Editorial

The Cayman
Launched in 2005. Coupe version of the Boxster. Initially dismissed as a marketing exercise. Now home to the most highly-rated production Porsche driving experience. Read more...
The 911 R, 2016
Naturally aspirated. Manual transmission. 991 generation. 991 units built. The car that proved buyers still wanted a stripped, analog 911. And the most-flipped Porsche in modern history. Read more...
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
The largest and most-watched concours in the world. Held every August on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links. The car show that sets the values for the rest of the year. Read more...
The Boxster, the mid-engine reset
Launched in 1996. Mid-engine roadster on a shared platform with the 996. Saved Porsche AG financially. Now the foundation of the modern mid-engine lineup. Read more...
The M-codes
Every factory option Porsche offered has a three-digit code starting with M. Reading the M-code list tells you exactly how a chassis was built. The code system in detail. Read more...
Porsche Classic, the factory restoration arm
Based in Stuttgart. Restores air-cooled chassis to original specification. Reproduces discontinued parts. The way the factory keeps its own history alive. Read more...
Hans Mezger, the engineer
Designed the original 911 flat-six. Led the 917 engine program. Built the TAG-Porsche Formula 1 engine. Designed the modern GT3 Mezger flat-six. One engineer, forty-seven years of Porsche engines. Read more...
Porsche in Formula 1
The TAG-Porsche turbo era with McLaren, 1983 to 1987. Three World Championships. The peak of Porsche's Formula 1 involvement. Read more...
The 919 Hybrid
Three Le Mans wins in a row, 2015 through 2017. The most successful LMP1 prototype Porsche ever built. The reason the company came back to top-tier endurance racing. Read more...
The 911 GT1, 1998
Built to homologate for FIA GT1 racing. Won Le Mans outright in 1998. Only 21 road examples exist. Read more...
Build sheets and provenance — how to verify an air-cooled car
Every Porsche has a Kardex. Every serious buyer requires it. The factory build sheet, the Certificate of Authenticity, and how to read both. Read more...
Patina versus restoration — the philosophical debate
Original paint, faded interior, dented bumper — or full restoration to as-new condition. The air-cooled collector community is divided on which car is more valuable. Read more...
Magnus Walker — the man who made restomod public
Dreadlocks, layered scarves, fifty air-cooled 911s in a Los Angeles warehouse. Magnus Walker's Urban Outlaw documentary turned a personal collection into a cultural phenomenon. Read more...
The GT3 lineage — air-cooled spirit in water-cooled bodies
Since 1999, the GT3 has been the water-cooled 911 that carries the air-cooled philosophy forward. Manual transmission, dry sump, naturally aspirated. Read more...
The Carrera GT — 2003 V10
Mid-engine, 5.7 liter naturally-aspirated V10, six-speed manual only. The Carrera GT was Porsche's halo supercar of the 2000s — and the last analog car the company ever made. Read more...
The 956 and 962 — Group C dominance
Seven Le Mans wins. Twelve years of competition. The 956 and 962 are the most successful sports prototype racers in history. Read more...
Steve McQueen's Le Mans — the film
Steve McQueen's 1971 racing film was a commercial disaster on release and is now considered the purest racing movie ever made. The story of how it almost destroyed his career. Read more...
The 917 — Le Mans, finally
The first overall Le Mans win for Porsche, the 5.0 liter flat-twelve, the 917/30 in Can-Am, and the car Steve McQueen drove in the film. Read more...
The 914 — the mid-engine joint venture
Mid-engine, removable roof panel, Volkswagen-Porsche joint venture. The 914 was supposed to be Porsche's entry chassis. It was also the platform that proved mid-engine could work. Read more...
The 944, 924, 928 — the front-engine years
Three water-cooled, front-engine Porsches that ran in parallel with the air-cooled 911 from 1976 to 1995. The 928 was supposed to replace the 911. None of them did. Read more...
