Update GH Thursday, 2/26/2026 Episode (Feb 26, 2026) | General Hospital Spoilers

The 5 Porsche 911s That Shaped a Career: A 40-Year Review It’s hard to believe it’s been four decades since I first sat behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. I remember it vividly: a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs wheels. It was a pure 911—narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual. It was fast, but flawed, and I couldn’t help but wonder what all the fuss was about, especially when compared to the 944 Turbo, which was roughly the same price in my native Australia. The 944 was quicker and more torquey, with much less effort required on any road. But despite the logical choice, I found myself falling in love with the 911. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote, “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 conclusion. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good,” I said. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 tugged at the emotions. “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. That’s why I’d take it home.” Since that day, I’ve driven dozens of 911s. Each iteration—with the exception of the 964, which in the early 1990s worried me into thinking the 911 concept was obsolete—has impressed me with how Porsche has refined its icon, keeping it relevant, exciting, and engaging. Four decades after my first drive, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I would spend my own hard-earned money on. These five models are the most memorable. The Original 911 Turbo: A Legend in its Own Right When I first drove that 3.0-liter Carrera, veteran road-test journalists spoke of the original Porsche 911 Turbo with a mix of awe and trepidation. It was, they said, a car that demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent. Its binary boost characteristics made the traditional 911 tightrope—walking the line between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer—a nerve-wracking experience that required quick hands and nerves of steel. The 911 Turbo didn’t forgive mistakes, didn’t tolerate sloppiness. They called it a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original 911 Turbo and discover the truth. The car I drove was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built and is now part of Porsche’s prestigious classic fleet. Aware of its terrifying reputation, I took it very easy at first, feathering the throttle, feeling the boost come 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 cruised at 45 mph. Once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, however, there was a noticeable acceleration surge as the turbocharger injected 0.8 bar of boost into the induction system. But the sledgehammer blow to the shoulder blades I’d expected simply wasn’t there. The secret to smooth and rapid progress in the original 911 Turbo, I discovered, was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six revving at 4,000 rpm or more to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there is turbo lag—very noticeable turbo lag by modern standards—but it’s manageable. Even after more than 50 years, this 911 is an impressively fast car on the road. First gear tops out at 50 mph, second at 90 mph, and third at nearly 130 mph, meaning it can devour 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 get into and out of corners with ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have seemed otherworldly. The 993-Generation: The Perfect Marriage of Air-Cooling and Modern Engineering For Porsche purists, the 993-generation is the end of the line. It’s the last of the true 911s. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash and the snarling metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six engine directly behind you. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future. It was the first to challenge Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. Sure, the 993 still had the “patter-patter” front end that needed to be loaded on corner entry to ensure you hit the apex, and the rear end still “rhumbaed” through rougher turns, but there was much more simpatico between them. The 993 still did all the 911 things, but within a much better margin of error. The key to this transformation was a new rear suspension that replaced the trailing arms of old with a multi-link 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 a new six-speed manual transmission that made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six. The engine zinged harder to its 268-hp power peak at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a new dual exhaust system. Compared with the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, completed under the leadership of Ulrich Bez (later the head of Aston Martin). The exterior redesign, directed by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected visual problems with the 964, a car he considered too tall at the front and too pulled down at the rear. The interior was cleaner, too, with fewer buttons in random locations. The 993 was a faster, more forgiving, and most importantly, more desirable 911. The 996-Generation: The Unsung Hero That Saved 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 abandoning his acoustic guitar for an electric one 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 that 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 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 handled 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 991.2-Generation: A Return to Purity and Passion 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 are loaded with high-spec vehicles, presumably because automotive PRs think we’re impressed by such things.