RallyJon

Because of how it gets distorted and spun by haters?

I think everyone can agree that modernization can be a good thing. I, for one, appreciate that you can bolt on a replacement fender and have it fit. Is a 356 somehow better because each body was hand finished and effectively unique?

The question becomes, when does production automation stop adding quality and start changing the character of a car for the worse? A 356 owner may have a very different opinion, but for the 911, it's pretty clear that the 993 is the last of the breed. It still blows my mind just how much there is in common between my 993 and my old 1971 911. Amazing that they had just the right touch. Changes made for the better, yet the soul remains the same.

There's an old Excellence article from 1994 talking about everything they refined and improved for the 993. Stuff like cutting grams off of pistons and redesigning the crank to eliminate the counterweight. All within the parameters that make the car the best possible, yet still a soul mate with the original 911. Amazing.

I keep using the word soul, and that's really what these cars are all about.

mrsullivan

it's not a matter of being sensitive, it's a matter of wanting to see/discuss facts and figures vs. dramatic tales from a land far away in a building that none of us were in a decade ago...

it's like me coming over to the 964 board and claiming that it is similar to the 996... that the two are similar "undesireable" chapters in Porsche history... and that prices and market and expert testimony in books would indicate the same... I may believe or perceive that to be true, but I dont really have any hard facts to support it, so I dont make the assertion (oh wait a minute, maybe i just did )

it's a web board so anyone can say anything they want... its nothing personal... but we do have an equal opportunity to respond with our opinions too...

Tippy

I am loving this debate, brings out emotions in everyone who owns one, says a lot to me in a way.

All I want is to have the same feeling of being a car with heart like I did in the '84 and my friends '87 if I get a 993.

mrsullivan

you can take the 35 minute flight to dallas and come drive mine if you want

Tippy

I was just in Weatherford looking at the '84 this past Sunday, danggit. I appreciate the offer, may have to take you up sometime, but I may own one by then.

jimbo3

Have a '96 C2 (the one in my sig) sitting in the garage here in SA around Bitters/Huebner, if you'd like to take a closer look. If it would stop raining, you'd be welcome to take a spin around the the area.

-Jim

fpena944

I've been following this thread and thought I remembered seeing something about when automation took place from an old magazine article I have in my library. Well I just found it and it's from a Road & Track magazine I purchased all the way back in January 1990. (I kept it after all these years because they have the introductory test drive for my S2 Cabrio)

Anyway in the magazine is a review of the 911 C2 which states the following : "Apart from the Carrera 2 script on the engine compartment lid, it is externally indistinguishable from its 4wd brother. And the new car is built from Porsche's now traditional corrosion-defeating zinc-coated steel on the same highly automated production lines of the all-new body shop in Zuffenhausen."

Since they did specifically mention body shop perhaps the rest was hand-built? But it does seem like there was some automation that took place even during the production of the 964s.

Tippy

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