So it seemed a good idea to take a new Carrera 4S to meet the 959. Unfortunately, with only around 300 being built and far fewer surviving, 959s are not exactly thick on the ground. Indeed, finding a car whose owner would let me drive the way such a car was designed to be driven was an insurmountable task. Happily, though, the Porsche museum was bringing a load of racing cars over to the Goodwood Members’ Meeting and was good enough to put a 959 on the back of the truck – an immaculate car that has only ever been owned by the factory and with a mileage barely into five figures. I don’t know what it’s worth but certainly something the inconvenient side of a million quid.

It was the first time I’d driven the new, 992-generation 911 in public, having previously only skidded around a damp Hockenheim in one. And, if anything, the gap between it and its 991-gen predecessor seemed even greater on the road than it had on the track. I count myself as a big fan of the standard 991 in almost all respects, save the fact that it only feels like a 911 if you drive the door handles off it. And I wrote that if the 992 had one job to do, it was to make the driving experience more accessible. And it has: not only is it a little more fun to drive, but that entertainment now comes in exchange for a lot less effort, too. It’s a fabulously easy car to enjoy and clearly the best new 911 of the past 25 years. It is the definitive state-of-the-art sports car.

But the 959 set out to do something else: to be not merely of its time but years ahead. Decades, in fact. It was made from space-age materials such as Kevlar and Nomex. Its wheels were not only magnesium but hollow, too, their spokes full of the same air as the bespoke Bridgestone RE71 run-flat tyres. Yes, really. It looked like an artist’s interpretation of a 21st century 911, but that shape was in fact designed to allow maximum aerodynamic efficiency while keeping the whole thing on the ground as 200mph approached.

Yet inside, it doesn’t look futuristic at all. It looks quite like the 964 generation of the 911 that followed on soon after 959 production ceased in 1988. But the clues are everywhere: the ‘959’ etched into the steering wheel, the six-speed gearbox, the 7200rpm redline, the torque distribution gauge, the 350km/h speedo, the ride height and damper control switches… I could go on, but you get the picture.