Table of contents for No. 231 in Total 911

It was a real joy to have the 997 and 992 Sport Classics tested back-to-back for your latest issue of Total 911. These two specials from the Exclusive department at Porsche are considered unicorns in the world of 911s, such is their rarity, and so we’re grateful to owner Paul Pressland for allowing us to sample them both in one thrilling test. You can see the complementary video from our head-to-head appraisal via YouTube on 9WERKS TV. With only 250 ever made, it’s extremely rare to see a 997 Sport Classic on the road. Very few people have driven or even tested them, which is why there’s scant literature out there in defence of the original Sport Classic when it’s – unfairly, in my view – likened to the 997…

How does 415hp, an 8,400rpm redline, a sweet-shifting six-speed manual and an RS badge grab you? We’ve got to say that we find it a compelling proposition and, in relation to the car we’re talking about, something of a motoring bargain. It’s the 997 GT3 RS, more specifically the Gen1 car. Inexplicably, this model appears to be somewhat unloved, or at least a little bit overlooked, in relation to the Gen2 car that followed it. We’ll admit that we’ve been guilty of banging the drum for the Gen2 – after all, the second-generation car is by definition ‘better’. Yet when looking through the classifieds we find it difficult to marry up the slight improvements that the Gen2 car brought, to the extra £50,000-£60,000 required to drive it off the forecourt.…

HISTORY & TECH The advent of the 991 was a major event in Porsche history. An entirely redesigned platform that would underpin the whole sports car range, it was the first new chassis since the 986/996 of 15 years earlier, and effectively only the third in the 911’s 50-year history. Modifications to the chassis for the 997 had taken its development possibilities to the absolute limit and even as the 997 met its public for the first time, Porsche had begun work on the new platform. Future road safety requirements, as well as Porsche’s plans to install a new generation of electronics such as Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control and Dynamic Engine mounts, demanded a larger chassis that would also accommodate major components such as larger wheels and later, for certain…

Data file Full specs, ratings and market values of every Porsche 911 model from 1963 to 2023 can be found starting on page 80 Plus Showroom Looking for a new 911? The classifieds from our independent specialist partners are the first place where you should start your search Servicing & tuning Get the very best from your Porsche 911 with the help of our selected performance and maintenance specialists Porsche lifestyle Helping you make the right lifestyle choices to complement you and your 911. Don’t just drive Porsche, live the brand Insurance & finance Get your Porsche covered with the best insurance deals for road and track to ensure happy, safe motoring…

60 YEARS OF 911: THE EARLY YEARS In this special anniversary year, Total 911 takes you back to the very early days of Porsche’s iconic sports car with new facts and some never-seen-before photos! EFUELS: THE INSIDE STORY Can the flat six’s salvation really be found in an outhouse in Chile? PORSCHE MUSEUM SECRETS Porsche Museum curator Iris Haker talks to Total 911 964 TURBO BUYER’S GUIDE Your expert run-down of the 3.3 and 3.6-litre Turbos…

Bespoke 964s make their debut Two British-built custom 911s from Theon Design and Everrati wowed the crowds at the prestigious Salon Privé London show Porsche specialist Theon Design has revealed its latest creation, based on a 964 generation 911 Carrera 4 (top photo). This unique build is the latest reworked offering from the Oxfordshire-based team. The ITA001, affectionately known as the Italian Job, will soon be winging its way to its new owner in Milan, Italy, following its debut at Salon Privé London at the end of April. Theon Design ITA001 features lightweight carbon bodywork, semi-active suspension and a 400bhp 4.0-litre air-cooled flat six engine, mated to an original 993 RS six-speed gearbox and limited-slip differential. Meanwhile, 993 RS brakes hide behind 18-inch Fuchs alloy wheels. According to the company,…

It’s difficult to comprehend that when the idea of the original 997 Sport Classic was first presented, there was uncertainty within Porsche about how receptive the market would be to such a special, limited-series model. Thanks to such lingering doubts, a series of just 250 examples was proposed. That number proved to be conservative – such was the clamour for the Sport Classic, it could have sold many multiples of its tiny production run. The car was conceived partly as a means of communicating a shift in Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur’s business model. It wanted to move from a specialist dream-fulfilment concern – building one-offs and bespoke cars – to that of a division able to produce limited-series models to complement the volume business. The Sport Classic presented a hitherto unseen…

