Best Porsche cars ever: Porsche 911 Millionth

This is the first water-cooled, modern 911 to make our list of significant cars that Porsche brought along to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in its 75th year. It won’t be the last, either, because along with 75 years of Porsche, this is the 60th year of the 911. 

Vintage 911s, a few racers aside, were notably absent from Porsche’s official line-up, although this one-off model does a fine job of linking modern 911s to those that preceded it. Significantly, it’s the millionth 911 ever produced, so Porsche’s Exclusive department went out of its way to honour the seven generations spanning five decades – remember the millionth example was created in 2017 – of this most incredible, enduring sports-car icon.

With around 70 per cent of 911s ever built remaining on the road, a good number of which can be seen parked in and around the Goodwood event, the 911 has stubbornly remained wedded to a formula that is outdated, featuring not only a rear-mounted engine, but one with a flat-six layout. Porsche’s defiant engineering talent has refined it, so the modern 911 really can be anything to everybody, just like the first car was. It’s little wonder then that, in all the years since those originals, Porsche has built so many of them. 

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That total production figure is well over one million now, which is an incredible number for a sports car, with this special built from a 991-series 911 being of a generation that’s since been replaced by the current 992 – such is the relentless march of time and proliferation of 911s. Porsche’s celebratory millionth car was pulled off the production line and sprinkled with some Exclusive-department magic that evokes the earliest cars. It is Irish Green because it’s reminiscent of Ferry Porsche’s original 911, with that shade being his favourite colour.

The centre of the sports wheel features the company’s crest from 1964, while the rim is finished in wood. There are mahogany accents in the switch panel, and the houndstooth cloth, the gold Porsche 911 badging on the engine cover and the white Porsche script on the black brake calipers, situated behind wheels that pay homage to the classic Fuchs five-spoke alloys, are all synonymous with the 911. 

It is subtle in its execution, the Millionth car being correctly simple, a mix of contemporary modernity with retrospective reverence and utterly representative of what the 911 is, was and can be. It’s not the first occasion I’ve driven it, and I’m conscious that the last time I did, it nearly ended up rolling away and into a ditch after I forgot to engage the electronic parking brake. With that experience tattooed on my memory, it’s not a mistake I’ll be making again, and there are no such concerns this time.

Based on a Carrera S, with Powerkit installed, the turbocharged 3.0-litre flat-six slung out back boasts 450bhp and here it’s linked to a manual transmission. It is, like every 911, uniquely interesting to drive and special, more so because this one so obviously celebrates all those versions that preceded it. It’s a remarkable car, celebrating a remarkable milestone; it’ll be fascinating to see just what the two-millionth 911 will be like, although knowing Porsche, it’s a certainty it’ll be immediately recognisable as such.