In an age where automatic transmissions, electric powertrains and autonomous driving are at risk of killing the sports car for good, there are still a resilient few who continue to focus on and produce classic sports cars.
Of course, in 2022 the sports car is no longer like the one it was in 1960, but Porsche have tried to get as close as they can with the 2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic.
It’s a reinterpretation of classic cars like the 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7 with a few surprises along the way – we take a look at the Sport Classic in a little more detail.
The Porsche 911 Sport Classic Sticks To Its Guns And Brings A Stick
This car is a Porsche 911 Turbo 992 which is then taken back to the drawing board to see how it could be made a little more special.
Porsche wanted to evoke sensations and memories of Porsche 911s of old, but a simple restyle and unique paint wouldn’t cut it – so they gave us this: the fastest manual-transmission Porsche 911, but there is another surprise.
It is also rear-wheel-drive, creating a retro-feeling car devoid of all the electronic help of an automatic box or torque vectoring and massive grip in all situations; it’s not back-to-basics simple, but it’s an appealing concept in 2022.
Power is up at 542 hp with 442 lb-ft of torque and the car is thus less powerful than the standard 911 Turbo, but what it loses in power and ability it should make up for in an authentic and involving drive with less electronic intervention to step in.
Porsche Hopes To Evoke Memories Of The 1972 911 Carrera RS 2.7
With no four-wheel-drive and superfast transmission, the car will already feel a little rawer, a little more special; if that’s your thing.
It should be your thing too, because the rest of the car is designed to look like fast 911s of old, with a ‘wide body’ and ducktail spoiler, plus a double-bubble roof and new colors.
On those new colors – according to Porsche:
“The new 911 Sport Classic is the first vehicle to feature Sport Gray Metallic paintwork. Gray is never boring, quite often a statement and always cool.
As an alternative to the exclusive Sport Gray Metallic finish, the new 911 Sport Classic is also available in solid Black, Agate Gray Metallic, Gentian Blue Metallic or Paint to Sample.
Twin stripes painted on the bonnet, roof and rear spoiler in light Sports Gray emphasizes the car’s sporty design”. (Michael Mauer, Vice President, Style Porsche).
This Is One Part Of A Sales And Marketing Strategy From Porsche
The 2023 911 Sport Classic is the second of 4 planned special-edition heritage 911-based models; the first being the “911 Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition with design elements from the 1950s and 1960s”.
That car looked awesome and from the outside with its 60s-racer-inspired colors and numbers; at least seemed to look like something from decades ago, with all the modern underpinnings making it infinitely easier to live with.
In the new car, the Pepita cloth on the seat and door cards looks great with the brown leather and there will surely be a lot of wealthy takers for this new model which feels very refined and ‘grown-up’.
With production supposedly limited to 1250 units, this new 911 heritage edition will presumably sell-out extremely-quickly, just as fast as its 3.7-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine allows it to accelerate.
Remembering The Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7: Inspiration For 2022
Porsche’s 911 Sport Classic spiritually comes all the way from the classic 911s of the 60s, where the subsequent 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 signaled a new era of performance with its 2.7-liter 6-cylinder boxer engine and more than 200 hp and 188 lb-ft of torque.
The vintage 911 was rear-wheel-drive, manual and sported that classic ‘whale-tail’ rear spoiler, which is where Stuttgart got a fair share of its inspiration for the latest and greatest 911 Sport Classic.
The old Carrera RS 2.7 was much lighter than today’s car – under 2400 lbs – and until the arrival of the 3-liter cars and the mighty 911 Turbo (930) was the flagship model.
Although the new 911 Sport Classic is not the flagship Porsche, it is possibly the purest Porsche: taking into account its performance, coupled with a relatively-simple powertrain and throwback styling details.
It’s unlikely we will get to drive one, but this car would be pretty high on our list of most desirable sports cars in 2022.
Source: Porsche
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