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The 911 Pantheon: 5 Porsches That Defined a Legend Four decades behind the wheel of a Porsche 911—a career that began with a pristine white 3.0-liter Carrera that cost, at the time in Australia, nearly the same as the blazing fast 944 Turbo I was testing alongside it. The 944 was superior in raw pace, a competent machine capable of making any driver look good. But it was the 911, with its raw, imperfect charm, that tugged at the soul. It wasn’t a practical choice, but it was the one that felt right. The 944 was a precision instrument; the 911 was a wild beast that demanded respect. “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote at the time, “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.” That decision set a tone. Over the intervening years and hundreds of thousands of miles, I’ve tested generations of 911s. Most have been evolutionary triumphs, polished icons that kept the legendary name relevant and exhilarating. While the 964 model in the early 90s felt like a misstep—a hint that maybe the 911 idea was past its prime—the marque has repeatedly proven its doubters wrong. Even now, four decades into my tenure as a Porsche tester, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I’d actually spend my own money on. Of all the 911s that have passed through my hands, these five stand out as the most unforgettable. The Original 911 Turbo (930): A Widowmaker’s Roar When I first tested the 3.0-liter Carrera, seasoned road-test journalists would speak of the original Porsche 911 Turbo—the 930—with an almost religious awe. It was, they claimed, a car that demanded the utmost respect when driven hard. The 930 had a brutal, binary boost delivery. Hitting the throttle meant transitioning from docile city driving to a violence that could snap the tail out and send you into a spin, all with a speed that left little room for correction. It was famously referred to as a “widowmaker,” and it took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of one and discover the truth. I found myself behind the wheel of one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now part of Porsche’s impeccable classic fleet. Approaching the car with the weight of its fearsome reputation behind me, I started gently, playing with the throttle, monitoring the tachometer, and trying to build a mental map of its power curve. To my surprise, the engine was remarkably docile at low revs. Cruising at 2,000 rpm in top gear, the car ambled along at 45 mph without complaint. The transformation began above 3,500 rpm. That’s when the turbocharger spooled up, forcing 0.8 bar of pressure into the engine. The surge of acceleration was distinct, but it wasn’t the eye-watering, shoulder-blade-hitting sledgehammer I had been warned about. The trick to driving the 930 smoothly and quickly, I learned, was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six revving above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbo engaged. There is significant turbo lag by modern standards, but it’s absolutely manageable. Even today, more than half a century after its debut, this 911 is staggeringly fast. First gear reaches 50 mph, second hits 90 mph, and third crests 130 mph. This means a winding two-lane road can be devoured using only second and third gear. And while it packs a modest 256 hp, the car weighs only 2,513 pounds, allowing it to dive into and shoot out of corners with authority. Had this performance been available to the average driver 50 years ago, it would have seemed otherworldly. The 993-Generation 911: A Legacy Polished For Porsche purists, the 993 represents the last bastion of the “true” 911—the final iteration of the iconic air-cooled engine. It’s the car you drive with your knuckles brushing the dashboard, the metallic clatter of the flat-six a constant soundtrack behind you. Yet, when I first drove the 993 back in 1994, it was anything but old-school. It was the 911 of the future, the first in the lineage to seriously challenge Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. To be fair, the 993 still had some 911 quirks. The front end demanded precise loading on corner entry to hit the apex, and the rear end occasionally felt unsettled over rough surfaces. But the synergy between the front and rear axles was far superior to anything that had come before. The 993 was still fundamentally a 911, but it operated with a much greater margin for error. The engineering revolution was centered on the rear suspension. Traditional semi-trailing arms were replaced with a multi-link setup that allowed minimal initial toe-out on corner entry, followed by progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased. This drastically reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of the 911 since its inception. This innovation was coupled with a new steering system: at 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, it was 16% quicker, making the front end feel more decisive. Beneath the redesigned hood sat a new six-speed manual transmission, designed to exploit the 3.6-liter flat-six. Thanks to lighter internals, Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management, and a revised dual-exhaust system, the engine delivered 268 hp at 6,100 rpm, pulling hard all the way to the rev limiter. Compared to the 964 it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades—orchestrated under the leadership of Ulrich Bez, who later headed Aston Martin—it was also the exterior redesign. Harm Lagaay, the design chief, smoothed out the 964’s visual awkwardness. Lagaay felt the 964 was too tall in the front and pulled down in the rear; the 993 corrected these proportions. The interior was also cleaner, with fewer controls scattered randomly. The 993 was a 911 that was faster, more forgiving, and, most importantly, more desirable than ever. It perfectly bridged the gap between the raw charm of the classic air-cooled era and the precision of modern engineering. The 996: Saving the Icon with Water At the time of its release, Porsche’s decision to install a water-cooled flat-six in the tail of the 996-series 911 was an act of heresy. For the aficionados, it was the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan hanging up his acoustic guitar and plugging into 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 literally saved Porsche. Engineered and developed under the direction of Porsche R&D chief Horst Marchart, the 996 was a stroke of genius. Its brilliance lay not just in the new engine, but in its economic synergy with the all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that would become known as the Boxster. Porsche’s iconic boss, Wendelin Wiedeking, knew the Boxster was essential to give dealers something to sell once the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. “We did two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design boss Lagaay said with a wry smile after the company unveiled the 996. While media attention focused on the Boxster platform and the water-cooled engine, the 996’s true significance 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 and featured all the amenities expected of a late-20th-century sports car, yet it remained recognizably a Porsche icon. Most importantly, it still drove like a 911. Better, in fact. A new layer of sophistication had been added to its performance, but the 996 retained the delicious tactility and urgent response that defined the 911 experience. Along with the original Boxster, it rescued Porsche from the brink of financial ruin. The 991.2 Carrera: A Study in Perfect Balance Of all the 911s I have driven in my career, it was a base model 991.2 Carrera that truly captured my heart. Judging by the reactions of my colleagues at the time, it captured theirs too. Press fleets are usually stacked with high-spec models loaded with expensive options