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The Icons That Define a Legend: My 5 Most Memorable Porsche 911s of All Time It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since I first slid behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. The memory is still sharp: a white 3.0-liter Carrera with black Fuchs wheels. A pure, narrow-body machine with no wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual. It was fast, yes, but also demanding. At the time, in my native Australia, it cost roughly the same as the 944 Turbo. That car was faster, more torquey, and easier to drive on any road. Yet, against my better judgment, I found myself falling for the 911. I recall writing, “After two days and 600 miles, 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 a decision I made lightly. “The 944 Turbo is so competent, it can make a bad driver look good,” I wrote. “Its soaring, searing performance is superbly counterbalanced by a chassis of astounding ability.” But the 911 had a different pull. “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 then, I’ve driven dozens of 911s. With every generation, except perhaps the 964—which back in the early 90s suggested the 911 idea was past its expiry date—I’ve marveled at how Porsche has refined its icon, keeping it relevant and thrilling. Four decades on, the 911 remains one of the few new cars I would genuinely spend my own money on. Of all the 911s I’ve had the privilege to drive over the past 40 years, these are the five that stand out. The Original 911 Turbo: A True Widowmaker Back when I first drove the 3.0-liter Carrera, veteran road testers spoke in hushed tones about the original Porsche 911 Turbo (the 930). It was legendary for being a car that demanded your utmost respect when driven with intent. A machine whose abrupt, binary boost meant that walking the traditional 911 tightrope between corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer required quick hands and nerves of steel. The 911 Turbo did not forgive mistakes. It did not tolerate sloppiness. It was, in short, a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to actually get behind the wheel of one and discover the truth for myself. The car I tested was one of the first 30 production Turbos ever built, now a prized asset in Porsche’s classic fleet. Aware of its fearsome reputation, I drove it very cautiously at first, playing with the throttle, feeling the boost spool up, and watching the tachometer, trying to build a mental map of the power and torque curves. The engine was remarkably tractable, happy to hum along at 2,000 rpm in top gear as the Turbo crawled at 45 mph. But once the engine hit 3,500 rpm, there was a noticeable surge in acceleration as the turbocharger shoved 0.8 bar of boost into the induction system. However, the sledgehammer blow between the shoulder blades I expected wasn’t there. I quickly learned that the trick to smooth and fast progress in the original 911 Turbo was to keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbo charged. Yes, there is turbo lag—very noticeable lag by modern standards—but it’s manageable. Even half a century later, 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 tear through most winding roads using only second and third gears. And while it might only have 256 hp, it weighs just 2,513 pounds, meaning it carves through corners with ease. Half a century ago, its performance would have been considered otherworldly. The 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Ultimate Air-Cooler For Porsche purists, the 993 is the last of the line—the last of the “real” 911s. It is the car you drive with your knuckles practically grazing the dashboard, with the snarling metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six behind your head. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the first in the lineage to challenge Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. Oh sure, the 993 still had that slightly unpredictable front end that demanded to be loaded on corner entry to ensure you hit the apex, and the rear end still liked to dance through rougher turns, but there was much more cohesion between the front and rear. The 993 still did 911 things, but within a much more forgiving margin. Key to it all was a revolutionary rear suspension that replaced the old semi-trailing arms with a new multilink setup. This allowed for very slight initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased, all while significantly reducing the camber change that had plagued 911s since 1963. This was paired with a new six-speed manual transmission that made the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six, which sang harder to its 268-hp power peak at 6,100 rpm, thanks to lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a redesigned dual-exhaust system. Compared to the 964 model it replaced, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, achieved under the leadership of Ulrich Bez, who would later lead Aston Martin: The exterior redesign, executed under the direction of design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual flaws of the 964, a car he felt was too tall at the front and too pulled down at 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, crucially, it was more desirable, too. The 996-Generation Porsche 911: The Hero That Saved Porsche At the time, it was pure 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 ditching his acoustic guitar 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 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 remarkably clever 911. Not least because it shared 38 percent of its components with an all-new, less expensive mid-engine roadster that the world would come to know as the Boxster. The iconic Porsche boss Wendelin Weideking knew the Boxster was essential to give dealers something else to sell when the aging 928 and 968 models were discontinued. “We built two cars for the price of one-and-a-half,” design boss Lagaay explained with a smile after the company unveiled the 996. But while the media 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 and equipped with all the amenities expected of a late 20th-century sports car, yet still unmistakably 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 went about its business, but the 996 retained the delicious tactility and urgent response that had made the 911 a sports car like no other. And together with the original Boxster, it saved Porsche from extinction. The 991.2-Generation Porsche 911 Carrera: Pure, Raw Joy 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 by the feedback I received from colleagues who drove it back then. Most press fleets are typically stocked with high-spec vehicles loaded with expensive options, presumably because PR departments believe we’re impressed by such displays of wealth. So Porsche Cars North America’