Cars You Should Know: Porsche

After years of working on engineering projects and automotive innovations for other companies (including creating the original Volkswagen Beetle), Ferdinand Porsche unleashed his first sports car, the hand-built 356, into the world in 1948. A few years after that came the classic Porsche 911, which has evolved since debuting in 1964 but remains one of the most highly desired sports cars on earth. Other models like the Boxster, 918 and Taycan have reinforced Porsche’s reputation of being among the best car manufacturers ever.

Porsche holds a very special place in the Hagerty heart. CEO McKeel Hagerty, son of founders Frank and Louise Hagerty, purchased his first car at age 14—a 1967 Porsche 911S. McKeel paid $500 for the fixer-upper which he and his father pulled out of a snowbank and restored together over the next several years in the family garage. McKeel still owns and drives the car today—he says he’ll never sell it. Hear the whole story in this Why I Drive episode filmed in 2020.

And it appears that Hagerty members have a lot of love for Porsche as well. It’s the third most popular brand (after Chevrolet and Ford) by quote count here at Hagerty. Let’s take a closer look at this month’s Cars You Should Know.

356

The 356 is Porsche’s first car, which it launched in 1948. From the beginning, Porsche instituted a practice of selling their cars in a variety of configurations and making continual improvements each year. The 356 had its air-cooled 4-cylinder engine at the back of the car because it was based on the Volkswagen design. The original 356 is a light-weight, nimble sportscar that is immediately recognizable with its divided, two-part windshield. The 356 is known as a light-weight, nimble sports car that still turns heads over 75 years after its debut.

911 Air-cooled

First launched in 1964, the 911 was the second road car offered by Porsche and introduced an air-cooled 6-cylinder engine. Across seven generations of cars in constant production since 1964, the 911 model is probably what you picture when you think of Porsche. The model initially started its existence as the 901, but thanks to some potential litigation from Peugeot (who “owned” three-digit model numbers with a zero in the middle) Porsche bumped it up to 911 and automotive history was made.

911 Water-cooled

For the 1999 model year, Porsche made a big change: The 911 lost its distinctive air-cooled engine and moved to water-cooling. When Porsche switched gears, they also updated the styling to be more in line with its popular Boxster model (a move of varying popularity among Porschephiles). Since then, there’s been near-constant enhancements year over year to the engineering, the aerodynamics and the look of the 911.

944

The 944 is based on the body of the Porsche 924 but features distinctively wider wheel arches and other design changes. Sold from 1982-91, the 944 is an entry-level front-engine, water-cooled 4-cylinder sports car. It was a joint project that started with Volkswagen, but included VW’s subsidiary Audi, who built the cars. Today the 944 appears to be a favorite among younger enthusiasts—more on that later.

Forgotten classic: 914

The 1970-76 Porsche 914 was developed in the 1960s as a joint project between Volkswagen and Porsche as an entry-level sports car. It utilized an air-cooled 4-cylinder engine from Volkswagen, placed in the middle (where the rear seats would have been), and featured a design with more straight lines than the typical Porsche or Volkswagen. More recently it has been characterized as a mid-century modern sports car.

Do a deeper dive

Porsche: Who's quoting what?

Porsche: Vehicle valuation trends