Porsche 911

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 the new '991' rides smoothly and noiselessly at ridiculous speeds, even on rutted tarmac.

  

• Performance

  The base 911 gets a 3.4-litre flat-six with 350bhp that, equipped with Porsche's double-clutch PDK ‘box, sprints from 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds. That's precisely 0.1 seconds quicker than before. The Carrera S gets the ‘familiar' 3.8-litre boxer engine with 400bhp, and mated to the PDK gearbox hits 62mph in 4.3 seconds. Both times drop even more with the optional Sport Chrono Pack: 4.4s for the Carrera, 4.1s for the S.

  

• 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

  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.