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911 is fifty

Topics:  Porsche 911

911 is fifty

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
June 13, 2013

The legendary Porsche 911 is fifty years old this year and to celebrate the company is building a limited edition version for our delight. The trouble is, the average age of anyone who can afford a Porsche is also probably fifty, but if you are in possession of a spare £92k plus then get in quick because only 1963 will be built for worldwide distribution. As if it wasn’t immediately obvious, 1963 is the year the legend began.

Porsche will be parading no less than 911 versions of this great car at the Silverstone Classic at the end of July. The Company were concerned that they would struggle to get that number of old and new Porsches to attend but they underestimated the Porsche Club of Great Britain who rose to the challenge with a will and now the parade is oversubscribed.

The Special Edition will be formally announced at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in September at which point the car will go on sale although it is expected to be sold out long before that.

The anniversary model is based on the 911 Carrera S with rear-wheel drive and 395bhp from the flat-six engine. The car will have the wider body that features on the four-wheel drive version. Dynamic cornering lights, specially tuned PASM suspension and a ‘music to the ears’ sports exhaust are all standard.

With the manual gearbox the lucky owners can expect to do the traffic light sprint to 62mph in a sprightly 4.5 seconds. Specify the PDK auto and that drops to 4.3 seconds. Economy should be around 29mpg for the former and 32mpg for the latter.

Special 20-inch wheels are a visual tribute to the legendary “Fuchs” wheels and are finished in matte black paint with machine-polished centres. Chrome trim embellishes the front air inlets, the fins of the engine compartment grille and the panel between the rear lights to emphasize the distinctive appearance of this edition.

Also standard on the 50 year Special are a limited-slip diff with torque vectoring, bi-xenon headlights and electrically adjustable seat amongst other delights. Inside there’s detailing that pays homage to those early days. The seat fabric will remind older Porsche enthusiasts of the original tartan design and - a nice touch - the dials are finished in green with white needles.

It’s amazing that Porsche manages to squeeze so many alternatives and changes into a car where the updates and modifications move at a glacial pace. Nevertheless it is so and the automotive world is the better for it.