 A 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS The Carrera is a famous and distinctive sportscar automobile, internally known as the Type 911 (1963-1988), Type 964 (1989-1992), Type 993 (1993-1997), Type 996 (1998-2004) and Type 997 (2004-?), made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. The car is largely referred to as the "Nine Eleven" although this is technically a misnomer with certain turbocharged models (called Type 930) and cars manufactured after 1988. The Carrera has been the basis for numerous race cars designed for circuit and rally racing, among other types.
History
Developed as the succesor to the Volkswagen-based 356, Porsche originally titled the car "Type 901" internally. A lawsuit from Peugeot, who claimed they owned a copyright on any automotive nameclature with a 9 at the front and 0 in the middle, forced Porsche to rename the car Type 911 during development. Porsche launched the car in 1963 under the name "Carrera" although the public at large took to calling it simply the 911 (nine-eleven). The car had a six cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine mounted at the rear and displacing two litres mated to a five speed manual transmission. The styling was largely penned by Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche, son of the company founder Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche. Erwin Komenda, the leader of the Porsche car body construction department, was involved in the design.
Early evolutions of the Carrera (Type 911) saw lengthening of the wheelbase from 221 cm to 227 cm, the addition of fuel injection and engine displacement increases. In 1967 the Targa version was introduced, named after the Targa Florio, a motoring event held on the island of Sicily, in which Porsche had various successes. The Targa had a removable roof panel, a removable plastic rear window (although this was soon replaced by a fixed glass item) and a stainless steel roll bar. Porsche had, at one point, thought that the NHTSA would outlaw fully open convertibles in the US, an important market for the 911, and introduced the Targa as a "stop gap" model.
In 1973, Porsche introduced the 2.7 Carrera RS, the street-legal homologation version of what was their current GT racing model. Lightened, stiffened and riding on a revised suspension system, the RS ran with a 2.7 litre, race engineered boxer six making 210 bhp (157 kW). Widened wheel arches, a 'ducktail' rear spoiler, larger brakes and larger wheels were among the other additions to the RS. Although Porsche was only required to make 500 cars in accordance with homologation rules, just over 1500 were actually produced in response to the model's popularity. Porsche followed in 1974 with an upgraded RS, now powered by a 3.0 Litre, 230 Horsepower motor and sporting several minor revisions over the previous version. An even more extreme version of the 3.0 RS, called the RSR, also debuted in 1974 as a track-only car.
Although Porsche was continuing development of the Carrera, executives were troubled by its declining sales numbers and greenlighted work on what was going to be the Carrera's replacement - the 928 in 1971. Larger and considerablly more powerful than a contemporary 911, the 928 was not only designed to eclipse the 911's performance, it was designed to be a more comfortable car, designed as a sporty grand tourer rather than a focused sports car. The 928 sold reasonablly well, and managed to survive from its introduction in 1977 until 1995. Throughout its 17 years, despite its capabilities, it was never capable of outselling the Carrera.
The 911 underwent its most drastic styling changes to date in 1974, getting new front and rear bumpers, wing mirrors and indicator units on the outside and a refreshed interior. The 1974s also debuted with a new, larger engine displacing 2.7 litres and derived from the 1973 RS racing engine. Porsche followed in 1975 with the first turbocharged Carrera, the Type 930. A turbocharged variant of the Carrera has been offered for every generation since 1975. The Carrera continued to undergo developmental changes throghout the 1980s, including increases in engine displacement and the introduction of the first Carrera Cabriolet in 1986. Production of the Type 911 Carrera ended in mid-1989.
In late 1989 the Carrera underwent its first full evolution with the introduction of the 1990 Type 964. Sharing little other than its basic shape and engine layout with the outgoing version, the 964 was almost entirely new from the ground up. The Type 964 generation Carrera was the first to be optionally available with all wheel drive (on the Carrera 4 model), as well as the first generation of Carrera to mate all wheel drive with turbocharged engines and to be avaliable with Porsche's Tiptronic Transmission. The 964 was also one of the first cars offered with dual airbags, power steering and ABS brakes. The 964 was replaced in late 1993 by the 1994 Type 993 Carrera, which evolved the body work into a much smoother shape. The 993 Turbo became the first standard production Porsche with twin turbochargers and the first Turbo model to be avaliable only with all wheel drive.
Its successor, the Type 996 Carrera, introduced as a 1998 model, became the first Carrera in the model's history to utilize an entirely water cooled engine, an all-new 3.4 litre boxer six making 296 horsepower. Pundits criticized the 996's styling a great deal, largely because it shared its headlamps with the less expensive Boxster, although the 996 was on the drawing board first and was a vastly more competent car. Otherwise, the Pinky Lai-penned shape followed the original Butzi Porsche one very closely. The interior was further criticized for its plainness and its lack of relationship to prior Carrera interiors, although this came largely from vintage Carrera owners. The Type 996 Carrera underwent revisions in late 2002, receiving revised headlamps, a revised front fascia and an increase in both displacement and power to 3.6 litres and 320 horsepower. The Type 996 Carrera spawned over a dozen variations, including all wheel drive Carrera 4 and Carrera 4 S models, a turbocharged variant and both GT2 and GT3 class race cars, of which street versions were built as well.
Porsche debuted the 996's replacment, the Type 997, in July 2004. The 997 sports exterior styling heavily drawing from that of the highly popular 993 generation, and a vastly revised interior. Type 996 versions of the Turbo, Targa, Cabriolet, Carrera 4S, GT2 and GT3 will remain in production untill 997 based versions of those models become avaliable. The Cabriolet is expected in Spring 2005 and Turbo and GT3 models are currently in development (as of January, 2005). Although the 997 is almost entirely new, it still shares about 30% of its parts with the outgoing 996. Porsche is expected to debut its next entirely new 911, the Type 998, in 2009.
Awards
In 2004, Sports Car International named the 911 number three on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s, the Carrera RS number seven on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s, and the 911 Carrera number seven on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s. In addition, the 911 was voted Number 2 on Automobile Magazine's List of the 100 Coolest Cars. The 997 was nominated for the World Car of the Year award for 2005.
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