North Wales. A glorious pocket of the UK, where the locals are friendly, the scenery is pretty and the roads are twisty. Never mind God’s country, today it’s GT3 country, our two stunning examples from the 991 and 992 generation playing cat and mouse on the slithers of blacktop running through vibrant, green topography. Ahead of me, Phil Farrell is carving a fast line through the cambered curves in his Carmine red 991.2 GT3, the howl from its exhaust reverberating around the Welsh hills. I’m in hot pursuit in a Gentian blue, Touring specification 992 GT3, its low, wide nose hunting the tall uprights and shark-fin end plates mounted to the 991.2’s sculptural wing. We’ve covered these two glittering Porsche 911s in broader detail before, but today we’re back on…

The Scribante family in South Africa is synonymous with the local racing fraternity. Either on track or at the annual Simola Hillclimb event, Franco Scribante Racing is there in full force. Not only does the team run modern race cars, it builds its own, complete custom race cars, too. Franco Scribante Racing also has a love for historic racing, running a Chevron B26 in the classic division on this annual hillclimb. Whether it’s a sprint race or an endurance race, you can bet that one of its team members will be participating. Around six years ago, the team set out to build a race car based on a 997 Turbo S. This is the ideal starting platform, especially since the class (called Extreme Supercars) in which it wanted to enter…

The 24 Hours of Le Mans that took place in 1980 was an odd race by Porsche’s standards. CEO Ernst Fuhrmann had decreed that not only would the 911 not be developed further, but neither would the 936 Sports prototype. Instead, Porsche would campaign at Le Mans with the 924, suitably modified and turbocharged. The transaxle 924 (the 944 was in the wings) and 928 were, in his view, the company’s future. The Porsche racing fraternity was dismayed, while other competitors were puzzled. These GT-class 924s – even with 350bhp – were hardly potential race winners, but Ernst, for whom this would be his last Le Mans with Porsche, was unperturbed. Taken inside the Porsche hospitality tent two days before the 24 Hours, this photograph shows the CEO, clothed suitably…

GTS: from a mishap to a blessing Dear Sir, In Total 911 issue 94, you featured my first Porsche 911: a 997.2 Carrera GTS. In September 2019 this awesome Coupe was destroyed while parked on a San Francisco street. A driver collided with the car at approximately 50 miles per hour. From the photograph you can see how well it withstood the impact. However, this isn’t the end of the story. My insurance was generous and in March of 2022, I purchased a manual 911 Targa 4 GTS with 473hp. This 3.0-litre, twin-turbo 992, Gen1 Targa 4 GTS, while not naturally aspirated, is just as much fun as my Carrera GTS. The 569Nm of torque comes at early rpms and thrills with each drive. Interior noise is less than the…

From the very beginning at Porsche, its customers have been asking about the possibility of enhancing its production cars from the stock specification. Porsche has been happy to oblige, with the early Sports Purpose catalogues outlining what was officially available, albeit quietly, for those customers intent on racing. Within those pages were a myriad of possibilities for either track or rallying, including different capacity and engine output options. While the Sports Purpose catalogue explicitly stated that these were competition-only engines, it’s inevitable that some customers would use Sports Purpose-equipped cars as faster road cars. Stealthy revisions have always been available, whether it be it through the Sonderwunsch (special wishes), Motorsport, Exclusive or Tequipment routes. However, the possibility to do so would remain a well-kept secret until the turn of the…

A history of Porsche gearboxes In the beginning, the Gmünd Coupes used unmodified suspension and running gear directly from the VW Beetle. By 1951 the Porsche-developed VW flat four was beginning to overwhelm non-synchromesh VW cogs and so Porsche designed a four-speed Typ 519 gearbox with Leopold Schmid leading the project. This unusual application placed the five-speed constant mesh gearbox between the engine and the final drive, and featured Porsche Synchromesh technology. Ferry’s engineers applied this to the Typ 519, which they offered to VW. They were turned down by Wolfsburg in favour of the Borg Warner design used by Opel. The gearbox became the first major component that Porsche had to find elsewhere. It turned to Getrag in Ludwigsburg, a builder of truck gearboxes, which initially struggled with the…

The Porsche 911 Targa was the last of its kind, which in itself makes it one of our favourites. From this point on, the Targa was a very different car: this was the last car to feature the traditional Targa design of fixed-hoop, removable roof panel and glass rear screen. In October 1989 the Porsche Carrera 2 was announced as a rear-wheel drive car; at the same time, Tiptronic automatic transmission was launched. And in August 1991 the Turbo-Look body style for the Carrera 2 Coupe and Cabriolet was introduced. The 964 Carrera was the last generation sold with the traditional removable Targa roof until the 991 in 2014. The car was in many ways a response to a crisis in Porsche’s trading position – a consequence of the recession…