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The Top 5 Porsche 911s I’ve Ever Driven After 40 Years of Testing Porsches, These Are the 911 Models That Stand Out in My Memory It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been testing Porsche 911s for the better part of four decades now. I remember my first experience vividly: a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs wheels. It was raw, stripped down—no rear wing, no power steering, just a five-speed manual. In its purity, it was about as true to the original 911 spirit as Porsche had ever made. It was fast, yes, but I’ll admit I was slightly perplexed. I had driven the 944 Turbo the day before, and in my home country of Australia, it cost roughly the same. The 944 Turbo was faster and smoother, requiring far less effort to handle any road. Yet, despite this direct comparison, I found myself drawn to the 911. As I wrote back then, “I know the 944 Turbo is the better car. But I also know that if it came to the crunch… I’d take the 911 Carrera home.” The 911 wasn’t for everyone; it demanded understanding and respect. That’s why I chose it. Since that first drive, I’ve experienced countless iterations of the 911. Aside from the 964 generation, which I felt was a turning point where the 911 idea perhaps felt past its prime, I have constantly marveled at how Porsche has refined its icon. It remains relevant, exciting, and engaging. Even now, four decades later, it is still one of the few new cars I would spend my own money on. Out of all the 911s I have driven over the years, here are the five that stand out most vividly. The Original 911 Turbo: A legend in the flesh When I first tested the 3.0-liter Carrera, the original Porsche 911 Turbo (often called the 930) was spoken of in hushed, reverent tones by veteran road testers. They described it as a car that demanded absolute respect when pushed—a machine where the binary boost delivery made navigating the traditional 911 tightrope between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer a challenging exercise requiring quick hands and nerves of steel. The 911 Turbo, they said, did not forgive mistakes. It took me 35 years to get behind the wheel of one and understand the truth behind the legend. I drove one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s impressive classic fleet. Walking up to it, knowing its fearsome reputation, I took it very easy at first. I played with the throttle, feeling the turbo lag and watching the tachometer, trying to build a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine was remarkably tractable at low revs, happy to cruise at 2,000 rpm in top gear at 45 mph. However, once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, there was a noticeable acceleration surge as the turbocharger pumped 0.8 bar of boost into the induction. But the sledgehammer blow between the shoulder blades I expected just wasn’t there. I learned the secret to smooth and rapid progress in the original 911 Turbo was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning at 4,000 rpm or more, ensuring the turbocharger was constantly energized. Yes, there is significant turbo lag by modern standards, but it’s manageable. Even after more than 50 years, this 911 is astonishingly fast on the road. First gear reaches 50 mph, second gear 90 mph, and third gear reaches almost 130 mph, meaning it will destroy most winding two-lane roads using only second and third gear. And while it only has 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, making it nimble and responsive in corners. Half a century ago, its performance was practically otherworldly. 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Last Air-Cooled Icon For Porsche purists, the 993 represents the pinnacle—the last of the “true” 911s. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles just grazing the dashboard, the snarling metallic symphony of an air-cooled flat-six singing directly behind your ears. But when I first drove it back in 1994, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first in the lineage to challenge the laws of physics. Sure, it still had the slightly unpredictable front end that demanded precise loading on corner entry to hit the apex, and the rear end still danced through rougher turns. But the 993 established a much better harmony between the front and rear. It still performed 911 duties, but with a significantly improved margin of error. The key innovation was a new rear suspension system. It replaced the trailing arms of previous models with a multilink setup that allowed for subtle initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral forces increased. This engineering masterstroke drastically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of 911s since 1963. This was combined with steering that was 16% quicker at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, making the front end feel much more decisive. Additionally, a new six-speed manual transmission allowed drivers to better utilize the 3.6-liter flat-six, which delivered its 268-hp peak at 6,100 rpm thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a revised dual exhaust. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades—led by Ulrich Bez, who later headed Aston Martin. The exterior redesign, supervised by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected visual flaws in the 964, which Lagaay considered too tall at the front and too pulled down at the rear. The interior was cleaner too, with fewer buttons scattered around. The 993 was a faster, more forgiving 911 that was, most importantly, more desirable than ever. 996-Generation Porsche 911: The Unsung Hero At the time, it felt like sacrilege. Porsche’s decision to switch to a water-cooled flat-six for the 996-series 911 was, to the aficionados, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan ditching his acoustic six-string 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 in my eyes. It was the 911 that saved Porsche. Engineered and developed under the leadership of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a brilliant innovation. Not least because it shared 38% of its components with a completely new, more affordable mid-engine roadster that the world would come to know as the Boxster. The iconoclastic Porsche boss, Wendelin Wiedeking, knew the Boxster was essential to give dealers something else to sell when the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. As design boss Lagaay commented with a smile after the company unveiled the 996, “We built two cars for the price of one-and-a-half.” But while the media focused on its relationship with the Boxster and the water-cooled engine, the 996’s true impact ran much deeper. In 1994, it took Porsche 130 hours to build a 993-series 911; the 996 required only 60 hours. The modern 911 had arrived: it was roomier, equipped with all the features expected of a late 20th-century sports car, but still recognizably a Porsche icon. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911. Only better. A new veneer of sophistication was present, but the 996 retained the exquisite tactility and urgent responsiveness that had made the 911 a sports car unlike any other. Along with the original Boxster, it rescued Porsche from the brink of extinction. 991.2-Generation Porsche 911 Carrera: The Sweet Spot Out of all the 911s I’ve driven, it was a base 991.2 Carrera that truly captured my heart. Judging by the feedback I received at the time from colleagues who also tested it, I wasn’t alone. Press fleets are typically filled with high-spec models loaded with expensive options, presumably because automotive PR departments believe we are easily 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 like a bold move. In reality, though, it was an inspired one. The 991.2 introduced a new 3.4-liter turbocharged engine