Motoring in Spain - Porsche 959
A RARE BEAST
Porsche 959 A RARE BEAST
MOTORING CORRESPONDENT CHARLIE FLINDT TAKES A NOSTALGIC TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE TO RECALL THE MAKING OF A LEGEND
The 1980s don’t fill me with a great deal of rosy nostalgia. While half the world seemed to be prancing about in big baggy white T-shirts with meaningful messages in big black print, I was trying to adjust to life away from university. While some of my school friends were earning squillions in the City for doing what seemed to be not a lot of work, I was shovelling manure on the farm for about two-and-sixpence a month – or so it seemed at the time.
There wasn’t a great deal to get excited about on the roads either. A quick scan through a car magazine from that era reminds us how the Japanese were really getting going, some of the British companies were treading water a touch too complacently, and there were one or two newcomers on the scene. A little Spanish concern called Seat had just been given a makeover by VW.
But if there’s one name that epitomises the 1980s: Porsche. For most, it’s the name most associated with the yuppie syndrome: red braces, heaps of cash, brash young whippersnappers, enormous brick-like mobile telephone pressed to one ear.
Curiously, there was one Porsche that escaped this terrible fate, and is looked back upon by car enthusiasts with great affection. The trouble is, it is rare. Very rare.
It’s the Porsche 959. There’s much debate about exactly how many were built, but most agree that it’s less than 300, and we know that it has to be more than 200. Why? Because the 959 was Porsche’s answer to the new rules for Group B motor sport. The FIA had revised the criteria so that, for group B, the production run had to be at least 200. So Porsche decided to produce a road-racing Group B car – unlike many other manufacturers who saw (correctly) that the real Group B excitement was off-road rallying. They toyed with an all-new, mid-engine vehicle, but in the end decided to adapt the veteran 911.
"Adapt" is the wrong word. True, the 911 formed the basis for the new car, but not much of the old car went into the new. If you can find a basic steel panel in the 959, you’re doing well. The front section, for instance, is a mix of polyurethane and fibreglass. Other panels are fibreglass and Kevlar. The bonnet and doors are made from an aluminium alloy, with huge weight savings, and the floor is strengthened with Nomex. Remarkably, this all resulted in a car which set new standards when it came to body strength and rigidity.
Another result was that the 959 was a machine that went like the manure flying off my shovel. The engine was derived from the racing 935/936/956/962, and was - still is - an anorak's dream. The six-cylinder boxer layout is familiar enough, but it now had water-cooled cylinder heads to supplement the more traditional air-cooling.
It had twin sequential turbochargers to banish that curse of the 1980s performance car, turbo lag. And with intercoolers and four valves per cylinder, and the incredibly sophisticated four-wheel-drive system, the 2884 cc power unit was good for 330 kW. Enough to propel the 959 to 100 kph in under four seconds and on to 315 kph. That is high-speed manure in anyone’s book.
The 959 is perhaps more famous for being user-friendly. Not just at high-speed, where that four-wheel drive system and the advanced aerodynamics help to keep it on the straight and narrow, but also at car parking and town driving speeds. Porsche made it clear that this was not meant to be a machine driven only by highly skilled racing drivers. The steering and other controls were light and friendly, and the interior was instantly familiar to anyone who had ever stepped in a 911.
The 959 is a beast of legend. At the Frankfurt Motor Show of 1983, when the prototype was unveiled, it was announced that the price would be around 270,000 DM. That was a lot of money all those years ago, but it was probably a fraction of the car’s true production cost. The 959’s true value to Porsche was its technical legacy. All those advanced features went on to become mainstream, and many consider the 959 to have been instrumental in giving the 911 itself a new lease of life.
And for those lucky enough to own a 959, its true value is slightly simpler to quantify. A 959 is worth a fortune. Millions – and it doesn’t matter what currency you use. I think Bill Gates has got one. Now there’s a man worth a fortune. Curiously, he started in computers just about when I started in agriculture.
Still, they do say, "Where there’s muck there’s brass." If I’m going to join Mr Gates in owning a fabulous and legendary Porsche 959, I’m going to have to do a lot of shovelling. It’ll be just like the 1980s all over again.
PORSCHE 959
Engine: Flat six, 2884 cc, twin turbocharger, air/water cooled
Power: 330 kW
Max speed: 315 kph
Performance, 0 to 100 kph: 3.7 seconds
Combined fuel economy: N/A
SUMMARY: The ultimate jewel in any collector’s crown
