But those arguments don't really apply. By any objective measure, the Porsche 911 is truly one of the world's finest sports cars. The Viper might beat it on a dragstrip (or in One Lap of America). The Ferrari 360 Modena might sing more sweetly when it's wound up at ultra-high revs. And certainly a Corvette delivers overall value that's hard for any of these sports cars to beat. But no sports car can match the 911's combination of chassis sophistication, power, overall balance, tight, rugged build quality and general livability. And the 911 does that without sanitizing all the fun out of the package.

The Porsche 911 is precision machinery. It is easy to drive, and very easy to live with. Perhaps best of all, satisfaction with the 911 will likely increase with time. You'll grow to like it more, not less, and that quality can be hard to come by in today's throwaway world. As they say, there is no substitute.