All great perspectives from different ages and starting points!
My first Porsche was a 1964 356C Cabriolet. Being a Cabrio was very important because I push started that car, by myself, more than I ever pushed anything. If it were a hard top, there would have been no way to push it, jump in, get it in gear and dump the clutch in time to start that piece of crap Bosch 6 volt system!! I lived in Miami when I owned it, so there were no hills to park on.
I loved that car!!
By the way, it had headlights that look almost exactly like the 987 headlights (basic overall shape)..........so I don't want to hear about 986 headlights looking more like a Porsche, it's all from your age and perspective. The 987 also reminds me a great deal of the 356 looking out the windshield.
My next was a 1968 911. It made the 356 seem both arcaic and slower than my first sports car, a 1961 MGA. The 911 was a brute (for it's day) and a purely scintilating car to drive. It made no allowances for wimpy driving and would kick your ass if you even thought about "breathing off" the throttle in a corner. If you forgot to keep the RPM over 3000 it would foul spark plugs in less than a minute.
Keeping the double 3-barrel Weber carbs clean and synchronized was a full time job that would test the patience of a dead man. I loved every second of it. Changing plugs and adjusting the valves really required an extra elbow in your right arm, but I couldn't find a doc who could do it, so I cussed and bled like every other 911 owner who couldn't afford the dealer. Front brake pads lasted about 8k miles.
I absolutely loved my 68 911.
Next was my favorite, from a pure driving standpoint - 1971 914/6. It had the same Weber carbureted 2 liter of the 68, but in a much lighter and mid engine car. Although it made the 911 seem sophisticated, NOTHING came close to the thrill of tossing that perfectly balanced sports car around any corner you could find. I learned to drive, I mean really DRIVE, in that car. You could do anything with it. It was perfection in motion. As Lil Bastard said above in describing what we consider a sports car, the 914/6 is my definition. My brother bought the car new and then they had a baby, so I bought it from him - for $3500!!!!! I ended up selling it back to him two years later, so I could buy my first Formula Ford.
We've often talked about that car and compared it to my 987 and have come to the conclusion that had Porsche built the 914 as a Porsche, rather than a VW, and had it looked like the next generation 911, like a Cayman/Boxster, rather than whatever a 914 was supposed to look like, there may not be any other sports car companies. Why bother?
I also bought/restored/sold five 914/4s over the years, but they were a sad excuse for the 6, especially the VW brakes and wheels.
The next 25 years I spent in and out of formula cars and a couple of sports racers and quite frankly, any street car in comparison is quite like comparing a Piper Cub to an F14. It also pretty much satisfied the "pure sports car" genes!!
Now to 986/987. In full disclosure I haven't owned a 986, but had two different 986-S cars for weekend tests. The first was an 01 and the second was an 04. They were almost like a first and second generation of the 986, to me. In all fairness, they were both used and obviously the 01 was 3 years older, even though it had 10k fewer miles. To me, everything about the 04 was more sophisticated and worked better and smoother than the 01, but at the same time, the 01 did not fell more "pure" to me. To me, a Porsche is supposed to be the state of the art and, in comparison, the next Boxster I had for a weekend, my 987, was far closer to that state of the art in how EVERYTHING on the car was just that touch better. I thought the steering had a little less feel, but at the same time was a little more responsive and secure feeling. The seats fit and held me better and Wifey made the same comment. I liked the interior design, fit and finish much more. I thought the ergonomics of the interior were better and it had both more room and better organization of that room. I thought it both rode better and held the road better. I agree about not having a spare, just like the RX8- it is stupid.
I like the 987 body shape better, but do like the 986 side intakes. As you can see by my pic, I like the Cayman side intakes best of all three designs.
After the 914/6 and racing mid engine cars for 25 years, I was not interested in what I quite frankly think is over engineered 1960's technology - the 911. I don't want 300 lbs of mass hanging out behind the rear wheels or all the engineering over-corrections needed to make it work as well as it does. In all honesty, if Porsche put all that trick GT/Cup Car stuff in a Cayman, the Grand AM RX8s, Camaros, and G8s couldn't smell their exhaust fumes.
So what does this 5000 word essay mean, in the end? Not a damned thing, other than I had a Saturday evening to kill!!
But it means just the same as all the other comments above because as I said in the first line, it's all about your perspective, your age and what YOU are looking for in YOUR car.
Hybrid Mode
