Was Chase The One Who Was Framed? Was Michael The Real Mastermind? General Hospital Spoilers

After 40 Years: My Top 5 Most Impactful Porsche 911 Experiences Forty years. It’s hard to believe that over four decades have passed since I first got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911. My first encounter was with a white 3.0-liter Carrera sporting black Fuchs alloys. It was a raw, unfiltered machine: narrow body, no rear wing, no power steering, and a five-speed manual transmission. It was about as pure as the 911 could get, yet at the time, I remember being slightly underwhelmed. It felt fast, certainly, but also fundamentally flawed. Perhaps that was unfair. I had driven a 944 Turbo just days before, a car in my home country of Australia that cost nearly the same as the 911 Carrera. The 944 was faster, handled better, and felt more planted with less effort. But despite its competence, the 911 tugged at something deeper. A Contradictory Love Affair “After two days and 600 miles,” I wrote in my original review, “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 decision. The 944 Turbo was undeniably capable, capable of making a bad driver look good. Its performance was breathtaking, but it lacked the soul that had made the 911 legendary. The 911, even in its then-modern iteration, was a sports car of a different era. It wasn’t tailored for the masses; it demanded understanding, respect, and a willingness to be engaged. That’s why I chose it, and why it has remained one of my favorite cars for the past 40 years. Since then, I’ve driven dozens of 911s, across every generation and variant. From the 964, which admittedly was a transitional period where the 911 felt like it was losing its way, to the modern-day monsters that push the boundaries of automotive engineering, Porsche has continually reinvented its icon. They’ve kept the 911 relevant, exciting, and deeply engaging. Today, four decades after my first drive, it remains one of the very few new cars that I would genuinely spend my own money on. Out of all the Porsche 911s I’ve had the pleasure of testing over the past four decades, some have stood out more than others. These aren’t necessarily the fastest, the most expensive, or the most technologically advanced. Instead, they are the cars that have left the most lasting impression on me—the ones that have challenged me, surprised me, and ultimately, captured my imagination. This is my personal list of the five most memorable Porsche 911s I have ever driven. The Original 911 Turbo: A Masterclass in Raw Power Back in the mid-1970s, the original Porsche 911 Turbo (the 930) was the stuff of legend.Veteran road-test journalists spoke of it in hushed tones, warning of its ferocity and unforgiving nature. It was, they claimed, a car that demanded the utmost respect. Driving it at the limit was a delicate dance on a tightrope, balancing the potential for understeer on corner entry with the ever-present threat of oversteer on exit. The 911 Turbo didn’t forgive mistakes; it didn’t tolerate sloppiness. It was, for all intents and purposes, a widowmaker. It took me 35 years to finally get behind the wheel of an original 911 Turbo and discover the truth behind the whispers. This particular car was one of the very first 30 production Turbos ever built, and it’s now a cherished part of Porsche’s classic fleet. As I approached the car, acutely aware of its fearsome reputation, I was cautious. I took it very easy at first, gently probing the throttle, feeling the boost build, and watching the tachometer, trying to establish a mental map of the engine’s power delivery. Debunking the Legend What surprised me most was just how tractable the engine was. At 2,000 rpm in top gear, the 911 Turbo was perfectly happy to burble along, keeping pace with traffic at a casual 45 mph. However, as the engine reached 3,500 rpm, there was a noticeable surge of acceleration as the turbocharger pushed 0.8 bar of boost into the intake. But it wasn’t the sledgehammer blow to the shoulders that I had anticipated. Instead, it was a more refined delivery of power, albeit one that still demanded attention. I soon discovered the secret to smooth and rapid progress in the original 911 Turbo: keep the 3.0-liter flat-six spinning above 4,000 rpm to keep the turbocharger energized. Yes, there is turbo lag—by modern standards, it is very noticeable—but it’s manageable. Even after more than 50 years, the original 911 Turbo remains an impressively fast car on the road. First gear tops out around 50 mph, second around 90 mph, and third approaches 130 mph. This means you can devour winding two-lane roads using only second and third gears. And while it may only produce 256 horsepower, weighing in at just 2,513 pounds, it handles the power effortlessly, diving into and powering out of corners with impressive agility. Half a century ago, its performance was otherworldly. It was a truly thrilling experience to drive a piece of history and realize that, while perhaps not as intimidating as the legends suggested, the 911 Turbo was still a force to be reckoned with. The 993-Generation Porsche 911: The Peak of Air-Cooling For Porsche purists, the 993-generation 911 is often considered the last of the true line, the final iteration of the air-cooled 911. It’s the car that takes you back to the golden age of Porsche driving, where the snarling metallic clatter of an air-cooled flat-six reverberated through the cabin and you felt every nuance of the road through the steering wheel. But back in 1994, when I first drove it, the 993 was the 911 of the future, the car that started pushing the boundaries of physics. Oh, sure, it still had the signature 911 front end that required a committed approach to corner entry to ensure you hit the apex perfectly. The rear end still exhibited that characteristic sway when navigating rougher turns, but there was a new level of sophistication between the front and rear. The 993 still behaved like a 911, but with a much wider margin for error. The Engineering Masterstroke The key to this transformation was a completely new rear suspension system that replaced the aging semi-trailing arms with a modern multilink setup. This system allowed for a very slight initial toe-out on corner entry and then progressive toe-in as lateral loads increased. Crucially, it also reduced the camber change that had been the Achilles’ heel of 911s since their debut in 1963. This advancement was paired with a new, quicker steering ratio, just 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, which made the front end feel significantly more decisive. To complete the package, a new six-speed manual transmission was introduced, allowing the driver to make the most of the 3.6-liter flat-six engine. This engine, featuring lighter internals, a Bosch Motronic 2.0 engine management system, and a new dual exhaust system, delivered a higher power peak of 268 horsepower at 6,100 rpm. Compared to its predecessor, the 964, the 993 was a revelation. It wasn’t just the engineering upgrades, executed under the leadership of Ulrich Bez, who would later go on to lead Aston Martin: The exterior redesign, helmed by design chief Harm Lagaay, corrected the visual imbalances of the 964, a car he felt was too tall in the front and too low at the rear. The interior was also cleaner, featuring fewer buttons scattered in random locations. The 993 was a 911 that was faster, more forgiving, and, most importantly, even more desirable. It represented a perfect blend of classic 911 character and modern engineering prowess. It was a triumph of design and engineering, proving that the 911 was far from obsolete. The 996-Generation Porsche 911: The Hero That Saved a Company In 1994, the automotive world was abuzz with talk of a radical departure for Porsche. The company had decided to install a water-cooled flat-six engine in the tail of its iconic 911, a move that was, to the purists, the automotive equivalent of Bob Dylan swapping his acoustic guitar for a Fender Stratocaster at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But the 996-series 911, the first clean-sheet redesign of Porsche’s indefatigable sports car in 34 years, was a hero car to me. In hindsight, it was the 91