As much as the clothes we wear and the haircuts we favour (well, not me, obviously), trends in automotive styling serve future generations as an insight into what life looked like years beforehand. It’s a funny thing — though the appearance of old buildings rarely changes, archive footage of the places
we know can seem surreal, depicted as they are with the shape of once commonplace four-wheelers long forgotten or seldom seen.
But wait! Rolling into shot is the unmistakable shape of an air-cooled 911. Few manufacturers have succeeded in achieving vehicle design standing the test of time, but Ferdinand ‘Butzi’ Porsche’s coachwork for the 356’s successor is as popular today as it ever was, not only through the way the curves drawn from his pen almost sixty years ago permeate every contour characterising Porsche’s current flagship product line, but in the way aircooled 911s continue to be celebrated by all corners of the motoring world.
Just as the bricks and mortar pictured in old photographs and vintage film reels offer familiarity in an otherwise fuzzy scene, so too does the reassuring cameo of an air-cooled 911, as recognisable and as pleasing now as it when rolling off Porsche’s assembly lines.
Spanning fifty years of production, the vast majority of air-cooled Porsches of all varieties survive to the present day, supported by an always evolving aftermarket doing its level best to ensure owners enjoy maintained performance and rock solid reliability. Few automotive scenes are as fortunate.
Here’s to enjoying air-cooled Porsches for many more decades to come.

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