What's in the issue

This year marks the Boxster’s thirtieth anniversary. Credited with being the car saving Porsche’s bacon at a time the firm was looking decidedly fragile, this mid-engined roadster — a Stuttgart-crested speed machine reflecting the blueprint laid down decades earlier by the excellent 914 — sold and continues to sell in a colossal numbers. Finally, the manufacturer struck gold with the presentation of a Porsche for the masses. In one fell swoop, the company’s survival was assured.

It’s important to note the 986 wasn’t the first people’s Porsche. Indeed, hoping to extend the reach of its sales staff beyond the brand’s traditional customer base, the management team in Zuffenhausen marketed the 911 SC as a far more accessible proposition than any Porsche produced beforehand. There’s no denying this was a relatively successful exercise, but in the gamut of 911s, the SC remains relatively unloved. Too numerous, too unrefined. Even the company’s then CEO, Ernst Fuhrmann, considered the 911 on its last legs.

With Fuhrmann out the door as the 1980s pulled into view, new energy was invested in further developing the rear-engined, air-cooled, rear-drive Porsche, resulting in arrival of the Carrera 3.2 for the 1984 model year. To the layman, not much appeared to have changed — G-series styling had remained largely unaltered since its introduction ten years earlier. Indeed, at first glance, only the keenest eye would recognise differences between the SC and its successor, but in a final attempt to squeeze the G-series platform for all it was worth, many updates were introduced, culminating in a 911 broadening the appeal of Porsche ownership. Of course, when it comes to P-cars, evolutions exist within evolutions. And so it was with the Carrera 3.2, the ultimate iteration of the G-series platform and, arguably, the last 911 built in accordance with Butzi Porsche’s original concept. To highlight the changes, we’ve brought together superb examples of the early and late Carrera 3.2. Positioning the cars side-by-side, differences become clear, but which version of this air-cooled classic floats your boat?