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The All-Time Greats: My Top 5 Porsche 911 Icons After 40 Years Behind the Wheel For four decades, I’ve been privileged to put Porsche 911s through their paces. Since that first encounter with a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs alloys, I’ve chased the limits of nearly every 911 variant ever conceived. That inaugural experience—driving a raw, visceral sports car that demanded everything from its driver—was the beginning of a lifelong obsession. Back then, I remember testing that initial 911 alongside a 944 Turbo. It was a pivotal moment for me as a journalist. In my home country of Australia, those two cars were priced almost identically. The 944 Turbo was objectively the faster car, delivering its power with far less drama and mechanical effort. Yet, despite the 944 Turbo’s technical superiority, I found myself drawn to the 911. The Emotional Resonance of the Flawed Icon I recall writing, “After two days and 600 miles, 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, but the 911 possessed a spirit the 944 couldn’t match. I noted, “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good. Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” However, the 911’s imperfections were part of its charm. “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 initial test, I’ve driven dozens of 911s. Through every evolution—except perhaps the 964, which in the early 1990s seemed to be losing its way—I’ve marveled at Porsche’s relentless commitment to refining its icon. Keeping the 911 relevant, exciting, and engaging for over 60 years is an engineering feat that few cars can claim. Four decades later, the 911 remains one of the few new vehicles I would happily purchase with my own money. Of all the Porsche 911s I’ve driven over the past 40 years, these five stand out as the most memorable. They represent the very best of what this legendary car can be—from raw historical examples to the technological pinnacle of modern engineering. The Original 911 Turbo: The Legend That Defined “Widowmaker” Long before I ever sat behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo, veteran road testers spoke of it in hushed, awed tones. It was described as a car that demanded the utmost respect when driven with intent. Its legendary turbo lag meant drivers had to master the precarious tightrope walk between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer. Mistakes were punished, and sloppiness was unforgivable. They called it a widowmaker, a term that conjured images of mechanical terror. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original 911 Turbo and discover the truth behind the legends. The car I tested was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now a prized part of Porsche’s classic fleet. Aware of its formidable reputation, I approached it with extreme caution. I started gently, testing the throttle and the boost response, trying to mentally map the power and torque curves. To my surprise, the engine was remarkably tractable. The original 3.0-liter flat-six hummed along happily at 2,000 rpm in top gear, allowing the 911 Turbo to trundle along at 45 mph without complaint. However, once the engine reached 3,500 rpm, there was a noticeable surge in acceleration as the turbocharger forced 0.8 bar into the intake system. This was where the raw character of the original 911 Turbo emerged. I soon learned the trick to smooth and rapid progress in this iconic machine: keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning at 4,000 rpm or more to keep the turbocharger fully spooled up. Yes, there is noticeable turbo lag, especially by modern standards, but it’s entirely manageable. Even half a century later, this 911 remains an impressively fast car on the road. First gear accelerates to 50 mph, second gear extends to 90 mph, and third gear reaches nearly 130 mph. This means you can absolutely destroy twisting two-lane roads using only second and third gears. Despite having a modest 256 hp, the original 911 Turbo weighs only 2,513 pounds. This power-to-weight ratio ensures it capably attacks corners and feels agile through transitions. Fifty years ago, its performance was otherworldly. It defined the term supercar and established Porsche as a leader in high-performance engineering. The 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Perfect Fusion of Air Cooling and Modern Dynamics For many Porsche purists, the 993-generation is the last of the true 911s. It is the definitive air-cooled icon—the car you drive with your knuckles grazing the dash while the snarling, metallic clatter of the flat-six engine fills the air behind you. But when I first drove the 993 in 1994, it wasn’t the end of an era; it was the Porsche 911 of the future. It was the first car in the lineage to challenge Isaac Newton’s laws of physics and revolutionize the 911’s driving experience. Oh, yes, the 993 still had that distinctive 911 front-end feel. It required careful loading during corner entry to ensure precision at the apex, and the rear end could still move through rougher turns in a characteristic rhumba-like motion. However, there was a new level of simpatico between the front and rear axles. The 993 still did “911 things,” but it did them within a much improved margin of error. The key to this transformation was a revolutionary rear suspension design. Ulrich Bez, later the head of Aston Martin, replaced the semi-trailing arms of old with a new multilink setup. This design allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry, followed by progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, all while drastically reducing the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of 911s since 1963. This engineering breakthrough was combined with a new six-speed manual transmission and steering that was 16 percent quicker at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock. These changes made the front end feel much more decisive. The 3.6-liter flat-six now delivered 268 hp at 6,100 rpm, thanks to lighter internal components, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering; it was a complete visual redesign executed under the direction of design chief Harm Lagaay. He corrected the visual imbalances of the 964, which he considered too tall at the front and too pulled down at the rear. The interior was also cleaner, featuring fewer buttons in random locations. The 993 was faster, more forgiving, and infinitely more desirable than ever before. It is the quintessential air-cooled Porsche and remains a benchmark for driving purity. The 996-Generation Porsche 911: Saving the Icon with Water Cooling At the time of its launch, the decision by Porsche to install a water-cooled flat-six engine in the tail of the 996-series 911 was, to the Porsche purists, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan ditching his acoustic guitar for an electric Fender 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 the company. Engineered and developed under the direction of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a masterclass in clever engineering. 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. Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was essential for dealers to sell while the aging 928 and 968 models were phased out. As design boss Lagaay joked after the unveiling, “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half.” 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 130 hours to build a 993-series 9