Ok, thanks again for valuable input. I think you've answered my question. Just to be sure I'm "getting it" - In essence, it looks like the later cars (Carerra), may feel dead compared to the SC, even when both are stock, but that regardless, if I'm willing to spend some money on upgraded tie-rod ends and/or shocks/struts, I should be able to get the feel I want (assuming I have the right tires and tire-pressure).

Does it sound like I've boiled that down to the fundamentals correctly?

Back again. It turns out that my "baseline" car does indeed have the turbo tie-rod modification. So unfortunately this doesn't give me a very clear idea of the differences I should feel between the SC and the Carrera in stock form. I'll be test driving a stock SC sometime next week though, so that should give me some further insight. I have to say I haven't been overwhelmed by the Carrera "road feel" so far. I'm thinking I might be better off sticking to the SC series.

the suspension design on all '69 -89 911 is the same, differences in feel come from components, component condition and alignment.

For sporting feel, the 'live steering wheel' you want Bilstein shocks, turbo tie rods, 7 & 8" wheels(min), quality performance tires and quality performance setup. Of course the condition of all components needs to be nominal.

The lively feel comes form a combination of built in bump steer, steering axis inclination and scrub radius.

You can never get rid of all bump steer just minimize it, which factory alignment and height specs do, steering axis inclination is the result of front end geometry and caster settings, scrub radius is increased on an 8 vs a 7 vs a 6 the larger scrub radius increases wheel feedback through the steering.

If I were shopping for an '80s 911, I'd look for in order '87 -89, '84-86, then '78-83

Thanks again for all the excellent feedback in this thread. I've only test driven 3 911s to-date, but none of them felt anything like my "baseline" car, driving which is somewhat akin to having some pretty phenomenal sex with the road (ouch!) :) That definitely complicates things a bit as I no longer have a "realistic" baseline on which to judge what I'm feeling in the cars I've been test driving. I'm thinking I'll have to rely more heavily on the PPI to tell me how the suspension is looking. I'm heading out to another test drive this Wednesday though, so maybe I'll get some more insight then.