Porsche 911

Our verdict

Still the benchmark against which manufacturers and punters alike measure everything else, the Porsche 911 is the quintessential sports car of yesterday, today and most likely tomorrow too. Ubiquitous it may be, but there’s a good reason for that.

Comfort

Despite being smaller than your average high-end sportscar, the 911 is superbly packaged. It feels far more spacious than you'd give it credit for from the kerbside, and rides smoothly and noiselessly at ridiculous speeds.

Performance

The standard Carerra is fairly rapid, the ‘S' just about spot on. The Turbo would be as close to insanity as a 911 could get if it weren't for the GT2. So take a Carrera S and a GT2, rub them together and you get a GT3; the perfect performance Porsche.

Cool

In the grand British tradition of thinly veiled envy, anyone seen driving a 911 is treated with utter contempt by all other road users. The 911 is a cool car. We all know that. But we also accept that if you drive one you will be regarded as a tosser.

Quality

Although the interior touch points are not what they were on the air-cooled cars, the modern 911 is still beautifully built and able to rack up ridiculous mileage without showing a trace of wear and tear.

Handling

After three decades of seemingly inexplicable end-swapping, the 911 is now an extremely compliant, planted and predictable creature. Combine this with truly sublime steering and you have one of the finest set-ups available.

Practicality

The 911 is an icon of impracticality; the car the divorcee buys when he no longer has the kids to worry about. There's a reasonable amount of load space if you include the useless rear seats, but it's all split up and fairly inaccessible.

Running costs

It costs an absolute bomb to buy, insure and fuel a 911. And if you so much as scrape it, it'll cost another bomb (so by now a bombardment if you will) to get it patched up. Go in carefully with very deep pockets.