Porsches à Paris: 911s to star at Rétromobile

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It looks like 2023 is going to be a busy year in the old-car world, but especially so for enthusiasts for the Porsche 911, which marks its 60th anniversary this year, and where better to kick off the birthday celebrations than at Rétromobile?

The 911 was conceived simply as an improved successor to the 356, which had endeared itself to thousands of sports-car fans on account of its modern, streamlined appearance, keen performance and superb handling which made it highly competitive in sports-car races around the world, and which was achieved by the most unconventional means: an air-cooled, rear-mounted flat-four engine.

A stylish road car and a race and rally champion

The 911 continued in much the same vein, but with an extra two cylinders. At first, it served as both a sports-car for the connoisseur and as a fashion accessory for the rich and famous, but by the 1970s it also had a formidable reputation in competition, not just in circuit-racing as may be expected, but also in unforgiving endurance rallies. It's for all these reasons that the popularity of the 911 has endured across seven decades.

While everyone has their favourite 911, for us there is none prettier than the original two-litre model of 1963, as seen in these pictures which, we think, represent a happy union between the best products of Germany and France. S-CU 902 was Porsche's press car, but who is the blonde beauty behind the wheel? We can't be absolutely certain, but she's a dead ringer for French yé-yé sensation Sylvie Vartan. With Françoise Hardy, France Gall and others, Vartan provided the soundtrack to the Paris of the 1960s. What wouldn't we give to travel back in time, and cruise along the banks of the Seine in an early 911 with the chic chanteuses drifting across from the cafés...

Unfortunately, we haven't got a time machine, but we have got Rétromobile, and that's the next best thing. A special display of Porsche 911s from across the ages is just one of the show's many highlights, besides which there will be hundreds of others of exotic, rare and unusual pre- and post-war classics.

Rétromobile takes place at the Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris from 1st to 5th February. You don't want to miss it.

Words: Zack Stiling; pictures: Porsche AG
 

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