I have driven just about every iteration of the 911 theme, including the force-fed models. One and two turbochargers.

I owned a shop for a few years. And have some friends with decent disposable incomes. 911s are a maintanence nightmare (but good for the shop bottom line). 928s, 944s, 951s, Peppers, require far less M&R per mile driven.

Don’t have the article handy, but even in print, Porsche spokesfolks have admittted years ago that the 911 is very expensive to keep viable – lousy powerplant for emmissions (and performance), lousy location of said plant for safety testing. Most important, it’s sales figures have not justified it’s existance for a long, long time.

If today is like most others, just driving around I’ll see a few Cayennes, a few Boxters, a Cayman or two, and a couple of 944s. Maybe one 911. Maybe. Odds are it’ll have a dealer plate on it.

928 was a tough sell internally from jump street. The first in-house Porsche. Porsche isn’t GM, where the problem children that understand product get sent to the skunkworks to create the C6 Vette off budget. Porsche is a tight little company and the internal 911 cult made sure that Cayman is still underpowered to this minute. Why? Because it would show that the emporer 911 is nekkid as a jaybird.

If you like the looks of the 911, great. But the layout sucks and if you want a fast car that doesn’t require Cray-1 levels of computing to keep it on the road, upgrade a Boxter/Cayman.

Antone: For the price of a Toyota, there is a nice 964, 3.2 Carrera, or SC out there with your name on it. Just ask a local Porsche Club member to help you out.

Porschespeed: “the old guard” tried to kill the 911 in the 1970’s with the 928. The customers killed the 928 and forced Porsche to improve the 911.

In an auto world where differences have diminished among cars, a Porsche is fun to drive because it is different. If you believe it is obsolete, then there are plenty of other fine front or mid-engine cars out there to choose from.

Rant over…

Unfortunately, Porsche has some of the highest resale values out there. And a rear main seal that falls out of anything that isn’t a GT2, GT3 or Turbo.

The 911 was obsolete the first day it was produced.

The old man was still alive 31 years ago. He is no longer. There are still a few of his ‘911 faithful’ in the system.

When they go, so does the 911 – at least in the stone-age, flat-six, rear engine configuration.

There’s a reason Porsche hasn’t built another car like the 911 since they started doing clean-sheet cars.

“At least until the last of the old guard finally dies off at Porsche. Then the 911 line will be shut down permanently.”

I think Porsche had the same discussion about the obsolete 911, oh, about 35 years ago.

At least until the last of the old guard finally dies off at Porsche. Then the 911 line will be shut down permanently.

Rant over…