The Unbroken Chain: Porsche’s New 991
And…here we go again.
Porsche released photos today of the latest reworking of their evergreen and iconic 911 sports car, the 991, in anticipation of the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show.
If the profile photos do illustrate the car’s proportions accurately and aren’t squashed through some Photoshop trickery, the newfound long-and-low-ness looks properly fantastic, although some of the classic 911 silhouette has been lost with the added windshield rake. The generously-sized, engine-housing rump and upright, round headlights are still alive and well, however, so there’s still no mistaking it for anything else.
The base 3.4l flat six has been bumped to 345 hp, channeling power through a new 7-speed manual transmission, a gearbox whose shift gate pattern enthusiasts the world over can’t wait to scope out.
As nice as the new 991 sounds, my pick of 911s would still be the conveyance for the last of the air-cooled flat sixes: the ’93-’98 993 (Turbo shown above). Those hips, those bumps and curves… Who cares if it didn’t look quite as sleek as its rivals; something about the gestalt of the car, the convergence of shapes is seductive like nothing else. Especially in contrast to the later, bathtub-ish, plasticky 996, the 993 represents the last stand of the unaltered 911 greenhouse, with its upright windshield and closely-spaced wipers, and it retains the classic mechanical thrum of the air-cooled mill. Out of the continuous 48 years of production of the 911, the 6 years of the 993 stand out.