"Oh Lord why won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches I must make amends"
I will preface this by saying I do love a nice Porsche 911, I even love some nasty ones.
Porsche 911s are expensive. This is a fact. Not just relatively expensive in comparison to say a dishwasher. No. Porsche 911s are expensive for what you get. A Beetle in a dress, you can add another cylinder, and spend 40 years playing around with the weight distribution, but you've got a Beetle in a dress. The only exceptions come at the top top top end of the Porsche range where they have basically back engineered their race car for road use, in the case of the Kremer cars quite literally. Let us in that case pretend for the time being that the 930 doesn't exist, or at least let us shelve it until the end of this post.
What are the alternatives to the Porsche 911? I don't mean now. I don't mean "I've got £35k to spend on a classic, what can I get other than a Beetle in a dress?". I mean what, in period, over the long long life span of the car were the alternatives?
The Porsche 911 is not a sports car, or a coupe (well it is, but...). the Porsche 911 is a GT, a Grand Tourer. This puts it in the same class of car as the Ford Capri, and a Facel Vega.
Capri
To Facel Vega
Given the long life span of the Porsche 911 shape, I figured you could look at 60's, 70's, 80's and early 90's a car for each decade.
For the 60's Porsche actually have a nice alternative to the 911 (and 912) the original Beetle in a pretty frock
Although a nicely turned out early Karmann Ghia gives it a run for its money, at a lot less spendy
For something not based on the same basic layout, or floor pan
Alfa GTV, just a wonderful wonderful car
Strap on your disco boots, it is time for the 70's
Porsche/VW also have a great alternative to the 911, which sadly didn't catch as many people's imagination
By reputation the 914-6 is a better drivers car than the similar era 911. Now days even the humble 4 cylinder 914 can be given a boot up the backside courtesy of the strong VW tuning scene.
However to avoid more Porsches, it has to be the sublime BMW 3.0CS
You can even go top end Porsche baiting with the CSL if you are a bit more spendy
Red braces and ... well ... Porsches at the ready, it is the 1980's
The Porsche alternative to the 911? .. the 928 of course. The shape of things for the marque, and finally they solved the problems inherent in the 911 layout and chassis. They put it in a skip and started again.
But what of the alternatives? I'm going to go with the Mercedes 500SEC on this one
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Get your plaid shirts out, or maybe your glow sticks... it's the 1990's
Porsche continued to evolve both the 911 and the 928, ultimately ending the 928 with S4 GTS, which fetches strong money now, before accepting that no one was interested in a car that didn't sort of look like a 911, so they made the Boxster and Caymen, neither of which we care about at the moment because they are far too new.
So no Porsche alternative in the GT class. Then again who would bother building anything any more, the game had been won. Those sneaky Japanese, right at the end of the 80's dropped this on the world
Everyone packed up and went home... the end.
They are my picks... what have you got as alternative to the Porsche 911 through the ages?
A note on the 930, or more precisely the 935. The Porsche 935 is my favourite Porsche ever, it irons out all the potential issues with the layout and structure of the chassis by doing what they did in the 80's with the 928. It won a lot of races and secured the legend of the Porsche 911 as one of the ultimate race machines. I suspect it is a bit disingenuous though. It would be like saying your povo spec 3dr Sierra had fantastic race heritage because the RS500 smashed touring cars. Or maybe more precisely, because the dominant 935 K1,2,3 and 4 were all tubular chassis and a little bit of roof line from the original car, it would be like saying your Renault Laguna is the same as the car that Alain Menu drove to victory. It shares a bit of the roof line and maybe an engine component or two.
I will preface this by saying I do love a nice Porsche 911, I even love some nasty ones.
Porsche 911s are expensive. This is a fact. Not just relatively expensive in comparison to say a dishwasher. No. Porsche 911s are expensive for what you get. A Beetle in a dress, you can add another cylinder, and spend 40 years playing around with the weight distribution, but you've got a Beetle in a dress. The only exceptions come at the top top top end of the Porsche range where they have basically back engineered their race car for road use, in the case of the Kremer cars quite literally. Let us in that case pretend for the time being that the 930 doesn't exist, or at least let us shelve it until the end of this post.
What are the alternatives to the Porsche 911? I don't mean now. I don't mean "I've got £35k to spend on a classic, what can I get other than a Beetle in a dress?". I mean what, in period, over the long long life span of the car were the alternatives?
The Porsche 911 is not a sports car, or a coupe (well it is, but...). the Porsche 911 is a GT, a Grand Tourer. This puts it in the same class of car as the Ford Capri, and a Facel Vega.
Capri
To Facel Vega
Given the long life span of the Porsche 911 shape, I figured you could look at 60's, 70's, 80's and early 90's a car for each decade.
For the 60's Porsche actually have a nice alternative to the 911 (and 912) the original Beetle in a pretty frock
Although a nicely turned out early Karmann Ghia gives it a run for its money, at a lot less spendy
For something not based on the same basic layout, or floor pan
Alfa GTV, just a wonderful wonderful car
Strap on your disco boots, it is time for the 70's
Porsche/VW also have a great alternative to the 911, which sadly didn't catch as many people's imagination
By reputation the 914-6 is a better drivers car than the similar era 911. Now days even the humble 4 cylinder 914 can be given a boot up the backside courtesy of the strong VW tuning scene.
However to avoid more Porsches, it has to be the sublime BMW 3.0CS
You can even go top end Porsche baiting with the CSL if you are a bit more spendy
Red braces and ... well ... Porsches at the ready, it is the 1980's
The Porsche alternative to the 911? .. the 928 of course. The shape of things for the marque, and finally they solved the problems inherent in the 911 layout and chassis. They put it in a skip and started again.
But what of the alternatives? I'm going to go with the Mercedes 500SEC on this one
Get your plaid shirts out, or maybe your glow sticks... it's the 1990's
Porsche continued to evolve both the 911 and the 928, ultimately ending the 928 with S4 GTS, which fetches strong money now, before accepting that no one was interested in a car that didn't sort of look like a 911, so they made the Boxster and Caymen, neither of which we care about at the moment because they are far too new.
So no Porsche alternative in the GT class. Then again who would bother building anything any more, the game had been won. Those sneaky Japanese, right at the end of the 80's dropped this on the world
Everyone packed up and went home... the end.
They are my picks... what have you got as alternative to the Porsche 911 through the ages?
A note on the 930, or more precisely the 935. The Porsche 935 is my favourite Porsche ever, it irons out all the potential issues with the layout and structure of the chassis by doing what they did in the 80's with the 928. It won a lot of races and secured the legend of the Porsche 911 as one of the ultimate race machines. I suspect it is a bit disingenuous though. It would be like saying your povo spec 3dr Sierra had fantastic race heritage because the RS500 smashed touring cars. Or maybe more precisely, because the dominant 935 K1,2,3 and 4 were all tubular chassis and a little bit of roof line from the original car, it would be like saying your Renault Laguna is the same as the car that Alain Menu drove to victory. It shares a bit of the roof line and maybe an engine component or two.
