Cool fast cars - page 24

The Porsche 993 Speedster is a unicorn in the truest sense. I always like to note how Porsche has a 911 variant for everyone. Between the numerous powertrain, transmission, and body styles, there are well over 30 different iterations of the iconic, German sports car. There is even an off-road variant that pays homage to the 1984 Porsche 953 Dakar rally car. But by far, one of the more unique and desirable variants of the Porsche 911 is the Speedster, which at its core, is a lightweight, bare-bones variant of the 911.

Porsche’s headlights are some of the most recognizable in the automotive industry. When it comes to the 911, the German sports car manufacturer has retained the classic forms since the 1964 original. This includes the round headlamps, which were present on almost all 911 generations, except the Porsche 996, featuring the controversial, "fried-egg" headlights. Like other carmakers, Porsche went from halogen to xenon headlights and, eventually, an LED setup on all its models. It started with the 993 generation, which introduced "Litronic” technology - Porsche’s first dabble in H.I.D. tech, only to be permanently replaced by LED technology over 20 years later. As Porsche says, "Light is identity, by day as well as by night", and the German brand’s current, four-line, LED headlight pattern is recognizable almost anywhere. The four-point LED principle, as Porsche likes to call it first became a feature on range-topping models, starting with the 2009 Porsche Panamera Turbo. Since then, the four-point headlight design has evolved and was extended to other Porsche models like the Cayenne, Taycan, 918 Spyder, and even the 911.

The Porsche 911 carries one of the most iconic and recognizable designs in the automotive world. The combination of simplicity, clever engineering, performance, and relative attainability has solidified it as the ultimate, daily-drivable sports car. Classic 911s, in particular, have a fanatic cult following. They are also some of the most popular platforms to be reimagined, which is why Porsche themselves have been playing catch up. Companies like Kalmar are taking the classic, air-cooled 911 formula and infusing it with modern tech while keeping the aesthetics and overall feel as close to the original form as possible.

The Porsche Macan finally emerges as an EV for the 2025 model year. The German brand, mostly associated with high-performance sports cars, has been firmly in the SUV game since 2002. The original Cayenne turned out to be the company’s saving grace and it was only a matter of time before a smaller version of the popular 4X4 model arrived. The Macan has been the entry-level Porsche SUV since 2014, and after 10 years and two mid-cycle refreshes, the second generation is here. The new, 2025 Porsche Macan doesn’t just mean a new generation for the SUV.

Porsche has proven, on numerous occasions, that the 911 is one of the most versatile platforms. Since its introduction, in 1964, there have been countless variants of the German, rear-engine sports car, including all-terrain variants bred for rallying. Porsche offers a 911 for every taste and need, and with the 992 generation, it also brought out the 911 Dakar – a true, off-road sports car by Porsche that pays homage to the classic Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Paris-Dakar 4x4 (953) from 1984. But a US-based company has also undertaken the task of reimagining the rally-bred Porsche 911.

RUF was the first company to reimagine Porsche sports cars and it all started back in 1939. What started as Auto Ruf service garage, eventually became the first manufacturer to repair and restore Porsche sports cars, and eventually build Porsche-inspired, high-performance automobiles, under the RUF brand. The Pfaffenhausen-based company still makes Porsche-inspired models, but everything is now made in-house. Moreover, RUF is also a manufacturer of performance parts for Porsche models like the 911 and 718. One of Porsche’s most desired models from the 21st century is the Carrera GT, and it didn’t take long for RUF to come up with its own, mid-engine variant of a Porsche-based model. The RUF CTR3 is what we got, and here’s why it is the best way to get the Porsche Carrera GT experience (and more) at a fraction of the price.

For 2025, Porsche did something everybody was afraid of. Fans of the 911 were worried that electrifying the Porsche 911 would make it too complex and heavy, but what ended up happening is, Porsche schooled everyone on how to make a hybrid sports car that turned out to be quicker around the Nurburgring than a 992.1 Turbo S. That’s exactly what the 2025 Porsche 992.2 GTS achieved, so we can only expect the 992.2 Turbo S would be even more bonkers when it arrives.

Porsche purists are very particular about what you can and cannot do to a 911, especially if it is an air-cooled model. While this particular example of the German, rear-engine sports car is water-cooled, what the people at Street Bandito YouTube channel have done to it would, no doubt, irritate many Porsche enthusiasts. The Porsche 911 is considered, by many, to be the ultimate sports car that you can actually daily-drive, except maybe, the more track-focused variants like the GT3. Regardless, putting a V-8 engine, and an American one at that, into a 911’s tight engine bay is sacrilege in the eyes of the Porsche community. That said, there are certain scenarios where you could walk away with putting a pushrod V-8 engine in a Porsche 911, and this particular case comes pretty close to justifying the unusual engine swap.

Brooks Weisblat, owner of the Drag Times YouTube Channel owns some cool and fast cars. Some of these special cars in his garage include a Ferrari SF90, a McLaren 765LT Spider, and his most recent acquisition, his Guards Red Porsche Turbo S. He recently took on the legendary Tail of the Dragon mountain pass road in Tennessee, along with some of his friends. The Dragon, also known as Deals Gap, is an 11-mile world-famous stretch of road with 318 curves popular with riding and driving clubs across the world.

Currently, only two carmakers produce boxer engines – Porsche and Subaru. Normally, when you hear a six-cylinder boxer engine, the first to come to mind is the German automaker, famous for being the last brand to put an air-cooled engine in a high-performance sports car. Subaru is still sticking to flat-four engines for its models, but back in the golden era of Japanese sports cars, it introduced a six-cylinder boxer engine that could rival what Porsche had. The EG33 was the only flat-six Subaru engine to feature in a two-door coupe. It also served as a basis for future Subaru flat-six engines. In 2020, Subaru produced its last flat-six engine, but before that happened Subaru almost redefined the GT segment altogether, with a Porsche-sounding Subaru, powered by a flat-six.

Porsche promised to keep the 911 internal-combustion-powered for as long as possible, but in 2024, we were introduced to the first hybrid 911. While many Porsche fans were worried about the direction the iconic sports car took, Porsche put those trepidations to rest by schooling everyone on how to make a hybrid sports car without ruining it. Porsche was wise to keep electrification to a minimum, unlike other carmakers like Mercedes, which turned its AMG SL and AMG GT models into heavyweight bruisers in their range-topping 63 S E Performance variants. Those are now plug-in hybrids although they don’t boast a particularly high electric range – just 8 miles. Porsche decided to take a different approach with the 911, by developing an entirely new hybrid powertrain, revolving around a flat-six engine, internally dubbed the 9A3B6 engine. Here’s everything you need to know about Porsche’s clever, new T-Hybrid system.

All Porsche 911s may adhere to a similar philosophy, but each one has its set of unique features. A well-known Porsche aficionado, Magnus Walker, based in Los Angeles has made it his life’s mission to collect all model years of the Porsche 911 from 1964 to 1973, along with other sports car models of the German brand. He’s not limited to Porsche sports cars, but it is the focal point in his car collection, with over 40 models, which feature his own unique twist. As a true Porsche purist, Magnus has a soft spot for air-cooled 911s, and he started out with one of the first Porsche 930 Turbos, sold in the United States. But if you are wondering what Magnus Walker’s daily driver is, you might be surprised. It turns out, that what the famous Porsche enthusiast drives, is something even he didn’t think he would fall in love with – a modern-day 2014 Porsche 991 Turbo S, which has an interesting story behind it.