The 12 Best Looking Porsche Models Ever Designed

Both on the road and on the track, Porsche has been pushing the envelope of performance for more than three quarters of a century. Its designs, while usually secondary to the performance aspect the cars produced by the company, have also become icons in their own right. There is no better example of this than the Porsche 911 — logic dictates that a rear-engined sports car that can trace its heritage back to a post-war Volkswagen should have been axed decades ago, yet it remains a bestseller to this day. Even when Porsche tried to replace it with the 928 in the '80s, enthusiasts kept buying the 911, in part due to its iconic and unique design.

In recent decades Porsche has expanded its lineup to cover a much wider range of cars, with its highly popular SUVs ensuring the company has the funds to continue developing world-beating sports cars. While neither the Macan or Cayenne are positioned to win many beauty contests, the same cannot be said for many of the brand's other recent offerings. That's in addition to the many classic models that have already made their mark as automotive design icons. We've rounded up ten of the best looking Porsche road cars ever built, including some fan favorites and lesser known picks.

There are few other names in the automotive world with as much prestige as the Porsche 911. The fact that — after more than 60 years and many distinct evolutions – the basic blueprint of the car remains unchanged speaks volumes about the significance of the original. The first 911 was unveiled in 1963 and designed to replace the 356, Porsche's first sports car. It featured a flat-six engine as opposed to its predecessor's four cylinder unit, but retained its rear-mounted layout.

It proved a huge success for the brand both commercially and critically, selling 111,995 units over the decade it was available. Classic examples are now sought after by collectors, with cars in original, unmodified condition being particularly prized. The first 911 is a simple car by modern standards, but one whose styling has remained timeless and whose driving appeal remains unchanged from the day it left the factory.

Special editions of this generation have become icons in their own right, like the 911 Carrera RS 2.7. Its distinctive duck-tail rear wing became a feature on many later 911 special editions, and the Carrera moniker has remained a mainstay of the Porsche range up to the present day. Like many revered road cars, the car was originally developed as a homologation special to allow Porsche to enter Group 4 racing, but its distinctive dual-color design and Carrera graphics have kept it desirable among Porsche enthusiasts long after its racing days were over.

While other Porsche design icons combine aerodynamics with timeless elegance or offer technological innovations wrapped in sleek bodywork, the Porsche 911 GT1 Straßenversion is a different kind of striking. Mostly, that's because it doesn't look like it should be wearing a license plate at all. In a sense, it shouldn't — the car was only built as a homologation requirement for Porsche to enter Le Mans, and the road car saw only minimal changes from its race-ready counterpart.

The term "race car for the road" is a cliché, and doesn't quite explain the Straßenversion. This is more a race car for the track that Porsche made the minimum effort to make roadworthy. The few journalists to have driven the car report that it's a challenge to drive, with almost zero visibility, large aero overhangs, and a physically demanding transmission. That's par for the course with any GT1 homologation special, however, as the Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK GTR is reportedly even more of a handful on the roads.

The 911 GT1's flat-six engine is in a different place to any previous iterations of the 911, being mid-mounted rather than rear-mounted. With 600 horsepower on tap, it's also significantly more powerful than almost any other car to wear the 911 badge too. Its visual cacophony of Porsche parts-bin components –- which varied across each year the Straßenversion was produced — make it far from beautiful in the traditional sense. However, few other Porsches can turn heads so easily, whether modern or classic.

Some cars are subject to drastic styling overhauls every few years in order to convey a sense of newness even when the underlying mechanicals have changed very little. The 991 generation 911 was exactly the opposite, being almost entirely new under the skin but carrying over a significant amount of styling from its predecessor. Its chassis, interior, and transmission were all new, making it more powerful, more technologically advanced, and more comfortable than its predecessor. Despite all this, the 991 still clearly resembled all previous generations of the 911.

In fact, it was arguably closer in its exterior design to the original 911 than the likes of the 993 or 996, returning to a simpler, more flowing silhouette. The innovations continued further in the 991's lifespan with the unveiling of the 911 Turbo, which featured active aerodynamics for the first time, while the 911 R drew even more explicitly on the design of its '60s predecessor. While the 997 succeeded in drawing the 911 nearer to its design roots after the more experimental looks of the 996, it's arguably the 991 that stands as the best example of combining classic and modern Porsche design.

Acting both as a technological showcase for its hybrid powertrain efforts and as a limited-run halo car to satisfy wealthy collectors, the Porsche 918 Spyder performed multiple roles for the automaker. Its hybrid 4.6L V8 powertrain would no doubt have been impressive no matter what the car looked like, but it was made even more so by the fact that it was incorporated into such an attractively styled hypercar. The launch press release for the car highlighted its innovative regenerative braking system, carbon monocoque construction, and high level of fuel efficiency. All great leaps in engineering terms, but on their own not enough to excite enthusiasts.

The 918 Spyder's performance provided a much more convincing reason to get excited about the car, with a combined 887 horsepower on offer and a 0-62 mph time of just 2.6 seconds. Its top speed was officially quoted as more than 211 mph, and even in electric-only mode it could reach 93 mph, a very impressive feat at the time for a hybrid. 

The car's launch was also accompanied by all the usual talk of setting records on the Nürburgring, although it's safe to say those kinds of claims are far from unique to the 918 Spyder. What is unique, however, is just how well Porsche managed to turn its technological marvel into a piece of rolling automotive artwork. Few other hypercars manage to be so innovative while retaining such timeless looks.

The first car sold under the Porsche brand was the 356, which — depending on who's asked — is either a timeless work of art or, as one SlashGear colleague put it, "a stepped-on Volkswagen." The truth is that it's probably a bit of both, with Ferdinand Porsche drawing heavily on his earlier work on the Beetle to create the first sports car marketed under his name. The 356 featured a Volkswagen engine too, which generated just 35 horsepower and made it slow by modern sports car standards. However, because it was so lightweight, it was relatively sprightly compared to what else was on the market at the time, reaching a top speed of around 84 mph.

The 356 was a simple but effective design, and set the blueprint that Porsche would continue to follow for many decades to come. The car's rarity and importance in Porsche history mean that there's a thriving market for 356 replicas today, but none of those highly polished replicas can match the draw that an original, hand-built 356 exerts on any Porschephile. The 356 might not have been the most revolutionary German car -– ironically, it's the related Beetle that arguably deserves that title -– but its revered status as the genesis of all Porsche models give it a head-turning presence even in a crowd of seven-figure classics.

At the launch of the 718 Cayman GT4 RS, SlashGear noted that Porsche was finally "bringing the 718 Cayman out of the 911's shadow." The top-spec Cayman shared its engine with the 911 GT3, but with its mid-mounted layout, it's the former car that naturally boasts optimal weight distribution. There was 493 horsepower on offer, with the flat-six engine mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Top speed sat at a shade under 200 mph, and the sprint to 60 mph took just over three seconds.

As well as being faster than any previous Cayman, the GT4 RS arguably looks better than any lesser variant too. The racing-inspired aero, chunky rear wing, and new wheels give the impression of a pint-sized 911 GT2 RS, although buyers paid for the privilege. The car started at just under $150,000 when it was unveiled in 2022 –- a lot for a Cayman, but then this isn't any ordinary Cayman, either in its appearance or in its performance.