Porsche 911

THE PORSCHE 911

Introduced at the 1963 Frankfurt Auto Show, the 911 proved to be the most historically significant Porsche model of all, becoming the mainstay of the Zuffenhausen production for more than 50 years, albeit constantly modified and uprated. With a broadly similar layout to the 356, the 911 had a steel platform chassis with springing by torsion bars, MacPherson front struts, rear trailing arms, and a flat-6 air-cooled engine and five-speed transmission first seen on the 904. Like the final 356C, the new 911 utilized disc brakes at all corners. Larger, more comfortable and quicker in every respect, the 911 proved a more than adequate replacement for the 356 and steadily evolved into the legendary supercar we know and love today.

The first of countless upgrades to Porsche’s perennial 911 came in 1966 with the introduction of the 911S, which featured a better-equipped interior and a heavily revised engine producing 160bhp. By this time around half of all 911s produced were being exported to the USA, where increasingly stringent regulation demanded that changes be made to the original design, the most significant being the adoption of dual-circuit brakes. It took time for Porsche’s engineers to get the newly introduced ‘S’ engine to meet emissions targets, so as an interim measure the 911L was introduced featuring the 911S’s superior equipment level but retaining the original 130bhp engine, pending the arrival of the de-toxed US-specification 911S for 1969. The 911L was dropped at the same time, its place as Porsche’s middle-of-the-range offering being taken by the 911E.

Around the same time, Porsche added an open-topped variant to the 911 model range for 1967 featuring a stainless steel-clad roll bar, removable roof panel and a detachable plastic rear window (a fixed glass window wasn’t made available until the following year as an option). Commemorating Porsche’s successive wins at the famous Sicilian road race, the new model was termed “Targa”, a term coined by other manufacturers since to describe this body configuration. The new 911 Targa was as close as Porsche came to ‘wind in the hair’ 911 motoring until the introduction of a full Cabriolet in the early 1980s.