Understressed, and long life? On that theme, the highest mileage car Cindy & I ever had was a slant 6 powered mopar.
Still running at close to 400,000 miles. But gawd, it was one fine example of Mopar low performance engineering! We just got sick of it, bought a 4.0 Ford Ranger as a grocery hauler.

?

The cars got heavier with each iteration (except for the 996 as I recall). The variability comes in how the car was optioned, and what has been done to it over the years. Not too many of these cars are bone stock at this point in their lives. My SC is about 2550lbs, but that is with a LOT of stuff taken off the car.

There are plenty of "discussions" here about SC v. Carrera, and the related 915 v. G50 argument. I've owned both, and can say that there frankly isn't that much difference. Once you do a few mods, all bets are off. At this point in the age of the cars, it comes down to how well they have been maintained, and what stuff has been replaced. And I will maintain until my dying day that a properly setup 915 will shift as well or better than a G50...the main difference being that G50 trannys seem to wear better, and hence are more consistent after many years of use. And a lot of people raised on Japanese transmissions like the feel of the hydraulic G50 better than the 915.

If you want to talk longevity then I think my old '85 Mercedes Benz 300 TD diesel wagon takes the cake. I sold it 3 yrs ago with 320,000 mi and my nieghbor bought it and has clocked another 50k.

I'm told that the 5 cyl (turbo) MB diesel engine is good for 500K miles and is the most bulletproof bottom end in existence.

But we were talking about 3.0 Porsche engines. As mentioned earlier, my '80 SC was just diagnosed with a broken headstud yesterday.

Well, if we must keep it to P-car engines, the SC would get my vote for the longest lived, the most bulletproof.

My 78' has no power windows, no power seats, no rear windshield wiper, no AC and a manual sunroof ;)

I found this info from my early research. Sorry - can't remember the source:

"You are mixing together all of the 911SC motor specs; all U.S. cars were rated 180 HP DIN, (172 SAE), from 1978-1983. The early ('78-'79) cars had more torque, they actually had lower compression but bigger intake ports and intake runners than the later (U.S.) SC motors."

"In 1980 the U.S. cars went from 8.5:1 CR to 9.3:1, but the intake ports were smaller. They also got a different version of the K-Jetronic Bosch CIS injection w/ lambda (02) sensor. Cam timing was changed as mentioned previously, but cams never changed."

"The most potent SC 3.0 motor was the 1980-83 ROW version, which had 9.8:1 CR and the larger ports of the early motors. Those motors also had Mahle Nikasil P/Cs, which are superior to the KS alusil jugs on the later U.S. cars. The big port cars gain the most from SSI exhaust backdate as well. The later ROW motors are the most desirable all-around, IMO. They are the ones rated @ 204 HP, and w/ SSIs and a mild cam upgrade could be ~220 HP and still dead reliable."

Forgot to include this -

"The 1980 Euro SCs only had 188 HP it was in 1981 that they jumped to 204HP."

Yeah, but your '85 MB can't turn sub 1:40 laps at Willow Springs, run at redline all day...and drive back home to tell about it. That is the truly amazing thing about these engines...

Nostatic, I was lucky to be able to be able to get on the parkway without being creamed! No one knows what turbo lag is until they drive a MB turbodiesel! But once it got going she would cruise at 85 mph all day.

Having owned that MB diesel is why I now own a big honkin 4.6L double overhead cam Lincoln gas guzzling V8 with 3.73 gears and two 911's, one for cruising with my baby and one for beating the hell out of on the track.

But again we're comparimg apples to oranges.

Cheers

I put 170,000 on my '86 8v Scirocco.

I got my nickname blowing up expensive stroker drag race engines "boom", rather than scream and yell I just put it on the trailer and went home "quiet". I'd always get to greedy with the tune and either be too lean or too far advanced and the result was always blown rod or main bearings which would take out rods, crankshafts and even pistons. My P-car has a 3.0, I just found out it's too lean on a recent dyno session and it's managed to survive my thrashing it thus far. So as a fully qualified engine destroyer I have to state that they are pretty tough.

I've got my '80 SC because of all the good things heard from many porsche users...and i must admit that they are very resilient!

My car has 170K+; all that i do is change oil every 4-5K and do normal maintenance every 10-15 and 30K, and it runs just fine, compared to my other crappy cars, that left me for expensive repairs way before touching 100K

To me the SC and the 3.2 made until 89 are the best 911 ever made :D

VW engines are well known to be virtually incredible, like Opel engines (for who lives in EU and knows what Opel is).

After all, Porsche, VW, Audi...aren't all children of the same technology? :)