Last of its kind

“The wide body, wider tyres and extra driven wheels build on the 911’s excellent traction to make a C4S awesomely competent”

There’s no shortage of milestones throughout the long history of Porsche road cars, but if I were pushed to pick one pivotal year it would have to be 1996. That was the year a quarter of a century ago that Porsche transitioned from the past to the future, securing its survival and laying the foundations for today’s success.

In the fallow years prior, Porsche sales had withered to just 12,500 units at the time of the 993-era 911’s introduction in 1993. In the success that followed, the new Boxster was joined by a radically redesigned water-cooled 911 and, later, the Cayenne SUV. But for a brief period from 1996 (and yes, a short while after), past and future co-existed in the shape of new sports cars that represented the start and the end of their respective eras – the all-new Boxster effectively blooding the 911’s water-cooled future, and the new 993 Carrera 4S arriving as a run-out special to mark the beginning of the end