After 30 superlative years, the fate of the 911 supercar is being pondered at Porsche, writes John Griffiths.
Wendelin Wiedeking doesn't fear making tough decisions.
The extrovert engineer, with his trademark boffin's spectacles and furry caterpillar moustache, has transformed Porsche since taking it by the scruff of the neck in 1993 and shaking it out of a complacency that had been propelling it towards the breaker's yard.
His flat-out drive to launch two entirely new models, the Boxster two-seater and Cayenne SUV, has paid off handsomely. Porsche is now the world's most profitable carmaker.
But one topic gives even Wiedeking sleepless nights - what on earth should be done about the car so emblematic of Porsche, the 911?
After 30 years, most motoring icons share a similar fate: undergoing a series of low-cost facelifts in an increasingly unconvincing attempt to persuade punters that there's life in the old dog yet.
Then, just like tired old pooches, they succumb to the vet's needle with the faithful looking tearfully on but accepting that it's time for a merciful end.
Not so the 911. Forty years after the first one left the line at Stuttgart, the 911 - like death and taxes - looks destined to be with us forever.
The first examples of the seventh generation of the 911, code-named 997, are now being delivered to owners. It's a machine on which Porsche has spent squillions - well, €1 billion including factory upgrades - to create a car that, to non-cognoscenti at least, looks just like the previous model.
The one noticeable change, ditching teardrop-shaped headlights introduced on the sixth-generation 911 seven years ago, merely restores the simple oval units fitted to all previous models since the 1960s.
The basic recipe is as before - enough room inside to carry two children as well as two adults. Supercars don't come more practical. The thought of using a Lamborghini, Ferrari or similar as everyday transport would fill me with dread and send my wallet scuttling for cover. With 911s you just jump in, turn the key and go, whether to the supermarket or St Petersburg.
And go the 911 most certainly does. Power in the standard 911 Carrera has been raised to 325 brake horsepower and to 350bhp, by means of a new 3.8 litre engine, in the even swifter 911 Carrera S. Both cars will hit 60mph in five seconds or less and both will reach comfortably beyond 170mph.
With variable ratio steering, electronic stability control and even the option of Formula One-style ceramic brakes, the 911 can take you round highway corners, wet or dry, faster than any sane person would wish to go - all accompanied by a delicious, hard-edged yowl. They are also just about bulletproof, reflected in depreciation rates lower than any other car on the planet.
So, where, after even the 997's novelty fades, does the 911 go from decade's end? I doubt there will be an eighth-generation 911. There is only so much familiarity the world can take.
For all the technical wizardry now taming the inherent tail-happiness of a car with its engine slung out the rear, the layout is an anachronism.
However, Wiedeking knows he'd be strung up by the aficionados - decidedly painful - if he tried formally to kill the 911 by direct substitution of something completely new. My guess is that he will slip the needle to the faithful themselves to do the dirty work.
Porsche has lashings of investment cash. Spending on a new and more varied Boxster family is almost complete. A four-door is in the pipeline.
I would expect at some point a new, endlessly desirable and entirely state-of-the-art two-seater, priced à la 911, to appear. Supposedly, it would "complement", not replace, the old stager.
But face buyers with such a choice and I don't think the 911 would be much longer for this world.
Newman takes the wheel at Mondello
Two reasons to dip your hand in your pocket this weekend and head to Mondello: a visit by actor and car racing fan Paul Newman to the track and the first Irish appearance of the new Porsche 911.
As part of a special fundraiser for Newman's Barretstown children's camp, he has agreed to take the driving seat in the new car at its first unveiling in Ireland. Later that evening there will be a special auction for one of the first 911s to be delivered.
The day out includes on-track speed sessions, Formula SR single seater experience, skid car, karting, auto test, and dinner that evening. Tickets are not cheap at €5,000 for one participant and a guest, but all the money goes to the Barretstown centre, which caters for children with cancer and other serious illnesses. The centre is marking its 10th anniversary this year.
Newman, a keen race fan, has been racing since 1972. His most recent professional racing victory took place in the Daytona 24 in 1995 when he was 70 years old.
The new 911 is on sale here at €130,450 for the 3.6-litre Carrera and €144,750 for the 3.8-litre Carrera S.