Best Porsches from a Coach's POV

Cayman GT4 / Cayman R

After lapping these for hours on race tracks and slamming gears on backroads in a 2012 Cayman R I think when it comes to overall driving impression these two are among the best. The balance of modern mid-engine Porsches blow the doors off anything I’ve driven on the road. Setup correctly with a little extra power these cars will wolf down many things on track days.

image courtesy of jalopnik.com 

991 Carrera 4S

Drifting a 991 Carrera 4S around a hairpin corner during a coaches shootout in the rain was one of the best memories of my life. When it comes to all around weather performance the 4S can do things that a car really shouldn’t be able to do at all. You can enter a corner almost backwards in this car and if you know the proper driving technique the front wheels will pull you straight back in the direction you need to go. This is the only road car that rewired my understanding of what a car can do.

image courtesy of flickr.com  

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997 GT3 RS / 997 Turbo S

Think of these cars like brothers. One’s a track star and the others a footballer you wouldn’t want to mess with. The sheer speed of the 997 Turbo S in a straight line makes you question how any of it’s legal while the GT3 RS had an engine that made a miraculous noise. Few engines rev this way, sound this way and go this fast. Oh yeah, you get to shift gears in both of these cars. Remember when that wasn’t an issue? 

image courtesy of flickr.com 

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356 C

Ahh…356 C will stick in my mind as being one of the fastest things I have ever driven that I did not expect to be fast. Normally this would sound a bit odd, but when you’re descending down a mountain road with period correct tires that have just been changed you would be shocked at what one of these can do. Once driven you can feel the character of this car in every Porsche right up to the present day, but don’t take any liberties with the way you lift off the brake pedal while going downhill. Anything less than a smooth release will have the back end stepping out. 

image courtesy of roadandtrack.com

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1972 Porsche 911 S

The ultimate daily driver. Everything about this car feels right from the transmission to the weight of the steering and throttle pedal. All the classic 911 shapes come back to this decade when tuners try to recreate Porsche nostalgia. RSRs of this era are the stuff of legends as are the engineering feats that went into creating what would go on to become a timeless icon. Good examples are in the six figures for a reason. 

image courtesy of wallpapers.eu 

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Notable Closing Cars?

Almost everything Porsche stands out for one reason or another even if it was just a stock 944 with a manual transmission. There’s an ethos in all of these cars that carries over to the racing division and a real implementation of those lessons back into the road cars. You can feel the evolution in this brand in a way that other companies don’t capture and that’s what’s driving the prices up if you ask me. These cars are brilliant.

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