Back to the Future With Ahead-Of-Its-Time Porsche 959

By Tony Markovich - May 9, 2016

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There are so many incredible facts about the Porsche 959, it’s hard to pick just one to focus on. For instance, to produce the car, Porsche reportedly lost nearly $300,000 on each car (sold for approximately $215,000/£150,000, with a cost of about $500,000/£350,000 per). Or that the four-valve heads required more cooling than the traditional flat-six air cooling could provide, so the heads were water-cooled, but the block itself was air-cooled. Or that it was the fastest production car in the world, but it still had a radio and air conditioning. All told, the 959 was, and still is, truly an automotive marvel. And the lucky chaps at EVO got to drive one in the video below.

As the story goes, the 959 was the result of a combination of planning the next 911 and using Group B motorsport to accelerate the process. But with Group B focusing on rallying, the 959 never put in a full season; only 911 variants raced, and Group B was shut down after just a few years. But Porsche pushed on, continued building the 959, and eventually produced about 350 of them.

It had all-wheel-drive and electronically adaptive suspension, a 444-horsepower twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter flat-six, and a sexy curvaceous body. It also pushed Ferrari to build the F40. If that’s the sort of thing that revs your engine, here’s an entertaining and informational video you’re going to love.