Ranking Porsche's Greatest Sports Cars (1 That's Worthless)

What makes a car great? Surely, the rarest cars, or even the most unattainable ones, aren't necessarily the greatest a brand has produced. And while rare and insanely expensive cars tend to be great in some way, there's way more to a car's value than what the collectors are willing to pay for it—and the same applies to the legendary Porsche.

In this list, we'd like to talk about the cars that changed the direction of Porsche, and made it into the uber-sporty brand it is today. If you have a Porsche, people know you value a sports car with some luxury in it. It may not be the fastest thing on the road, but it comes with an incomparable brand presence and gives you speed without jostling you or the passengers around, much.

So which of the Porsches do we find the “greatest?” Obviously, the best of all the Porsche cars ever made. And which of all of Porsche's gorgeous cars failed to make a mark? Read on to find out.

10 Porsche Boxster: Turned The Classic To Modern

Surprised to find the rather affordable and economical Boxster on a “greatest” list? Well, if you love the fact that Porsche as a company is still around today, despite the financial crisis it has faced, you have to thank its entry-level sports car.

The Boxster may have ended the run of the Porsche classics, but it’s this car that’s saved Porsche from going down. The Boxster, by virtue of being a more affordable car, was bought in droves at introduction in 1996 and is still going strong, letting Porsche earn a tidy buck. If you have one, keep it. It may be a future classic.

9 Porsche 928: The First Porsche With A V8

The Porsche 928 debuted at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show and blew the Porsche purists away because it was very un-Porsche-like. Bigger, with a usable back seat, it was more of a grand tourer than a true sports car, and to top it, the engine was in the front. And that too, it was a V8!

While many may have loved to hate it, it was truthfully a great car, comfortable, and could seat four with ease. So yes, it was certainly not the fastest but then again, it was never meant to compete. This was a car that you drove to picnics, not to race tracks.

8 Porsche Cayman GT4: The Best Of The Basics

The Cayman was the hardtop variant of the Boxster, and for a while, Porsche kept it to entry-level standards only despite it having plenty of potential mostly because it did not want the Cayman to tread on 911’s toes. In 2015, this changed with the advent of the Cayman GT4.

The GT4 was a limited edition model and came carrying some really cool performance bits from the 911 as well as the 385-horsepower engine from the Carrera S. This was also the Cayman’s last hurrah before the 718 debuted with a turbocharged four-cylinder mill.

7 Porsche 944 Turbo: A Sexier 924?

The Porsche 924 was mostly a simple, no-frill car. That is, as no-frill a Porsche can be, except for the limited Carrera GT. So Porsche decided to build on the 924 and added in vibrant fender flares and put in a better engine, making the jump to the 944 in 1982.

It looked better, in fact as many would say, it looked more Porsche than the 924 ever did with pop-up headlights and the telephone dial wheels. The engine managed almost 250 horses and took the car to 60 mph in under 6 seconds. Cool, you bet, especially since this was more than the ‘80s muscle cars could do.

6 Porsche 959: One Speedy Posh Porsche

The Porsche 959 was the world’s fastest street-legal car back when it debuted in 1986, able to go an easy 198 mph with some of its special variants managing to achieve a cool 211 mph too. The crown of being the fastest soon went to the Ferrari F40, but it's cool to know that once, Porsche did best Ferrari.

The all-wheel-drive and the 2.85-liter six-cylinder engine managed to jet some 444 horses, and this Porsche also came laden with the best in tech for its time, as well as ahead of its time.

5 All Of The Porsche RS Cars: Racing Sport But Street

RS in Porsche talk stands for Renn Sport, as in racing sport, and came to be a street-legal model derived from the motor racing version of the car. However, sometimes, it is used when the big brains at Porsche think of a particularly cool model and make it it’s sportiest best.

Each new generation of 911 is blessed with an RS, and the next one may just become the best one yet, considering while Porches are speedy and sporty, they are also a driver’s car and as comfortable as a sporty drive could be. So all RS versions of a Porsche are priceless. Period.

4 Porsche 356: The Very First Porsche

Porsche was founded in 1931 as a company but the first car that came out was in 1948, and it was the Porsche 356. It wore an inverted bathtub design, housing the engine in the rear, and looked pretty cool. If it's mildly reminiscent of the Beetle, that’s because Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was the brains behind Hitler’s dream car as well.

At the time, the car carried a 35-horsepower engine and even so, was able to hit top speeds of 83mph, cool for its day, and getting faster with the later models. The first Porsche has to be priceless, right?

3 Porsche 901: The First 911s

The Porsche 911 is an iconic car, to buy new or to buy used as a classic, or even as a collector’s car. It has been in production since 1963, and since 2019, has entered its 992 series. But not many know that when the 911 series were introduced, they were initially named 901s. Some 82 901s came out before Peugeot took strong objection to the zero in between because of a trademark.

And so Porsche changed the 901 to 911. Frankly, all 911s are pretty cool but the 80-odd ones named 901s have to something of a collector’s item, no?

2 Porsche 550 Spyder: Infamy Is Priceless Too

The Porsche 550 was a gorgeous sports car that could take on cars double its size. Technically speaking, it was a redesigned 356, one that uses a finely-tuned four-cam version of the flat-four, but put it mid-engine for better balance, aerodynamics, and speed. A tiny roadster, it remains much hallowed in the world of motorsports.

Ranking Porsche's Most Priceless Sports Cars (1 That's Worthless) — via Hypebeast

Later, it came to be known as the car that took James Dean away from the world because this is the vehicle he crashed and later got killed in. Today, the 550 is a much-vaunted classic and a kit car.

1 Porsche 914: The One We Don’t Want, At Any Price

Porsche, in the ‘60s, made a fatal mistake of tying up with Volkswagen, in a bid to get a new entry-level car since the 911 was moving up the ranks. So for 1970, they made the mid-engined 914 that honestly, no longer looked like a Porsche. Sadly, it carried a VW engine although the Targa-top did try to better the looks.