The Rescue Of Lucas And Britt Was The Reason Jason Disappeared! General Hospital Spoilers

The Enduring Allure of the Porsche 911: 4 Decades on the Driver’s Seat For over 40 years, I’ve had the privilege of testing Porsches, a journey that began with the iconic 911. From the raw, early models to the highly advanced performance machines of today, the 911 has evolved remarkably while maintaining its unique character. It’s a car that still captures the imagination and continues to challenge the notion of what a modern sports car can be. The Genesis: From the White Carrera to the Modern Powerhouse My first encounter with a Porsche 911 was a white 3.0-liter Carrera. It was a pure, unadulterated sports car—no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual gearbox. While it was fast, it also showed its imperfections. I compared it to the 944 Turbo of the same era, and while the 944 was faster and more refined, I found myself drawn to the 911. In my notes, 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 so competent it could make a bad driver look good, with soaring performance and a chassis that defied physics. But the 911 tugged at the emotions. It was a car of a different age, not tailored for everyone, demanding respect and understanding. That’s why I’d take it home. Since then, I’ve driven dozens of 911 models. Aside from the 964, which seemed to signal the decline of the 911 idea, Porsche has consistently polished this icon, keeping it relevant and exciting. Four decades later, it remains one of the few new cars I would spend my own money on. Of all the 911s I’ve driven, these five stand out as the most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo: A Widowmaker for the Brave When I first drove the original 3.0-liter Carrera, veteran road testers spoke of the original 911 Turbo in hushed, reverent tones. It was a car that demanded the utmost respect, a car whose binary boost dynamics made the traditional 911 tightrope walk between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a dangerous proposition that required quick hands and nerves of steel. They called it a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to get behind the wheel of an original 911 Turbo and discover the truth for myself. This particular car was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s extraordinary classic fleet. Out on the road, aware of its fearsome reputation, I took it very easy at first, testing the throttle and building a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine proved remarkably tractable, happy to purr at 2,000 rpm in top gear. But once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, the acceleration surged as the turbocharger kicked in. It wasn’t the sledgehammer blow I had expected, though. The trick to smooth and quick progress in the original 911 Turbo is to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning at 4,000 rpm or more to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there’s noticeable turbo lag—very noticeable by modern standards—but it’s 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 destroy most winding two-lane roads using only second and third. And while it has a modest 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing for agile cornering. Half a century ago, its performance was otherworldly. The 993-Generation: The Apex of Air-Cooling For Porsche purists, the 993-generation 911 is the last of the line, the last of the “real” 911s. It is the car driven with knuckles grazing the dash and the snarl of an air-cooled flat-six filling the cabin. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first to argue with Isaac Newton about physics. It still had the slightly twitchy front end that demanded to be loaded on corner entry and the rear end that rhumbad through rough turns, but there was much more harmony between them. The 993 still did 911 things, but within a much better margin. The key 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, while significantly reducing the camber change that had plagued 911s since 1963. This was combined with steering that, at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, was 16 percent quicker and made the front end feel much more decisive. Plus, there was a new six-speed manual transmission that made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six, which zinged harder to its 268-hp peak at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a new dual exhaust system. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades led by Ulrich Bez, later the head of Aston Martin. The exterior redesign by design chief Harm Lagaay corrected visual issues with the 964, which he felt 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. And, most importantly, it was more desirable, too. The 996-Generation: Saving Porsche with Water 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 Strat 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 leadership 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 were discontinued. Design boss Lagaay summarized it best: “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” he said with a smile after the company unveiled the 996. But while the media 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 and 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 that original Boxster, it saved Porsche from extinction. The 991.2-Generation: A Base Carrera That Stole My Heart 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 from colleagues who drove it at the time. 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 debuted a new 3.4-liter turbocharged engine, available with 370 hp in the base Carrera or 420