Collecting: Timeless, but Not Frozen in Time

The 911, on the other hand, still carries the distinctive profile of the model that made its debut at the 1963 Frankfurt motor show. Its engine is still an opposed 6-cylinder, and it is still placed at the rear.

One thing that’s not the same is the model name: initially, the new Porsche was labeled the 901, but the road car was renamed the 911 because a French automaker, Peugeot, held the rights to three-digit model names with a zero in the middle. 

At the time, Porsche’s visionary designers could hardly have imagined that their sports car would still be thriving and evolving a half-century later. Although the 911 has added weight and girth over the years, it has also been transformed, continuing as a benchmark for all-around performance.

Porsche did not start out as an automaker, but as an engineering firm doing design work for other companies. It began making its own sports car, the 356 model, in the late 1940s, amid the rubble of postwar Germany. Based heavily on the design of the humble Volkswagen Beetle, the Porsche 356 established the company as a producer of well-engineered, high-quality cars, its reputation bolstered by racing successes.

Ferdinand Porsche, the genius who founded the company, died in 1951, but his son, known as Ferry, was firmly at the helm. As competition increased, Ferry and his talented staff felt the need for a new-generation car to replace the aging but still-popular 356, so in the mid-1950s they set out to develop a slimmer shape with a stronger engine.

Some of their early efforts involved dusting off partly developed plans from earlier years. An awkward notchback prototype was considered, but Ferry’s son, F. A., known as Butzi, responded with a sleeker, more contemporary version of the Porsche coupe sketched by the company’s original stylist, Erwin Komenda, in the 1940s.

The family business also included Ferry Porsche’s nephew, Ferdinand K. Piëch, a promising young engineer who conceived the seven-bearing crankshaft and overhead-cam layout that endowed the 6-cylinder 911 engine with its rapid-revving sports-car personality.

The 911 also benefited from a racing-derived lubricating system that prevented engine damage.

With improvements in tires, brakes and suspension systems, cars were now able to corner and stop so hard that the engine would starve for lubrication as oil sloshed away from the supply tube of the circulating pump. To prevent this, the 911 engine was given two oil pumps, one to keep a reservoir tank full of oil and a second pump to feed oil from the tank to the moving parts, regardless of cornering, acceleration or braking forces. This so-called dry-sump system also eliminates the deep oil pan that normally hangs below the engine, making it possible to lower the mounting point and improve handling.

The Porsche 911 was not perfect, although many considered it bulletproof. Early on, the tensioners for its cam chains were prone to failure, often with near-catastrophic results. And the car had a disconcerting habit of oversteering, especially when a novice driver would suddenly let off the gas pedal in the middle of an exuberant turn.

While expert drivers used this quirk effectively, steering through curves with the throttle, less experienced pilots spun out in short order. In recent years, modifications by Porsche engineers, including electronic stability control systems, have made the 911 more forgiving.

As the road-going 911 evolved, it became more powerful and luxurious, but also heavier. For this reason, many enthusiasts feel that some of the earlier models — 1969-73 cars in particular — are the most fun to drive and more desirable to collect.