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I can remember my first Porsche 911 experience as if it were yesterday. It is unusual among 911 recollections in that, at the time, the car wasn’t moving. Aged five, I was sitting in my father’s 911, and can remember the bus sliding towards us on what turned out to be a large patch of oil. I had no time to ponder whether the inevitable impact would hurt, which was as well because, in the end it did, quite a lot.

You’d be hard pressed to find a less promising introduction to the world’s most important sports car, yet it didn’t stop a bond forming between me and the 911 that has been stronger than with any other car I’ve known. As a child I could quote the power output of every evolution of every 911 and, if pressed, probably still could today.

To me the 911 was the greatest car in the world, an opinion I found no need to modify until 1997, when Porsche abandoned the original’s then 34-year-old design and its unique air-cooled motor and produced a new 911, uglier by far and cooled by water.

Technically it was an accomplished car, but the magic had gone. While my colleagues embraced it with all the zeal of the converted, I became a dinosaur, stuck in the past with my beloved air-cooled 911s, while the new car went on to sell in even greater numbers.

But I can’t have been completely wrong because this sixth-generation 911 — codenamed 997 — that I drove in Germany last week looks for all the world like the successor to its grandparent, the air-cooled 993 version, and not its father, the awkward-looking 996. And beneath its decidedly retro lines lies the promise of greater driver involvement, the defining characteristic of all original 911s, and the critical part of the puzzle that went partially missing with the 996.

It’s back now: I was going to save this for the end, but it won’t wait. The new 911, particularly in £65,000 Carrera S form, is a masterpiece, and did more in two days to reaffirm my faith in Porsche than seven years and 12 different variants of the 996 managed. It is flawed, but as we fled down the autobahn last week, considerably in excess of the advertised 182mph top speed, I found the 911 feelgood factor had returned.

Despite familiar lines, this is effectively a new car. The roof is the only body panel to have made it from 996 to 997, while more than 80% of its mechanical components are new. That figure would be higher still were it not for the 325bhp 3.6 litre engine that carries over into the £58,380 Carrera. The Carrera S gets a brand new 355bhp 3.8 litre motor and suitably epic performance. Porsche reckons it needs 4.8sec to hit 62mph from rest.

New suspension with electronic damping (standard on the S, optional on the Carrera) and yet larger wheels with fatter tyres renew the 911’s appetite for the open road, a commodity it devours with such assurance even in streaming wet conditions that I see no point in waiting for the extra weight, dulled performance and higher price of next year’s four-wheel-drive version. This is a car you can place on the road as you would a fork in your mouth: the fact that it might hurt if you get it wrong is irrelevant, because that’s not going to happen.

But some aspects of the new 911 are less successful. The optional five-speed automatic gearbox, for instance, is terrible. It changes up just when you don’t want it to, and the downchanges can be shockingly coarse. I tried it in the Carrera S and it was bad enough to spoil the drive.

The car’s interior is a disappointment, too. All 911 cabins used to be a mess because the engineers were too busy making a landmark driving experience to be bothered with ergonomics. The 997 cabin, by contrast, looks overstyled and fussy with its array of small, poorly labelled console buttons.

The steering also takes a little getting used to. For the first time the 911 has a variable-ratio rack, so it reacts less to input with the wheel dead-ahead than it does with lock applied. This makes the car less nervous on the motorway, yet more responsive on back roads, but this is disquieting for those who have traditionally enjoyed the linear response of 911 steering.

The Carrera S is the better of the two: with the big engine, lowered suspension, electronic dampers, larger wheels and bigger brakes it more than justifies the extra outlay. But both offer a blend of driving pleasure and everyday practicality unrivalled at anything near the price, just as was the case 41 years ago.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model: Porsche 911 Carrera S
Engine type: Six-cylinder, 3824cc
Power/Torque: 355bhp @ 6600rpm / 295 lb ft @ 4600rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel/CO2: 24.6mpg (combined) / 277g/km
Performance: 0-62mph: 4.8sec / top speed: 182mph
Price: £65,000
Verdict: The 911 returns to top form

THE OPPOSITION

Model: BMW 645Ci, £50,450
For: A very capable grand tourer, well built, fast and refined
Against: Looks rather awkward, nothing like as fun as a 911

Model: Maserati 4200GT, £56,650
For: The name, magnificent engine, still very exclusive
Against: Handling not the best, less well built than the Germans