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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The Porsche is a luxury two-door sports coupe made by Porsche of Stuttgart, Germany.
It has a distinctive design, rear-engined and with independent rear suspension, an evolution of the swing axle on the Porsche 356.
The engine was also air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998. Since its introduction on September 11, 1963, it has undergone continuous development, though the basic concept has remained little changed.
With its 50 year anniversary approaching, let's take a look at the iconic car over the ages.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The Porsche 911 was developed as a much more powerful, larger, more comfortable replacement for the Porsche 356, the company's first model, and essentially a sporting evolution of the Volkswagen Beetle.
The new car made its public debut at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
It was initially designated as the "Porsche 901", after its internal project number. However, Peugeot protested on the grounds that in France it had exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
So, instead of selling the new model with another name in France, Porsche changed the name to 911. It went on sale in 1964.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
In 1974, Porsche introduced the first production turbocharged 911. Although called simply Porsche 911 Turbo in Europe, it was marketed as Porsche 930 (930 being its internal type number) in North America.
The body shape is distinctive, thanks to wide wheel-arches to accommodate the wide tyres, and a large rear spoiler often known as a "whale tail" on the early cars, and "tea-tray" on the later ones.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
Production figures of the car soon qualified its racing version for FIA Group 4 competition as the Porsche 934 of 1976.
Many participated at Le Mans and other races including some epic battles with the BMW 3.0 CSL "Batmobile".
The wilder Porsche 935, a finer tuned car in FIA Group 5 and evolved from the 2.1 L RSR Turbo of 1974, was campaigned in 1976 by the factory and won Le Mans in 1979.
Private teams continued to compete successfully with the car until well into the 1980s.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
As demand for the Turbo soared in the late 1980s, Porsche introduced novelty variants including a slant-nose version (option M505/M506), while not significantly improving the range mechanically.
Although these cars could be sold for extraordinary premiums over the standard models, the company's reluctance to invest in research and development of the entire 911 line at that time turned out to be an almost fatal decision not only for the 911, but for the company.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
Only in 1989, its last year of production, was the 930 equipped with a five-speed gearbox. The 930 was replaced in 1990 with a 964 version featuring the same 3.3 L engine.
There have been turbocharged variants of each subsequent generation of 911.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The Porche 964 was quite similar, both on the outside as well as mechanically, to to the original Porche 930.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
In 1993, the 911 underwent its biggest change yet as the 964 went away and the 993 took over. A more aerodynamic body with smaller, angled headlamps and narrow rear lights were the key differences, according to Business Insider.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
Porche GT2 were built to meet the GT2 class regulations and the road cars were named accordingly. The 993 GT2 featured widened plastic fenders and a larger rear wing with air scoops in the struts.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
In 1999, the 993-generation 911 was replaced with the new 996 model. It would be two years before a new GT2 model would arrive; during that time, Porsche decided to abandon the GT2 for motorsports use, instead concentrating on the new naturally aspirated 911 GT3.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
Based on road testing, the GT2 suffers from hardly any turbo lag. The 996 also saw change in design of headlights.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The Porsche 996 GT2 was superseded by the 997 GT2 in 2007 after a brief hiatus, with cars arriving at dealerships in November after an official launch at the 62nd Frankfurt Motor Show.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The 911 GT3 RS, one of Porsche's most popular, coveted and successful track-inspired production cars, has been given a final, thrilling injection of thoroughbred motorsport technology resulting in the 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0.
Limited to 600 vehicles worldwide, the 911 GT3 RS 4.0 brings together in a sports car the attributes that have made the Porsche 911 GT3 a consistent winner on the race track.
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Brilliance of sportscar Porche 911
The Porsche 991 is the internal designation for the sixth generation Porsche 911 which was unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show on 15 September as the replacement for the 997.
In line with tradition, the 911 launces in two variants: Carrera and Carrera S.