S P E C I A L     :     C L A S S I C       C  A  R  S

When we hear the word Porsche, three adjectives immediately spring to mind: air-cooled, rear-engined, and flat-six.  With the advent of the latest Porsche products, each of these trademark characteristics has come under assault.  Noise and emissions regulations have led to water-cooled engines, the Boxster has its engine in the middle of the chassis, and the upcoming Cayenne will be powered by a V8 engine.  Hey, the Cayenne is even an SUV, for crying out loud!  To those who might wonder what a Porsche truly is, to what the brand really stands for, they should go back in time, just a few years to the last of the “true” Porsches, the previous 911, codenamed 993. 

For starters, the 993’s exterior shape be can traced directly back to the very first Porsche, 1948’s Model 356.  The round headlamps leading to pronounced fenders, the upright windshield, bulging haunches and sharply sloping rear: these are unmistakably Porsche. Unlike exotic Italian machinery, where style is given equal billing as function, the Porsche shape has no pretensions: all the curves are there to house the machinery underneath. 

What machinery that is, too.  With this car, examination must start at the back.  There, overhanging the rear wheels, resides the 3.6-liter flat-six engine.  Lifting the cover reveals no ostentatious cam covers, or orderly rows of injectors.  In fact, it looks like a jumble of tubes, hoses and wire harnesses.  One striking detail is the large cooling fan.  With no water jacketing the engine block and thus no radiator, the cooling fan is all that prevents the engine from melting into one fused block of aluminum. That, and 12 liters of synthetic motor oil. 

Insert the key to the left of the steering wheel; twist it and the boxer engine fires up with an eager, jackhammer rhythm.  It quickly settles into a pleasant idle, its sound originating distinctly far behind the driver’s head.  In another example of a bygone era, the pedals are not directly in front of the driver, but moved slightly to the center to clear the bulge from the front wheel.  Moreover, the pedals are floor-hinged; pressing one means that you depress the top of the pedal, not the usual bottom.  The clutch is firm but not stiff, and lacks any sort of sponginess.  Press it, grab the ball-topped shifter, slot decisively into first gear, and let out the clutch.  The clutch doesn’t engage for the first few mm of release, then it grabs commandingly, and suddenly you feel the torque of the engine.

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