In production since 1964, the quintessential German sports car has gone through many changes over the decades. Fuel injection was the first of those changes, followed by the KKK turbocharger that gave us the Porsche 930.
Married to the flat-six engine of the Carrera RS 3.0, the spinny little contraption gave the first-ever 911 Turbo a bit of a handful in the hands of butter-fingered customers. The way this powerplant generates peak torque, relatively short wheelbase and the rear-heavy weight distribution gave this variant a name that you may have already heard by now: the Widowmaker.
Excluding the low-production GT2 variant - which is the rear-wheel-drive sibling of the 911 Turbo with various weight-saving tricks - the 930 can be considered the grandfather of every range-topping Porsche with a license plate. Going forward, however, a big paradigm shift awaits the Neunelfer.
Porsche says that hybridization is key to the future of the 911. The mid-cycle refresh of the 992 is going to accommodate mild- and plug-in hybrid powertrains, and sometime after 2030, an electric 911 is expected to happen as well. The reason the all-electric powertrain is necessary for this particular application is Europe’s eco-friendly ambition. More to the point, the European Union wants to ban the sale of new fossil-fuel vehicles starting 2035.
Although we don’t know a single thing about the successor of the 992 series, pixel artist Matteo Gentile had a go at imagining that car with many design influences from the 930. A beautiful rendering that mixes period and modern styling cues, the pictured vehicle brings the point home with GT3-style centerlock wheels, LED exterior lighting and Michelin PS4S rubber.
The featured rendering isn’t as ridiculous as some 911 enthusiasts may think it is. There are many homebrew conversions to electric power out there, along with EV kits that include the lithium-ion battery, management system and charging system. The latest e-911 that I can think of comes from Everrati, an Oxfordshire-based company that sells turn-key electric conversions of the 964 at £250,000 ($346,200) excluding the donor vehicle.
Excluding the low-production GT2 variant - which is the rear-wheel-drive sibling of the 911 Turbo with various weight-saving tricks - the 930 can be considered the grandfather of every range-topping Porsche with a license plate. Going forward, however, a big paradigm shift awaits the Neunelfer.
Porsche says that hybridization is key to the future of the 911. The mid-cycle refresh of the 992 is going to accommodate mild- and plug-in hybrid powertrains, and sometime after 2030, an electric 911 is expected to happen as well. The reason the all-electric powertrain is necessary for this particular application is Europe’s eco-friendly ambition. More to the point, the European Union wants to ban the sale of new fossil-fuel vehicles starting 2035.
Although we don’t know a single thing about the successor of the 992 series, pixel artist Matteo Gentile had a go at imagining that car with many design influences from the 930. A beautiful rendering that mixes period and modern styling cues, the pictured vehicle brings the point home with GT3-style centerlock wheels, LED exterior lighting and Michelin PS4S rubber.
The featured rendering isn’t as ridiculous as some 911 enthusiasts may think it is. There are many homebrew conversions to electric power out there, along with EV kits that include the lithium-ion battery, management system and charging system. The latest e-911 that I can think of comes from Everrati, an Oxfordshire-based company that sells turn-key electric conversions of the 964 at £250,000 ($346,200) excluding the donor vehicle.