Yahoo Autos In 1996, The Porsche 911 Targa Was a Strange Mix of New and Old
In the mid-1990s, the 993-generation Porsche 911 was a rolling anachronism. Sure, it looked like a modern car, and had many of the same features as a modern car, but its bones dated back to the original 911 that went on sale in 1964. The 993 Targa epitomizes this strange, but compelling mix of old and new.
MotorWeek just posted its review of the 1996 Targa to its YouTube page, and it's a fascinating look back at a pre-Boxster Porsche. For the 993, Porsche revamped the Targa, which originally had a removable roof panel with an aluminum roll-hoop, to have a sliding glass panel. Think of it as a proto-panoramic sunroof.
It's a neat piece of engineering, but it's stuffed in a hand-built car with an interior that had barely changed in over 30 years, and an air-cooled flat-six mounted well behind the rear axle. That doesn't make this car bad, as MotorWeek found out, but it is odd.
It's sort of the opposite of the current 911 Targa, which is a thoroughly modern car with a retro roof design.
