Tuesday 30th January 2018

Porsche 959: Time for Tea?

The barrier to most people buying the all-wheel-drive wundercar was price. Unless you were an American in 1988

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It goes without saying that the Porsche 959 deserves the Petrolicious treatment in any circumstance - Zuffenhausen's idea of a Group B rally car being among its most evocative engineering triumphs - but that goes double when you're reminded of the travails that the model's American buyers had to go through to finally experience their purchase on the road.

We won't spoil the story, except to say that it revolves around Bruce Canepa, the former racing driver and current Californian dealership owner, who went above and beyond to ensure that imported 959s wouldn't see out their lives as museum pieces (or, in the case of Bill Gates' car, as a talking point for the Customs Service, after it famously languished at the Port of San Francisco for 13 years).

As an aside, it's worth noting that the Show and Display law which eventually resulted - allowing low volume cars of historical or technological significance to be approved by the NHTSA without destructive testing - meant that models as diverse as the Aston Martin One-77, Ford RS200, Jaguar XJ220, Lamborghini Diablo GT and Mercedes CLK-GTR could be imported, and driven on the public highway.

So we can add 'making America better' to the long list of 959 virtues.

 

[cybersimon]

First line of the article

"It goes without saying that the Porsche 595 deserves the Petrolicious treatment in"

How do you spell Nine Five Nine Pistonheads?

[numtumfutunch]

If only the "show or display" rule was a UK/EU directive that meant it was mandatory to put 5000 miles a year on anything deemed by the PH collective to be a potential "flipper"

[Loyly]

The 959 is one of my favourite sports cars of all time. It's easily my favourite Porsche, and is truly the stuff that dreams are made of. Magnificent.

[dibblecorse]

cybersimon said:

First line of the article

"It goes without saying that the Porsche 595 deserves the Petrolicious treatment in"

How do you spell Nine Five Nine Pistonheads?

Maybe the article was meant to be about the cheeky little Abarth but the PH Porsche fanboys got all confuddled and realised we hadn't had a Porsche centric article in all of 15 minutes ?????

[Gameface]

The standard of articles and proofreading on here is atrocious.

[Dinoboy]

Always loved the 959!

[knight]

I recently found a 959 poster that I had on my bedroom wall when I was at school, I'm 46 now!

[The Green Triangle]

Good car the 959...I always remember fighting over this or the F40 in top trumps....

Anyone own both?

[BIRMA]

There is some fantastic footage of them at the Paris Dakar what a car.

[GranCab]

Nic Cockupp strikes again ...

[FocusRS3]

Love these cars . Especially the fact that the now bankrupt Boris Becker collected his from the factory and immediately maxed it on the autobahn. Top lad

[fatboy69]

Beautiful & effortless to drive.

Complex car for its time. The last of the ‘Grouppe B’ cars.

I loved my time behind the wheel of The Patrick Collections silver car.

[HTP99]

The 959 is right at the top of my Euro millions win list, closely followed by the McLaren F1.

I've always loved the 959, from the moment I saw on at an Earls Court motor show, I've only ever seen one on the road and that was in my home town outside KFC, back in the early 90's.

I've an Autocar in my work desk drawer, with a 959 roadtest, I must dig it out; haven't a clue from what year it is though.

[Richard A]

cybersimon said:

First line of the article

"It goes without saying that the Porsche 595 deserves the Petrolicious treatment in"

How do you spell Nine Five Nine Pistonheads?

Slightly appropriate, I suppose, as it's only 2 away from the Porsche 597 Jagdwagen which was the first Porsche badged car with 4WD (so not counting the Porsche-Cisitalia 360).

[b11ocx]

I remember one overtaking me on the M1 in the late eighties.... it was almost shockingly fast !

[bungle]

knight said:

I recently found a 959 poster that I had on my bedroom wall when I was at school, I'm 46 now!

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

And me. Definitely silver. Big poster. Got it from the motor show.

[Big GT]

As a kid loved these. Remember the Tamiya RC 959 rally car with 4wd?

Time passed and I had long forgotten the 959 until one summers day I around 15 years ago I disembarked off a roundabout to head up a long quiet straight Nottinghamshire A road in Robin Hood land.
Flooring my 300zx I thus overtook 2 chavy hatchbacks feeling good. Whilst my foot was still bedded into the carpet a superbike of some sorts was up my backside hence after shuffling to the left (still floored) screamed passed me. Tailing this bike was a white 959 in all the livery, the bikealist had to pull left and Porsche just left us all.

Not only did it look and sound wonderful, never have I seen a car shift so quick on public roads.

[Tin Hat]

There was an interesting article about the 959 in Octane a while ago, the tech in the magnesium wheels caught my attention, apparently they are cast hollow and they become a pressurised void with the tyre- They also have a TPMS system that was possibly a first on a production car.

Amazing piece of engineering.

[Leins]

Also love the racing 961 version

[kainedog]

Must be rare as only seen one on the road , certainly seen more f40s . Sure the one I saw was red