The Porche 959 Was Ahead of It's Time

Doug DeMuro shows you all the quirks and features of the Porsche 959 in this video link to his channel

When the Porsche 959 came out in 1986 it was the fastest car in the world. It had a top speed of 198. They only made 345 copies. And that is because it was intended to race in the World Rally Championship, (WRC), Group B category. But Group B was canceled by FIA, the body that governs WRC, because the unlimited horsepower of this class proved to be too dangerous for drivers and fans.

However the 959 did compete in the Paris to Dakar Rally. And it took full advantage of one of the car's quirky features. And that was it had an adjustable suspension.

Here you can see the 959 with it's suspension in the fully raised position. This was not a modification for a racing only version. This was how the car was built. Inside there is a switch to adjust the suspension height.

In the safety section of the Porsche 959 Owners Manual it reads, "Even the 959 has to obey the laws of physics.". So funny! They knew they had the fastest car in the world! And they made fun of themselves over it. That's awesome! And knowing Bill Gates was one of the few Americans who owned one of these cars at the time, you have to wonder if he ever read it.

The Ferrari F40 soon after became the world's fastest car with a top speed of 200mph. But, the technology of the Porsche was still far superior to the Ferrari. The Ferrari F40 is a kind of no-brainer super car. Make something light enough with a big enough engine, and duh, it will go fast.

Hell, I drove my cousin's 1972 454 Corvette up to 170mph and it started floating, so I backed off. There is an article about a guy, in some car mag, with the same 454 Corvette as my cousin's and he put a splitter and a whale tail on it. Guess how fast the same car I backed off at 170mph was then? Yep! 200!

Perhaps America's first supercar, the Corvette with a 454 cubic inch motor is a still considered a very fast car.

Saw a red Porsche 959, in 1991 in Escondido CA. I was on a break from my illustration class with another car geek at an outdoor caffe. And we both noticed how different it sounded from not just every other car, but from other 911s as well. Used to think that pretty much any modern 911 Turbo was the equivalent of a 959. But, I later learned the 959 suspension could be raised and lowered. I knew Porsche had developed the 959 for Group B WRC races. But, when I saw images of the car racing in the Paris-Dakar Rally, I initially thought the suspension set up was customized for the clearance needed in an off-road race. Although the adjustable suspension from the 959 never made it into the regular 911 lineup, some of the technology pioneered in that car did. For instance the AWD system used in the 911 Carrera 4 and Turbo models was born in the 959.

The 959 still stands as a technological marvel. It was the most advanced car of it's time. And even today it is superior to many modern cars. The 959 was the first supercar with All Wheel Drive, aka AWD. And it also was one of the first cars to ever use Kevlar in as a body construction material to save weight. It was also the first Porsche to have an air vent in the rear fender; a design feature that you can see in every Porsche Turbo since. This is to help the car get more air into the power hungry twin turbo motor. It was also the first Porsche and most likely the first car to have a sequential twin turbo motor.

The modern 911 Turbo all have a vented rear fender to allow the car to force more air into the turbos

And while a lot of technology that is in modern 911 Turbo's comes from the 959, the 959 was purpose built to win rallies. And the modern 911 Turbo is purpose built as an all weather highway supercar that you can use as a daily driver. And the specific difference between the two cars is that the 959 has an adjustable suspension that can be used to allow you to take your Porsche off-road! Think about driving this car at 190mph on the Autobahn with lowest suspension, and then finding a dirt road and raising the suspension for some spirited off-roading! The Porsche engineers must be a fun and creative group of people!

The Rothmans Porsche 959 scampering in front of the Pyramids of Egypt is the most iconic image of this car. And it is my personal favorite.

In 1985 Porsche entered 3 cars into the grueling Paris-Dakar Rally. And the fabled and historic race of what was then a prototype car yields only one surviving car that went on sale for $5.95 million. Even a regular version of the car is still very rare, as only 345 were made, goes for somewhere between 1.5 to 2 million dollars. While the 1985 cars didn't finish due to crashes and one oil failure, in 1986, Porsche entered 2 959s in the Paris-Dakar Rally and came in 1st and 2nd, completely dominating the field.

Would love to see Porsche add an off-road package to their modern AWD 911s. Come on Porsche, some of us live in the rural country! Do you know how many fun dirt roads there are in the rural country? Granted, there are a few people out there who didn't ask for Porsche to make this car. They simply took inspiration from Porsche Rally Team history and implemented their own modifications.