Stuttgart's sports cars
Porsche
From the 550 Spyder and the first 911 to the GT3s and the 918 Spyder: seventy years of Porsche, graded.
Porsche has spent seventy years refining a handful of ideas, and every so often it builds something that makes the rest of the industry rethink what a road car can do. This collection grades the classics from the 550 Spyder to the last air-cooled 911s, the GT3 line, the halo cars from the 959 to the 918 Spyder, and the Porsches on sale now, on the same eleven categories as every car on the site.
The engines
Flat-sixes mostly, and the two times Porsche went further.
- Porsche 550 Spyder, 19531.5 liter four-cam flat-fourErnst Fuhrmann's shaft-driven four-cam, the engine that made a 1.5 liter Porsche a giant-killer.
- Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7, 19732.7 liter flat-six, mechanical injection210 PS in a car light enough to homologate for Group 4 racing, with the ducktail that came with it.
- Porsche 911 Turbo (930), 19753.0 liter turbocharged flat-six260 PS arriving all at once through four gears, and a reputation that followed it for decades.
- Porsche 959, 19872.85 liter sequential twin-turbo flat-six450 PS and computer-controlled all-wheel drive, conceived for Group B.
- Porsche 911 Turbo (993), 19953.6 liter twin-turbo flat-sixThe first 911 Turbo with two turbochargers and all-wheel drive, which made the Widowmaker a car for every day.
- Porsche 911 GT3 (996), 19993.6 liter Mezger flat-six360 PS from the racing-derived engine that made the GT3 name, with no turbochargers.
- Porsche Carrera GT, 20045.7 liter V10612 PS through a ceramic clutch and a six-speed manual, and a sound nothing since has matched.
- Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, 20114.0 liter Mezger flat-six500 PS with the RSR's crankshaft: the last Mezger engine Porsche put in a GT3.
- Porsche 918 Spyder, 20154.6 liter V8 and two electric motors887 PS from a V8 built for the RS Spyder racer, and electric drive at the front axle.
- Porsche 911 GT2 RS (991), 20183.8 liter twin-turbo flat-six700 PS to the rear wheels only, and not a drop of it spare.
- Porsche 911 GT3 RS (992), 20234.0 liter flat-six, 9,000 rpm525 PS, a central radiator and 860 kg of downforce at 285 km/h.
- Porsche 911 S/T, 20244.0 liter flat-six with a manualThe GT3 RS engine without the wing, built for the 911's sixtieth birthday.