Ray Ho – 09/03/2022
When you hear of the term wide body. What is the first thing you think of? Yeah we can probably have a good discussion on the human body some other time but today we are talking about Porsche 911s.
First of all, you can’t really talk about Porsche bodies without mentioning one of the more iconic body style known as the G-body. The G-body refers to the 2nd generation (1974 – 1989) of the legendary 911 sports car. This generation Porsche internal model designation is the 930. I am sure you hear of the infamous 930 Turbo aka “The Widow Maker”.
The subsequent Porsche internal models are the 964, 993, 996, 997, 991 and 992 being the current model. 911 owners and Porschephiles alike would almost always refer to these internal model numbers instead of 911. You may hear phases like “My 993 is the best”, “Your 996 headlights look like fried eggs” or “The 991 is getting too big”. Then there is the dot 1 dot 2 designations (i.e. 996.1, 996.2) with dot 2 being the mid cycle refreshed model. Note sometimes the refresh model updates are very significant such as a complete different engine design in the 997.2. I know you are good with numbers and probably wondering why the number dropped from 997 to 991. I don’t have the answer but it will be interesting to see what Porsche will use next: 994? 998? 999? 990? 99A? Perhaps we should check the Vegas books on that one.
Alright let’s not get carried away with model numbers and get back to the body type discussion. Besides the aforementioned G-body, there is the Cabriolet (aka convertible), the Speedster (fancy convertible with a much less user friendly top), the Targa (seems safer than a convertible), the long nose (1st gen 911 with long hood before the mandatory impact bumpers), the narrow body (any car that is not a wide body – these are mostly base models plus some track oriented models like the GT3), and the mean looking wide bodies. Wide body cars were typically reserved for models with the more powerful engine cars as in the S (Sports) and Turbo models. However, that changed with the latest 992 generation where they all come with wide bodies ….. just like more and more human bodies. So anybody have any questions?
The Cars And I 