Top 5 Most Important Porsches of all Time
Porsche is one of the most prodigious sportscar makers in the world. We attempt the impossible and select their Mount Rushmore.
Yes, we know that Mount Rushmore has only four Presidents and we are selecting five cars. However, trying to pare a Top Porsche list down to just five is not an easy task and four is just not enough. Ask us to pick the five most important Kias and we would have a much easier time of it. Porsche, on the other hand, has so many brilliant models to choose from that picking just five is going to leave some genuinely great vehicles off the list.
Porsche has been building cars for over seventy years, creating everything from one of the most iconic sports cars ever to game-changing hypercars. The cars we listed here are the most important. These are not necessarily the fastest cars, or the best sellers, or the best looking. The cars in this list are the most important not just to Porsche themselves but to the motoring world as a whole. Let’s get started.
5) 1997 986 Boxster
Porsche is an automotive powerhouse today and one of the most profitable carmakers on the planet. Flashback to the early ‘90s, however, and it was a vastly different story. In the mid- ‘80s, Porsche was selling about 30,000 cars a year in North America, and by the early ‘90s that had dropped to only 4,000 a year. The company was on the brink. The 911 was still around but the 968 took that front-engine, four-cylinder platform about as far as it could go. Porsche needed a competitive lower-priced model to boost sales.
Enter the Boxster. The new roadster shared many parts with the 996 which drastically cut production costs. More importantly, it was a brilliant car. Not overly powerful with just a 201-horsepower flat-six, but wonderful handling and sharp styling made the car a hit from the moment it broke cover at the 1993 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The Boxster remains in production today, and some folks prefer its mid-engine handling to even the 911. In many ways, this car saved Porsche.
4) 1973 917/30
There are several iterations of the 917 race car, including the one that handed Porsche their first-ever overall Le Mans win in 1970. However, the 1973 917/30 may just be the greatest racing car ever produced. Some stats to consider: 1,500+ horsepower with full boost in qualifying trim, 0 – 60 MPH in 2.1 seconds, 0 – 200 MPH in 13.4 seconds, and a top speed of 240 mph. The car was developed for the 1973 Can-Am series and had one of the most dominant seasons in the history of racing. There were eight races on the schedule that year. The 917/30 driven by racing legend Mark Donohue secured pole position and set the fastest lap of the race in every single race. It finished the first race in seventh place, and in second place in round two, but from race three onward, it never lost.
The 917/30 was so dominant, the rules were changed so the car was not allowed to compete the following year. However, that did not mark the end of the career for the 917/30. In 1975 the car was taken to the Talladega Superspeedway and set a closed-course world record with an average speed of 221.16 MPH. To this day no car has turned a faster lap at Talladega. The 917/30 helped to cement Porsche as a motorsport powerhouse.
3) 1986 959
The Porsche 959 paved the way for the future of supercars. Tire-pressure monitoring and four-channel antilock brakes may not seem like a big deal now, but in 1986 it was leading edge. The 959 was chock-full of innovations. Hollow wheel spokes, run-flat tires, full-time four-wheel-drive, an electronic, infinitely variable center-differential lock, and sequential turbocharging were some of the highlights. The car was simply ahead of its time and showed the world what was coming. As if the road car was not impressive enough, a rally version of the 959 won the 1986 Paris-Dakar.
2) 2015 918 Spyder
Flash forward a couple of decades and the 918 Spyder is the ultimate Porsche road car. Once again, it is showing the world what is possible and this time using hybrid technology to do it. The car puts out nearly 900 horsepower with its gasoline engine and electric motor combined. It has a range of 18 miles in electric-only mode and will go up to 93 MPH using just battery power but hit 211 MPH with the gasoline V8 joining in. This car is important because it shows the world that as electric power becomes more mainstream that it can lead to cars with eye-popping ability. It is also important because we need more cars with top-exit exhaust pipes.
1) 1964 911
Well this really had to be number one, didn’t it? The very first Porsche 911, the type 901. If this list were expanded, we could select some of the best 911s such as the 1973 Carrera RS or the 1976 Turbo. Keeping the list to five, however, meant we had to stick with the 901 as none of the other cars would exist if it were not for this original masterpiece. The use of the word masterpiece is not hyperbole in the case of the 911. The Museum of Modern Art has a 1965 model in its collection. The 911 will soon be celebrating its 60 year anniversary and it remains the benchmark sports car. We could easily write a book on the first 911, but suffice to say, it is the most important vehicle Porsche has ever made.
Photos: Porsche
Join the 6SpeedOnline forums now!
