Porsche 911 964 Carrera 4
Remember that moment back in the 1980s and 1990s when Porsche purists collectively turned up their noses at the 964? Too modern, too much electronics, not enough of a 'real' 911. The air conditioning that finally worked, the ABS, the power steering: heresy to the men who believed a 911 only earned the name if it tried to fling you into the hedgerow at the first wet corner.
And look at it now. That very 964 has grown into the pivot point of the entire 911 story. The last generation with the classic lines, but with the engineering to actually use it every single day. Put differently: the 964 is the 911 with which Porsche finally grew up, without surrendering its character.
I have always had a soft spot for those transitional cars. The models standing with one foot in the past and the other in the future. The 964 is the textbook example. Beneath that timeless rump still sits the 3.6 litre air-cooled boxer, good for 250 bhp, and that sound, that unmistakable air-cooled rasp that swells slowly into a BWWWAAAAAH as you chase it past four thousand revs, you will never get that back from any modern turbo-Porsche.
This is the sound people buy season tickets to hear. And to think you get to conduct that symphony yourself with the manual G6400 gearbox. No paddles, no dual clutch that reckons it knows better than you do. Just you, your left foot and a gear lever.
Right, back to the car in question. The 964 offered here is from 1993, finished in Indischrot, and that is precisely the colour in which a 911 from this era belongs. Not yet another black or silver example you bump into three times at every Porsche meet, but a deep, punchy red that catches the rounded shapes of the 964 in exactly the right way.
Inside you will find leather, four seats (the rear two of which, as always with a 911, are best suited to shopping bags or children you are not particularly fond of) and that wonderfully direct feel of a car from an age when 'connectivity' still meant the connection between your hands and the road.
And then the history, because it is a beauty. This 964 was delivered new in Italy in July 1993 by Porsche Italia in Padova, and spent the greater part of its life there. The service booklet reads like a diary: first service in June 1993 at Porsche Italia, annual services neatly stamped, original Porsche brake fluid, all the way through to the condition inspection for the extended warranty.
Somewhere around 2013 the car crossed the Alps into Germany, where it passed inspection at TÜV Rheinland and DEKRA time and again, and specialist Porsche addresses such as GT Classic Sportwagen in Essen took it under their wing. A car with a paper trail many a 964 can only dream of.
What makes this 964 so appealing is that combination of honesty and maturity. This is no trailer queen allowed out of the garage only in dry weather. This is a 911 as Porsche intended it: a car you grab on a crisp Sunday morning, one to prowl the coast road along Brighton with or press on to the Peak District, and one you reluctantly park up again at the end of the day.
The 964 is not the fastest, not the rarest and not the most expensive 911 out there. But it may well be the most complete classic 911 you would still dare to use every day. And that, dear enthusiast, is exactly what it is all about.
Granted, by today's standards 250 bhp is not a figure to bring a sports-car forum to a standstill. But anyone who has ever steered an air-cooled 911 through a corner with their own hands knows that horsepower is entirely beside the point. It is about the feel, the directness, the sound and that irreplaceable bond between man and machine. The 964 gives you all of it, and throws in as standard a grin that colours the rest of your week.
This red one is ready. The only question is who steps in now and earns it.
The last of the classic lines you would still dare to simply drive, in the finest colour ever made for it.
Notable features:
- Built in 1993, one of the last before the 993 made its entrance.
- Beautiful original colour scheme Indischrot (paint code L80K)
- 3.6 litre air-cooled boxer engine, 250 bhp
- Manual G6400 gearbox
- Leather interior, interior code LT
- Delivered new by Porsche Italia in Padova, July 1993
- Extensive service booklet with stamps from the very first service
- Later maintained by Porsche specialists in Germany (including GT Classic Sportwagen, Essen)
- Consistent TÜV and DEKRA history
- Margin scheme car
Full insight into the papers our assessment is built on. Carfax vehicle history, service documentation and paint thickness report — page by page.
