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IT HAD been a long time — four or five years, hard to remember. Butthe last one I drove was red, which made the new car look odd. The newmodel, the 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, was the yellowest of yellows.Even on cloudy days, it glowed. I greeted the car with apprehension,mostly because Porsche became a political no-no in the late 1980s.

That’s when the New Puritanism took root in America along withseveral side-door cults, such as the Theology of Man as Dog, otherwiseknown as T-MAD; and Anti-Democratic Environmentalism, which contendsthat all constitutional rights are subordinate to anything deemedenvironmentally proper. Back then, you risked opprobrium every time youtook a Porsche for a spin.

The New Puritans often would demonstrate their disapproval byblocking your way in traffic. The T-MADians would snicker and point, asthey do now in those stupid Hyundai commercials in which two women makederogatory comments about the virility of men who drive sports cars. Andthe enviro-cops would be so bold as to put a pink “gas-guzzler ticket”on your windshield, just in case you didn’t understand the meaning ofthe guzzler tax that came with the car.

Bottom line in those days was that you were more apt to sit in aPorsche than drive one. But here’s betting, with the arrival of the newmodel, that those days are numbered.

Background: Porsche knew it had a problem. Its steeply declining U.S.sales indicated that much. But for the longest time, Porsche’s problemwas that it didn’t know what kind of a problem it had. Was it price?Partly. Quality? Not hardly. Maintenance costs? Partly. Image? Oh, yeah.Big-time image problem.

It was as if the Porsche people were all asleep several years agowhen BMW stopped calling its cars “ultimate driving machines.” BMW wassmart. Realizing that hot-rod braggadocio was out and that politicalcorrectness was in, BMW started giving us easy-maintenance, safe, mostlyrecyclable, environmentally friendly 300-series cars gifted with enoughperformance to light up the sales charts.

Well, Porsche finally has caught on. Witness the new 911 CarreraCoupe. Dual-front air bags, improved side-crash protection, improvedpower four-wheel-disc brakes with anti-lock backup (Bosch’s ABS 5system) and a more fuel-efficient, 3.6-liter, six-cylinder engine areall standard.

The engine, a box-shaped thing with horizontally opposed cylinders,is rated 270 horsepower at 6,100 rpm. Torque is set at 243 foot-poundsat 5,000 rpm. It is a revised version of the 1994 Porsche 911 engine,which produced less horsepower (247 at 6,100 rpm) and less torque (228foot-pounds at 4,800 rpm). But that increase in power comes with betterfuel economy, lower required maintenance and smoother operation thanksto a reworking of the engine’s valve system and crankshaft.

The 911 Carrera comes as a hardtop (Coupe) or convertible(Cabriolet). A six-speed manual transmission is standard. Porsche’sfour-speed Tiptronic aut omatic transmission is optional, as is thetraction-control system.

Complaints: Another phony four-seater. Rear seats are useless. Whenare auto makers going to stop charging us for worthless rear seats insports cars?

Praise: A tight sports car with an agile suspension that makes youwant to drive. Simply beautiful road performance. Also, high marks forthe exterior remake of the car, which gave the 911 a fresh face andsmoother rear without obliterating its original 1963 styling cues.

Head-turning quotient: Either times have changed, or the restylingwas simply brilliant. The new car got way more cheers than jeers — andthe cheers were loud, to boot.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Smiles for miles. I didn’t want tostop driving the thing. Totally addictive road feel. Credit the improvedrear suspension, which now includes a new, lightweight, multi-linksystem, which takes the rumble out of the rear end on less-than-perfectroads. Braking was excellent.

Mileage: About 20 miles per gallon (19.4-gallon tank, estimated376-mile range on usable volume of regular unleaded), running combinedcity-highway and driver only.

Sound system: Six-speaker AM/FM stereo radio and cassette, installedby Porsche. Nice, but no big deal. I found myself listening to theengine.

Price: Base price on the 911 Carrera Coupe with six-speed manualtransmission is $59,900. Dealer’s invoice is $50,145. Price as tested is$66,241, including $1,751 in options, a $725 destination charge, a$1,000 gas guzzler tax and an estimated $2,865 federal luxury tax.

Purse-strings note: Hey, what can I say?