| First Drive | Reading, England | Porsche 911 Sport Classic |

Porsche makes a lot of 911 derivatives, but this Sport Classic is a special one-of-250 edition that mixes classic 911 design signatures like the ducktail spoiler and Fuchs-style alloy wheels, with the unique customisation offered to Porsche's customers though its personalisation scheme. There are a lot of details to take in, but the biggest is its price. At £140,000 the Sport Classic is a 911 for serious collectors - and it's proved so, with every one of them already sold.

In the Metal

The Sport Classic draws you in with its old-school Porsche detailing, the black-centred, silver-rimmed Fuchs-style alloy wheels and ducktail spoiler being the most obvious visual signifiers. There are a lot more though, the aero-kit unique to the Sport Classic for a start, as are the black headlamp surrounds and the understated stripe that runs from the bonnet's leading edge over the roof to that duck-tailed rear. There's a subtle double-bubble roof too, the stripes initially giving you the impression that it's a visual effect rather than a special panel. Other discreet details include the addition of a 911 badge on the rear - the first since Porsche's last anniversary series models. That wider rear end is shared with the four-wheel drive 911s, despite being Carrera 2S specification.

The interior is similarly retro-inspired. There are RS door cards (the handles flat rather than upright - apparently) trimmed in a very cool white and brown material. Just about every surface elsewhere has been covered in leather - even the slats on the air vents and door pulls. The effect isn't as World of Leather as you might expect, the light Alcantara headlining helping ensure that the interior doesn't overwhelm with its retro chocolatey-leatheryness.

What you get for your Money

We're torn, as although the Sport Classic is clearly a special car with lots of unique touches we can't help but think that £140,000 is very expensive for what's essentially a reworked Carrera S. There's a power hike, PCCB (Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes), a sports exhaust and revised suspension settings on the Sport Chassis to join all the interior and exterior extras, but we're not sure if the 911 Sport Classic is really worth the price of a 911 GT3 and Cayman S combined. We clearly don't live in the realms of the Porsche collector though, as Porsche has had no trouble selling all 250 examples.

You can only have it in Sport Classic Grey too - a colour that Porsche claims the designers fell for when seeing it on a very early 356. Given the classic 911 RS cues in the styling it's a shame Porsche hasn't chosen a more exciting '73 RS colour like Viper Green, Signal Yellow or Tangerine. And perhaps some 'SC' or Porsche script on its flanks rather than the double stripe over the roof?

Driving it

The 3.8-litre engine gets a hike in power of 23bhp to give the Sport Classic 408bhp in total. There's little discernable increase in pace thanks to that small output jump, but Porsche quotes a 4.6-second 0-62mph time. That's a 0.1-second improvement over the standard 2S. Where it does deliver tangibly is in its flexibility, the Sport Classic seeming to pull harder from lower revs compared to its regular S relative. The modest 1.0lb.ft increase and 200rpm drop in peak torque speed don't represent the difference on the road, the Sport Classic's 3.8-litre flat-six feeling more responsive in the lower and mid-range over the rev-hungry standard car.

Despite big exhausts poking out under the rear and the promise of a more sporting sound the intensity and richness of the engine's note isn't perhaps as classic sounding as we'd hoped. It's a bit more noticeable than the regular set up inside, but the noise limit killjoys in Singapore have apparently resulted in Porsche winding back the sport exhaust's tunefulness a bit. We'd like it turned back up again.

It's refreshing to see that Porsche has stuck with a manual transmission, that filling the classic brief perfectly with its slick-shifting nature and involvement. It's the steering and the suspension though that really surprise. The damping is so much better resolved than the standard 2S, with the Sport Classic retaining control where a regular 911 would start to patter and skip. It feels softer, more compliant and more composed as a result, the steering backing this up with real accuracy and beautiful weighting. If Classic means a bit more control and fluidity then we're all for it, the Sport Classic suspension set up among the best we've experienced on any recent 911.

We're not sure if it was just the tyres, or the lashings of leather covering the dash and thick carpets and floor mats, but the Sport Classic seems to suffer a bit less from the 911's usual road noise issues, too.

Worth Noting

Forget it if you want one, as Porsche has already sold the lot. If you're in the USA you can't have it, either. You'll be able to get much of the interior accoutrements though Porsche's personalisation scheme, but if you want a duck-tail spoilered 997 then the Sport Classic is the only car to feature it. The same is true of the double-bubble roof, though Porsche admits that the Fuchs-style alloy wheels will eventually be made available elsewhere in the range.

Summary

We love some of the detailing, the suppleness of the suspension and the engine revisions, but however nice a package as the Sport Classic is it's heinously expensive. That's looking at it from the perspective of a mere financial mortal though; for wealthy Porsche fans wanting something unusual and limited in number to park alongside all the other special cars in their garage the Sport Classic is clearly a must-have. We'd be happy with an S with the Sport Classic's suspension settings, engine revisions and those black Fuchs wheels. In Viper Green.