Porsche 911 50 Years Edition celebrates the 911’s half century

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The first Porsche 911 arrived in 1963, and to celebrate we’re treated to the Porsche 911 50 Years Edition, a period inspired Carrera S.

If you’d guessed how much the Porsche 911 would change in the coming years when it was first launched in 1963, there’s a pretty strong chance you’d have decided the shape would change out of all recognition and the engine would move from the back to the front. But you’d have been wrong.

The Porsche 911, perhaps more than any other car ever made, has evolved over its 50 years of life instead of being replaced by a new and ‘better’ car. The engine is still at the back and the shape is still very much an evolution of the original 911 from 1963.

But despite the cosmetic similarities, the 911 is a very different car to the one the world first saw in 1963 with a sleek – almost pretty – shape hiding advances in technology you couldn’t even have guessed at in 1963. And to celebrate the 911s Golden Anniversary, Porsche has delivered a special edition Carrera S with some nice period touches.

The 911 50 gets the Carrera S’s 3.8 litre flat six engine, but the 44mm wider rear track from the Carrera 4 and comes in a choice of Graphite Grey, Geyser Grey or black with high gloss window frames, Sport Design mirrors, a ‘911 50’ badge, chrome strips on the fins of the engine cover and, of course, a set of Fuchs 20″ alloys. Under the skin there’s a sports exhaust system, a tweaked PASM and Porsche Torque Vectoring with a limited slip diff.

Inside there are more period touches with green script on the instruments with silver-tipped white needles, period trimmed centre panels for the leather seats in black or grey, ‘911 50’ logos on the headrests, rev counter and sill plates and splashes of Porsche ‘Exclusive’ trim plus a 4.6″ colour touch screen and Climate.

There will be just 1,963 911 50s built and each will cost £92,257 with a launch at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.