Yes, I think the 993's body in white is pretty similar to the 964's and thus earlier 911s. The 996 came along and changed a bit too much all at once I reckon, with that front-end and the steeper raked screens front and rear so the classic 911 silhouette is lost at that point and what we have now is evolution of the 996's profile.

I thought the 993 did a good job of amending the visual weight of the 964's bumpers that sat low on the car and could make it look a bit dumpy, but always felt its headlights were too reclined - with that, and how the bumpers were integrated, plus the wrap round lights (although they riff on the 964's too), I got a bit too much 928 in the frontal aspect of the 993 to ever really fall for it. Last of the air-cooleds counts for a lot though.

The 964 came along and just changed too much all at once, I reckon. Especially the aberration that was those headlights, ugly, not at all like the iconic 911's and just too close to a Boxster's. I think part of the success of the 997 was just relief that it wasn't another 996. I don't think Harm Lagaay's work at Porsche topped what he did at BMW with the Z1:

I remember kind of liking the Panamericana (not the Panamera, never liked that) when it was first shown, but looking at it now the details are pretty clumsy - it's not aged well. I thought that was a reasonable attempt at modernising the side profile of the 911 without it being pastiche, which 996/997/991 hint at being:

Pedestrian protection regulations have probably nixed the chances of more upright headlights and windscreen making a comeback, so that classic silhouette is probably gone for good. I think the 991 makes a pretty good stab of running with those though. I don't really see Panamera in the rear of the new car, but if you do, that's Porsche's design decision to squeeze 911/sports car cues on cars where they don't really belong (Panamera, Cayenne) coming back to bite them. I like the return of the individually lettered "P O R S C H E" at the rear, even if it is inverted and that, 911 and Carrera is a lot to fit on. I don't see too much Cayman in the side profile either - I think that's one of the weakest points of the Cayman design, it's quite well resolved elsewhere. Too much gently sloping bodywork at the rear, they should have elongated the glasshouse to get a less stumpy rear side window but I think they deliberately avoided a 911-style window with that kick-up and going the flying buttress route was thought to be more Ferrari than Porsche.

I think I could like the 991 the most of the water-cooled 911s but it's a bit early to call, and I need to see a few in the metal. I also think they're churning out new models a bit too quickly - do you really need a 5/6 year model cycle for an iconic sports car? I agree pre-74 is where it's really at, the earlier the better - they had some nice quiet colours back then too, nice browns and moss greens, back before things became more flamboyant in the 70s.