Porsche 1963-1989 911

Few production cars have stayed so recognisably themselves for so long as the original Porsche 911. It broke cover in 1963 wearing the designation 901, only for Peugeot to object that it held the rights to three-digit model names with a zero in the middle; Porsche swapped the middle digit and the 911 was born. Series production began the following year, and the fastback silhouette drawn by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, with round headlamps and a sloping tail, would remain legible across every revision that came after.

What sat behind the rear axle mattered more than the shape. The 911 launched with an air-cooled flat-six of 2.0 litres, designed under Hans Mezger, producing 130 PS and giving the car a hard, metallic voice unlike anything from its Stuttgart rivals. Mounting the engine aft of the wheels kept it compact, freed a luggage compartment up front, and gave the 911 the tail-heavy balance that made it both quick and, in unskilled hands, notorious.

Across its air-cooled life the flat-six only grew. Displacement climbed past 3.0 litres, and the turbocharged 930 pushed output beyond 300 hp, turning a nimble sports car into a genuine supercar antagonist. Targa and, later, cabriolet bodies broadened the range, while the closing 3.2 Carrera carried the original design into 1989 before the 964 took over with a substantially reworked chassis. That the basic recipe, a rear-mounted air-cooled six under an unmistakable profile, outlasted so many rivals is the classic 911's real achievement.