My first Porsche was a 1988 928 S4 more than 25 years ago. I have owned many different models during that time. While keeping my 997.1TT, I did a two year lease on a 2017 911. After a few days it hit me — 911’s have morphed into 928’s. I gave up the lease and stuck with my 997.1 which I still have today. When compared to my 1990 964, the 997 still looks big!!

Imagine the engine power of today stuffed into a 964 body … whoa!

 

@ThunderRolls I'm watching a car on BaT right now - a twin-plug, twin-turbo, backdated '75 S, if not a close approximation to 997TT power in a 964 body then certainly the same idea.

 

Wow!!! I’m going to look it up to see the specs.

 

As a former owner of two Euro ‘78 SCs, I agree with your evolution theory of 911 ownership.
With my 944S2 Cab, 997.1 base Carrera and current 997 GTS, I appreciated the evolution of each iteration and would be hard pressed to go back.

The air cooled Heat/AC was primitive. I had a hanging CO2 detector (from light aircraft) on my rear view mirror when using heat with windows up (and all vents wide open blowing fresh vent outside air in my. face). Factory stereo was a joke and oil leaks deeply annoying and expensive to remedy (for the day). Over 80K miles of fun in the SC, but temperamental beast with VW Beetle torsion bars and logo pedals. The floor board below them was a plank of wood. Rust was a constant worry beneath headlights, under battery and in underbody.

This evo of improvement ceased with my search for a 991.1 GTS to replace my 997 GTS as its CPO was expiring in 2018. The 7MT, parking brake switch, 4-inch wheel base extension (with no RWS to compensate) and > GT than S all convinced me to keep my 997. Fortuitous decision.

Statistics don’t lie, but in the 997/991 dimension comparison, they decieve.

Side by side on my last roadtrip;

 

If you’ve never owned or driven a 928, you just can’t completely understand the evolution of the 911

 

They realized there’s money to be made in keeping classics going. They started making new longhood parts again some time ago, and have kept up support going through the 997.

 

Yea, we’re going to have to pay up for parts moving forward. At least they’re still making them. It’s crazy how much the Porsche classic PCCM units cost haha

 

Visited a very successful early 911 restoration house last week located in Costa Mesa, CA. Some very expensive project cars in that shop.

Very nice people there. They devoted about 40 minutes of their time to showing my brother and I around their shop (we showed up unannounced.)

One of their biggest challenges - getting quality parts. (Parts availability is pretty good - but many are of poor quality / made in China.).

 

About a 1000 lb weight difference between a 1969 and 2010 911.

 

It went from a car with one two purposes to one that does it all. A lot of used sales for 997 are for weekend cars, a lot of new sales are for daily drivers. To hit their demographic it has to compete with mercedes and bmw tech wise, and i don't think all that can fit in a 3000lb car at the moment. Im sure once the tech gets more consolidated they can shrink it. Every time my friend picks up the new turbo S he orders the next one and said it best, why test drive them, they get better every generation. And to an extent he's right, comfortable, stupid fast, reasonable tech, rear steering, all the safety stuff, nasty exhaust, wheels standard at 315, and brakes PCCBs the size of a large pizza. They are hammering out the kinks with light weight glass and saving a little weight with sport tex. Theres just a big deviation from the original idea. As long as it has that shape and not a gen 1 996, it'll always be cool regardless of size.