Porsche 964 Carrera RS & 993 Carrera

An outing to the North York Moors sees our fleet's lesser-spotted 964 make a rare appearance, and gives our 993 owner a chance to try his car's legendary ancestor

NO, YOUR EYES AREN'T DECEIVING Nyou. This is a Fast Fleet update on my 964 RS. For those of you unfamiliar with the 'Unicorn', I bought J74 KAE back in the spring of 2006. Just typing that seems surreal, as I refuse to believe my name has been on the logbook for 16 years. With 2022 marking its 30th birthday, this means I've owned this RS more than half its life.

It's long been a joke that I don't drive it anywhere near enough. Some would contend I don't drive it at all, which is a little harsh, especially as in the last year or so I've resolved to drive it more. Most recently that included heading to North Yorkshire for a gathering of journos photographers and other motoring sorts.

It began with evo's ace photographer, Aston Parrott, and ex-evo designer/writer Will Beaumont meeting at Meaden Towers in their respective modified Porsche 993 and resto-modded BMW 2002. Fuelled with coffee and bacon rolls, we then headed in convoy up the Al towards Pickering and our rendezvous with the rest of the crew.

A black car with no air-conditioning in the height of the hottest summer on record made for a sweaty northward schlep, but despite its hardcore character and lack of creature comforts the 964 is a strangely satisfying machine in which to cover mundane motorway miles. With zero distractions - that's to say no infotainment screens, hands-free phone or even a functioning radio - the RS fosters a Zen-like state in which the open road and gruff air-cooled flat-six make the best companions.

Once up on the moors we paused long enough to grab some lunch and admire one another's cars (everything from a fabulous Corvette Stingray and petite 205 1.9 GTi to a Mk1 Escort Mexico running a Vauxhall redtop motor and sequential gearbox) before Parrott, Beaumont and I headed off to enjoy roads we know so well from countless evo tests.