What's in the issue

Take a cursory glance at its factory specification and the Turbo can seem like a small step forward from the 997 variants Porsche had been selling since 2005. The real advantages of a 997 Turbo run far deeper than a game of spot the difference. To the untrained eye, the six-cylinder boxer powering the wide-hipped wonder might look like the Carrera’s M96 or the bored-out M97 bolted to the back of the Carrera S, but the Turbo motor is far more exotic stock. Commonly referred to as the ‘Mezger’ (named after legendary Porsche engineering maestro, Hans Mezger, though not designed by him), the dry-sump engine shares its crankcase and basic architecture with every GT model in the 996 and 997 range and can trace its lineage back to the 911 GT1 Le Mans racer.

In the 997 Turbo, the 'Mezger' engine reached its most complete road-going expression. It combined immense strength with refined boost control, improved efficiency and everyday usability, all while retaining the underlying robustness defining its racing origins. As Porsche moved away from this architecture in later 911 Turbos — a consequence of increasingly strict emissions legislation, escalating production costs and manufacturing complications — ‘Mezger’-powered GT3s and Turbos became increasingly revered, not merely for their performance, but for the sense they represent the last era in which Porsche’s most extreme road cars were built around engines conceived with motorsport first and compromise second. In this commemorative issue of 911 & Porsche World, we celebrate twenty years of this hugely important Neunelfer.