Total 911 UK – Issue 229, April 2023
English | 100 pages | pdf | 143.95 MB
I’ve recently published a gigantic, air-cooled 911 Turbo group test via 9WERKS TV on YouTube. It was so detailed that I’ve had to run it in two parts, first documenting the 930 ‘impact bumper’ years, before the final instalment looking at the 964 and 993 era. Driving each of these classic 911 Turbos back-to-back (we also showcased this in print in issue 217) provided a surreal experience where I got to sample the 911 Turbo’s evolution from 1974 to 1998. It had come a long way in that time: from a primitive yet hilarious RWD, lag-heavy beast in the 930 3.0 into a refined, AWD and all-conquering machine in the 993 Turbo.
You, of course, will have your own favourite among the aircooled Turbo line-up, and while that early 930 3.0 is mine (as I stated in this magazine at the time), publishing the video has caused me to stop and ponder the excellence of the 993 Turbo. Really, it’s a vital link between old and new 911 Turbos: powered by an air-cooled engine that’s allied to a manual gearbox, it’s unashamedly classic – especially when you consider there are no driver aids present, either. And yet its ground-breaking (at the time) setup of twin turbochargers and intercoolers, all-wheel-drive and multi-link rear axle were all created with efficiency and refinement in mind, something that’s still very much part of the Turbo DNA, literally and metaphorically.
With the 911 Carrera’s evolution, there’s a real ‘line in the sand’ moment from air- to water-cooling, because the 993 and its successor in the 996 are completely different in every single way imaginable. With the Turbo story though, that transition from one chapter to the next isn’t so harsh, and it really is down to the genius of the 993 Turbo which, nearly 30 years on, somehow manages to serve a perfect dish of classic Porsche with cutting-edge underpinnings still in use today. Perhaps, then, it’s the 993 Turbo which personifies Porsche’s peerless approach to timeless engineering most beautifull.
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