Porsche 959

The Porsche 959 is a supercar manufactured by Porsche AG from 1986 to 1989, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road going vehicle designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring that a minimum number of street legal units be built. It is widely regarded as Porsche’s first true supercar.

During its production run, it was hailed as being the most technologically advanced road-going sports car ever built and the harbinger of the future of sports cars; it was the world’s first high-performance vehicle to use an all-wheel-drive system, it provided the basis for Porsche’s first all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 model and convinced Porsche executives of the system’s viability so well that they chose to make all-wheel-drive standard on all versions of the 911 Turbo starting with the 993 variant. During its lifetime, the vehicle had but one only other street legal peer with comparable performance, the Ferrari F40 .

The 959’s short production run — fewer than 200 road legal versions were built – and astonishing performance have always kept values high. In 2003, Canepa Design corporation, famed for their high-quality SUV conversions, began using new hardware and modification techniques to modify 959s, making them more powerful as well as bringing their emissions levels into acceptable standards so that they could become street legal under recent U.S. legislation, bolstering the vehicle’s status as a collectible among American buyers who were wary of spending vast sums of money on a vehicle that previously they would not have been allowed to drive in the U.S.

When Porsche began development of the 959, it looked towards Group B racing as a road-racing laboratory with which to develop technology for production cars. When Group B became focused on rallying events, however, Porsche felt the relevance to production cars was greatly reduced, and the goal of the 959 project shifted to frank state of the art, cost is no object technological innovation.

In 1984, however, three 911s modified to 959 specifications (due to the requirement that Group B cars be based on production cars with at least 200 built) were used in the Paris-Dakar Rally, with Jacky Ickx the prime motivator. By 1985 the 959 rally variant was ready, however it was a disappointing start: all three cars failed to finish. But in 1986 the 959 finished 1-2, erasing the disappointment of ‘85. The 959 was never seriously considered for a Group B Rally season; the cost of completing a full season far outweighed any technical information gained.

1986 was also the year that the racing variant, the 961, made its debut at the 24 hours of Le Mans, driven by Glyn Wall, finishing first in class and 7th overall. It returned in 1987, but failed to finish after a spin while in 11th place. Thus ended the career of the 961.