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The Pantheon of the Rear Engine: My Top 5 Porsches After Forty Years on the Road For four decades now, I’ve been privileged to drive a dizzying array of Porsche’s iconic 911. From the delicate, almost ethereal feel of the original air-cooled models to the brutal, aerodynamically weaponized ferocity of the modern GT3 RS, I’ve seen the 911 transform itself from a raw, analog beast into a razor-sharp, high-tech apex predator. In 1986, I encountered what I then considered the ultimate Porsche—a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs alloys. It was stripped down, raw, and uncompromising. It was fast, undeniably so, but it was also flawed. It demanded precision and respect, requiring a delicate balance between front-end understeer and rear-end oversteer. Yet, despite its imperfections, I found myself drawn to it. It wasn’t the rational choice; the 944 Turbo was arguably the better driver’s car—more powerful, more tractable, and easier to drive fast. But the 911 Carrera had something more: a soul that tugged at the emotions. “I’m certain. I know the 944 Turbo is the better car,” I wrote at the time. “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 was a difficult decision, but the 911’s raw, visceral nature won out over the 944’s superior engineering. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good,” I admitted. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 was different. “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.” Over the years, I’ve tested dozens more iterations, each pushing the boundaries of what this rear-engined icon can do. Only the 964 in the early 1990s felt like a step backward, a car that suggested the 911’s time was ending. But Porsche responded, proving once again that the 911 idea is eternal. It’s one of the few new cars on which I would still spend my own money. Here are the five most unforgettable Porsches I’ve ever driven. The Original 911 Turbo (930) The name alone strikes fear into the hearts of many: the 911 Turbo. Back in the 1970s, the legend of the 930 was whispered in hushed tones among seasoned road-test journalists. They spoke of a car that demanded respect, a beast that punished sloppy inputs and rewarded precise control. In an era of progressively flatter torque curves and digital aids, the 930’s narrow, abrupt power delivery was a relic of a bygone era. It was a car that demanded a delicate touch and a steady hand, or as one journalist famously put it, a car for those with the bravery to ride the knife’s edge. It was a legend that persisted for decades, and it took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of one myself to understand the truth. The car I drove was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, a museum piece that Porsche preserves in its classic fleet. Stepping behind the wheel, aware of the Turbo’s fearsome reputation, I took it extremely slowly at first. I played with the throttle, feeling the surge of the turbocharger as it came online, trying to mentally map the power and torque curves. The engine was surprisingly smooth, happy to purr along at 2,000 rpm in top gear, keeping the 911 at a leisurely 45 mph. But once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, the car truly came alive. The turbocharger began its work, forcing 0.8 bar of air into the induction system, and the acceleration surge was palpable. I braced myself for the sledgehammer blow that I’d been warned about, but it never truly arrived. Perhaps it was the combination of that raw, analog 3.0-liter engine and the 911’s iconic rear-engine dynamics, or perhaps it was just the 930’s notorious turbo lag—a significant pause before the power kicked in, a memory of a time before modern engine management. The trick to smooth, quick driving in the original 911 Turbo, I quickly learned, was to keep the engine at or above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, the lag was noticeable by modern standards, but it was manageable. Even today, this 50-year-old 911 remains an impressively fast machine. The first gear will rocket you to 50 mph, the second will hit 90 mph, and the third will take you to nearly 130 mph. This means the car can tear through winding two-lane roads using only its second and third gears. And while it may only have 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, allowing it to dart in and out of corners with ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have felt otherworldly. The 993 Generation: The Apex of Air-Cooling For Porsche purists, the 993 represents the pinnacle of the 911 legacy—the last air-cooled iteration of the iconic sports car. It’s a car that demands you grip the wheel, feeling the distinct vibrations of the air-cooled flat-six behind you, and connect with the road through every nerve ending. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first model to challenge the fundamental laws of physics. Oh, it still had the classic 911 characteristics—that unique, sometimes peculiar front-end response that demanded precision on corner entry to hit the apex, and the occasional rear-end wiggle through rough patches. But the separation between the front and rear of the car had diminished significantly. The 993 still performed classic 911 maneuvers, but within a much safer margin of error. The key to this evolution was a revolutionary rear suspension system. The old semi-trailing arms were replaced with a sophisticated multilink setup. This design allowed for very subtle initial toe-out when turning in and then a progressive toe-in as lateral forces increased. At the same time, it drastically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of the 911 since its inception in 1963. This suspension was paired with a new steering system that was 16 percent quicker, with only 2.5 turns from lock to lock, giving the front end a much more decisive feel. And then there was the new six-speed manual transmission, which made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six. Thanks to lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust, the engine zinged harder, reaching its peak power of 268 hp at 6,100 rpm. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just about the engineering advances led by Ulrich Bez (who would later become CEO of Aston Martin); it was about the exterior redesign. Harm Lagaay, the design chief, corrected visual problems with the 964, which he found too tall in the front and too squat in the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons randomly placed. The 993 was a 911 that was faster and more forgiving than ever. And, most importantly, it was more desirable. It had become the definitive 911. The 996: The water-cooled Hero At the time, the decision was pure heresy. Porsche’s decision to introduce a water-cooled flat-six in the tail of the 996-series 911 was, to the purists, 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 leadership of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a clever piece of engineering, not least because it shared 38 percent of its parts with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that the world would come to know as the Boxster. Iconoclastic Porsche CEO Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was necessary to give dealers something to sell when the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design chief 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 true story ran much deeper. In 1994, it took Porsche 13