The 935 — the racing dominance of 1976 to 1984
Slantnose, twin-turbo, factory-built. The 935 won Le Mans in 1979, Daytona five times, and Sebring four times. The car that made the 911 the racing reference of the late 1970s. Read more...
Rennsport Reunion — the gathering at Laguna Seca
Every three or four years, Porsche flies a selection of factory race cars to California and the air-cooled community converges on WeatherTech Raceway. A history of the largest air-cooled event in the United States. Read more...
The Mezger flat-six — the engine named after its designer
Hans Mezger designed the original 911 flat-six in 1963. The dry-sump racing version of that engine carried his name through the GT1, the 996 GT3, and the 997 GT3 — a forty-year engineering through-line. Read more...
Period colors of the air-cooled era
Each decade had its palette. From Bahama Yellow on the long-hoods through Mexico Blue on the G-body to Speed Yellow on the 993, the air-cooled era ran through a sequence of distinctive period colors. Read more...
RUF — the German manufacturer most people think is a tuner
Alois Ruf Jr. registered RUF as an independent automaker with the German government in 1981. The CTR Yellowbird, the SCR, the RGT — RUF cars are not modified Porsches. They are RUFs. Read more...
Singer Vehicle Design — what changed the restomod market
Rob Dickinson started Singer in 2009 with one idea: take a 964 chassis, restore it slowly, and finish it to a standard the factory never had time to. The market took years to understand what they were building. Read more...
What "Carrera" means — the Panamericana lineage
Carrera is Spanish for race. The name traces back to the Carrera Panamericana, a 1950s open-road race across Mexico that Porsche won outright in 1954. Read more...
The Speedster — chopped windshield, hump cover, no rear seats
From the 1954 356 Speedster to the limited-run 911 variants, the Speedster has always been Porsche's purest open-air statement. A summary of every generation. Read more...
Fuchs — the forged five-spoke
Otto Fuchs of Meinerzhagen forged aluminum for German industry from 1910. The 911 five-spoke was their first major automotive design and one of the most recognizable wheels ever made. Read more...
The Targa — the open-top compromise
The brushed-steel safety hoop, the removable roof panel, and the 1996 reinvention. How the Targa solved a problem and became its own design language. Read more...
Houndstooth and tartan — the textile story
The two cloth patterns that defined Porsche interior trim from the 1960s through the 1990s, and why they are the heart of the F6 Heritage Series. Read more...
What "air-cooled" actually means
The engineering philosophy behind 34 years of Porsche 911 — how a fan, finning, and oil did the work of a radiator, why it lasted so long, and why it ended. Read more...
The 1973 RS — the lightweight reference
2.7 liter mechanical-injection flat-six, ducktail spoiler, 1,580 coupes built. The 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is the lightweight homologation reference every air-cooled chassis after it answers to. Read more...
The 993 — last of the era
Widest body, multi-link rear suspension, 3.6 then 3.8 liter flat-six. The 993 was the final air-cooled 911 — and many consider it the best. Read more...
The 964 — the modern reset
First 911 with integrated bumpers. First with power steering and ABS as standard. The bridge chassis that took the air-cooled 911 from analog to digital. Read more...
The K27 turbocharger — what KKK built
Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch — the German turbocharger firm that built the K27 for the 930 and supplied half of the German auto industry through the 1980s. Read more...
The 930 Turbo — what made it
Whaletail, single turbo flat-six, no intercooler until 1978. The 930 was the first production turbo flat-six and one of the most demanding sports cars of its era. Read more...
The 912 — what we missed
Air-cooled flat-four, 1965 to 1969. The entry chassis that shared the 911 body and weighed less than every six-cylinder version that followed. Read more...
The G-body 911 — 1974 to 1989
Impact bumpers, the 911 SC, the 3.2 Carrera, and the longest-running 911 bodyshell. Read more...
The long-hood years — 1964 to 1973
The first 911, the 911S, the lightweight RS, and why the shape never changed. Read more...
Porsche, briefly
Ferdinand Porsche, the 356, the 911, and the family that has run the company through eight decades. Read more...