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first model to challenge the established laws of physics. Sure, the 993 still had that somewhat unpredictable front end that demanded careful loading on corner entry to ensure you hit the apex, and the rear end could still feel a bit unsettled on rough turns, but the connection between front and rear was significantly improved. The 993 was still a 911 at heart, but it operated within a much wider margin of error. The key to this transformation was a revolutionary rear suspension system. It replaced the old semi-trailing arms with a new multilink setup that allowed very slight initial toe-out on corner entry, which then transitioned into progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased. Crucially, this system dramatically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of the 911 since 1963. This engineering breakthrough was paired with a new six-speed manual transmission and steering that was 16 percent quicker, with just 2.5 turns lock-to-lock. These enhancements made the front end feel much more decisive. The 3.6-liter flat-six, now benefiting from lighter internals and a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, delivered 268 hp at 6,100 rpm, singing with renewed vigor through a new dual-exhaust system. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, spearheaded by Ulrich Bez (later the CEO of Aston Martin). The exterior redesign, directed by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual flaws of the 964, a car he felt was too tall at the front and too low at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons scattered randomly throughout the cabin. The 993 was a 911 that was faster and more forgiving than ever. And, most importantly, it was more desirable, too. The 996: The Water-Cooled Revolution That Saved Porsche At the time, it was considered heresy. Porsche’s decision to equip the 996-series 911 with a water-cooled flat-six engine was, in the eyes of the purists, 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 unstoppable sports car in 34 years, was a hero car to me. It was the 911 that saved Porsche. Engineered and developed under the leadership of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a clever 911, not least because it shared 38 percent of its components with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that the world would come to know as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was essential to give dealerships something else to sell once the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. “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. While the media focused on its relationship with the Boxster and its controversial 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 and equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, yet 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 Carrera: Back to Basics Perfection Of all the 911s I’ve ever driven, it was a base