From under-the-radar collector status to realistic daily-drive prospect, the G-Series is the air-cooled 911 of the moment. As it hits its 50th anniversary, Porsche authoritySteve Bennetttells us why
The Porsche 911’s endurance in production is part of its continuing appeal. There always seems to be a significant date or anniversary to mark. Look away now if such things make you feel old, but this one definitely deserves recognition because 2024 is the 50th birthday of the G-Series. The 911 had already been 11 years in production, yet this ‘impact bumper’ generation was the first significant styling and engineering revamp since launch, albeit an enforced one.
The period 1973 to 1974 was a traumatic one for sports cars. American safety and pollution-busting legislation meant a hefty aesthetic blow from the ‘ugly stick’ combined with a double-whammy drop in performance. Previously elegant and svelte designs grew unattractive appendages front and rear. Think MGB, Fiat 124 Spider, X1/9. And, of course, the 911 didn’t escape either.
Predictably, perhaps, Porsche executed and integrated its response rather more sympathetically. So much so that the G-Series cars it ushered in lasted from ’74 to ’89 – fully 15 years with no significant styling changes. The similarly imposed drop in performance was also soon negated with the introduction of Bosch fuel injection systems, which wrung the absolute max from the fuel and air mix.
Perhaps fittingly, it’s fair to say that the US-market machines never truly caught up, hobbled by catalytic converters and fuel as weak as Budweiser. Yet this sort of stuff was becoming ever-more important and Porsche saw it as a point of principle to improve fuel economy and efficiency. As the G-Series cars became faster, with each new model they became increasingly abstemious, too.
And that still matters, although it’s not really the point of this gathering. Today, the G-Series represents the classic 911 market in its broadest and most usable sense. It’s where the majority of 911 junkies congregate, to take advantage of a still-plentiful supply of cars, prices and mileages that encourage use, yet with a tangible connection to the purist pre-1974 cars, unlike the later air-cooled 964 and 993.
So, what have we got? Well, the full gamut of naturally aspirated 911s, from the rare-groove 1974 Carrera 2.7 MFI (Mechanical Fuel Injection) to the end of G-Series life: the Carrera 3.2. In-between come the 3.0-litre duo of Carrera 3.0 and 911 SC. That’s
