Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 is unique among sports cars. Why? For starters, its shape is iconic. That’s partly because it hasn’t changed all that much through its many decades of production. Sure, it’s grown a few inches wider and longer, but the sloping hood, the fender-mounted headlights, the fastback profile, the rounded rear haunches, they’re all still there.

All 911s since the 1964 original have featured a horizontally-opposed six-cylinder engine mounted aft of the rear wheels. It's an unusual setup that technically shouldn’t work very well. (There’s a reason most supercars are mid-engined.) But Porsche has perfected it through the years.

Starting in 2017, most versions of the 911 began to utilize turbocharging – not just those with a “Turbo” badge on the decklid. Turbos help boost output while keeping displacement relatively small to aid fuel economy. They also tend to muffle that famous flat-six sound, but it’s a reasonable tradeoff considering that even the base version makes at least 370 horsepower yet still returns as much as 25 mpg in combined driving, according to the EPA.

The 911 is one of the few premium sports cars that continue to offer a manual transmission. Though most opt for the faster-shifting dual-clutch automatic (which Porsche calls PDK), a seven-speed manual is available on many 911 variants. Notably, it was dropped from the base Carrera for the 2020 model year. Since then, the least expensive way to row your own gears in a 911 has been to upgrade to the Carrera S.

Inside the cabin is where the 911 has changed the most in recent decades. Once a famously spartan workplace for the driver, its cockpit has grown more lavish and technologically advanced through the years, especially with the most recent generation, which first appeared in 2020. That iteration, known as the “992,” added a digital instrument cluster and even a large center console-mounted cup holder – things that some Porsche purists might consider verboten.

Porsche offers a dizzying number of options on the 911, which can take its price from expensive to exorbitant. Some highlights include a sport exhaust system, a sport suspension, rear-wheel steering, ceramic brakes, and custom paint colors (called Paint to Sample). Even relatively commonplace driver aids such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist are extras. Also of note: though Porsche added Apple CarPlay to the 911 in 2017, it dragged its feet on Android Auto integration until 2022.