Desirable Cars
PORSCHE MODERN & CLASSIC ICONS

Desirable Porsches

The 911 has been in continuous, unbroken production since 1963 — over 1.2 million built, and it very nearly wasn't called the 911 at all.

Six Decades, One Unmistakable Shape

Few manufacturers have stayed this committed to a single core idea for this long. The 911 debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963 under the name 901, only for Peugeot to object, having registered rights to three-digit model names with a zero in the middle — Porsche simply swapped the middle digit and the legend has carried the 911 name ever since. Genuinely remarkable is how little the fundamental formula has shifted across more than sixty years and eight generations: rear-mounted flat-six engine, 2+2 seating, and a silhouette you can identify from across a car park, whether it's a 1960s original or the current 992 generation.

That consistency hasn't come at the cost of relevance — the 911 placed fifth in the 1999 international poll for Car of the Century, one of only two cars in the top five to have stayed in continuous production throughout. Below are the models we've covered so far, spanning the air-cooled classics that built the reputation and the modern cars still carrying it.