The 10 Best Porsche 911 Versions Ever

The Porsche 911. It’s one of the mighty old redwoods of the automotive world, having been around for a little over 60 years, and likely to be around as long as Porsche can reasonably keep selling it.

With so many years of history and a sprawling model range with a reputation for utterly baffling the uninitiated, it would surely be a fool’s game to try and cherry-pick just 10 variants of the 911 and rank them in some sort of arbitrary top 10 list. But that’s what we’ve done anyway, because reasons.

All 911s have a few things in common, mainly a horizontally-opposed six-cylinder engine slung out at the back where any other car company would have given up on trying to make the weight distribution work decades ago. As you’re about to see, though, there’s still plenty of variety within that common lineage. And if you’re wondering why your favourite 911 hasn’t made the list, then… come up with your own top 10, we suppose?

10. 996 GT3 RS

We’re starting bold with the once-maligned 996 generation, the one that enraged purists by ditching air-cooling and round headlights.

The 996 has come of age, though, especially because in 2004, it introduced the world to the GT3 RS, a lighter, harder derivative that continues to this day. The 996 GT3 RS kept things simple with some throwback colour schemes in homage to the old 2.7 RS (there’s a hint as to what’s to come on this list), a manual ’box and a zingy 375bhp, 7400rpm engine.

9. 992 Dakar

911s have been rallying for decades, and off-road-ified ‘Safari’ builds have long been growing in popularity, so it’s sort of surprising that it took until 2022 for an off-road-friendly version that people could buy straight from Porsche. Well, 2500 fairly wealthy people, anyway.

The Dakar took the powertrain from the Carrera 4 GTS – twin-turbos, 473bhp, four-wheel drive – and mated it to a body with some rally-inspired accoutrements, beefed-up suspension and knobbly tyres, topping it all off with some nice retro livery options. A brilliantly silly idea.

8. 964 Carrera RS

The Carrera RSs were the GT3s of their day, and it’s the early ’90s 964 version that appeals to us most. Derived from the Carrera Cup racer, its power figure of 256bhp seems paltry by modern standards.

The 964 RS’s joy, though, was in how raw, delicate and light it was, barely tipping the scales at 1200kg; and the hardware that went into it: a lightweight flywheel, close-ratio manual, mechanical limited-slip diff and other such terms that make engineers want to go have a bit of a lie-down.

7. 993 GT2

If the 911 family was a group of mates, the GT2 would be the one that always took things a bit far on a night out, downing seven tequilas in a row before trying to start a fight and then slipping on its arse on the dancefloor. That’s what happens when the boosty turbo engine from the, erm, Turbo is fitted to something sending all its power to the back wheels.

All the GT2s – and the even madder GT2 RSs – have been very cool, but our favourite is the original 993 from 1995. Essentially a homologation special, and mega rare these days, later versions were chucking 444bhp out through the back end. With its delicious split rims and unapologetically riveted-on flared arches, it might be the best-looking 911 of all time.

6. 993 Turbo

Yep, we’re following one turbocharged 993 with another. Fight us. The 993 Turbo landed in a unique sweet spot in its forced-induction lineage – the first to have twin turbos and four-wheel drive, but the last to use a smaller, lighter air-cooled 911 as its base.

As a result, it combines the best of the slightly scary early Turbos and the surefooted, tech-heavy water-cooled ones, packaging it all in something with brilliantly usable real-world performance.

5. 991 Touring

The Touring version of the 911 GT3, introduced with the 991 generation’s facelift in 2017, was a masterstroke. By packaging up the GT3’s scintillating engine with a manual gearbox, more subtle body and road-biased setup, it was the ultimate aspirational 911 to see while scrolling through Instagram, probably in Oak Green with Pascha seats. Yep, we ate it right up.

Porsche had done something similar the year before with the equally brilliant, and slightly more special 911 R, but the Touring wasn’t a limited-production car. That meant more people got to buy one, and more people still got to do hours of Auto Trader window shopping before crying themselves to sleep at the fact they couldn’t afford one. No? Just us?

4. Carrera 2.7 RS

For some, the 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS is the archetypal 911, the one by which all subsequent ones are judged. Like so many great cars, it was developed as a homologation special and featured an uprated, fuel-injected 2.7-litre engine making 210bhp – a hell of a lot in something as petite and lightweight as an early 911.

It also introduced so many things that would go on to appear again and again on the model – Fuchs five-spoke alloys, a ducktail spoiler, side stripes; heck, even the Carrera and RS badges. So much of the 911’s modern identity as a serious performance car comes from this gorgeous, rare machine.

3. 992 S/T

Yeah, this was going to be quite high, wasn’t it? Mating the astonishing 4.0-litre, free-breathing engine from the latest 911 GT3 RS to a manual gearbox and a wingless, retro-inspired body is pretty much guaranteed to make car journalists the world over need to take a cold shower.

The thing is, we throw praise at 911s so much because they’re genuinely really good cars, and from a purely emotional viewpoint, the S/T – a name, by the way, that harks back to another lightweight special from the ’60s – is one of the very best. Maybe even, as we posited when we drove it, the best.

2. 930 Turbo

Come on, this had to be high up the list, didn’t it? The yuppie’s favourite, the 930 Turbo is what many people likely first picture when they think of the Porsche 911. Those five-spoke wheels, that big ducktail, the slightly gaudy patterned interiors many came with – it’s all (and we don’t use this word lightly) properly iconic.

It’s also a car that comes with a reputation, but approach it with the caution it asks for and it’s an utterly gorgeous thing to drive. Whether you want to use it as a sports car or a style accessory, or just appreciate its ubiquity in ’80s pop culture, the 930 is a legend for a reason.

1. 997 GT3 RS 4.0

So far, the 997-generation 911 of the late 2000s and early 2010s has been conspicuous in its absence from this list, but don’t worry, we’ve saved the best for last. Because, y’know, that’s how top 10 countdowns work.

The ultimate iteration of the 997 GT3 RS, the 4.0 featured a new 4.0-litre (duh) version of the widely adored Mezger flat-six (named for Hans Mezger, the brilliant engineer behind it), with bits pinched from Porsche’s 911 Le Mans racer.

It chucked out 493bhp, a peak it produced at an astounding 8250rpm, all sent through a six-speed manual gearbox in the last era of 911 to use beautifully tactile hydraulic power steering. Were the stripes a bit tacky? Was it hugely impractical? Were only 600 produced, sending used values to utterly silly areas? The answer to all those questions is ‘yes, and we simply couldn’t care less’. As something for simply revelling in the act of driving, we reckon the RS 4.0 is the best the 911 has ever gotten.