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Tag: 959

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1987 Porsche 959 Komfort

We could argue the merits of what made the “ultimate” 924/944/968 all day long. A lot depends on what you consider the most desirable, or most pure form. Take that argument to the 911 range, and it becomes even more convoluted. Is it the 901? The RS? The Turbo Carrera? For me, it’s this car.

If the Ferrari F40 was the pin-up hero for most teenage boys, the Porsche 959 was its arch-enemy, and was the car I was always interested in. The F40 was a pared down street racer, while the 959 sported experimental exotic technologies that even 30 years later most cars don’t have – 6 speed manual? Yep. Active suspension? Yep, that too. Hollow spoke wheels with tire pressure monitoring system? Sure, we can do that. Kevlar composite body? Why not? Active torque splitting all-wheel drive system? Let’s give it a go. A technological Tour de Force, the 959 wowed crowds with all of these shocking options when it was launched in a still hard to believe 1985, beating the F40 to the market.

Even at the time it was released, the 959 was a bit of an enigma – did Porsche want to win Le Mans or Paris Dakar with it? Well, it did both – Paris Dakar outright, and it won its class at Le Mans. It was also one of the fastest production cars in the world, with a sub-4 second 0-60 time – something that modern supercars still strive for. Did I mention this car is the best part of 30 years old? Like all of the dream cars that remained firmly out of U.S. buyers hands, the 959 remained a forbidden fruit for many years. But today, even if your name isn’t Gates or Seinfeld, you can own in the U.S. one of the most highly sought after cars ever made – a Carrera White 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort on eBay

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1987 Porsche 959 Komfort

I’m going to stick with interesting ’80s Porsches today for another car to be auctioned off this weekend, this time from Monterey. Unlike yesterday’s 3.2 Carrera Club Sport, which took the basic Carrera and set about removing a few features so as to save weight, with the 959 Porsche sought to combine luxury and performance to produce the best possible supercar. A supercar whose performance would rival the fantastic machines built by Ferrari, but without the sacrifices to comfort and refinement that came with those cars. Not surprisingly given their rarity, we very rarely see a 959 come up for auction. This one appears to have originally been sold in Germany before finding its way to England. There’s no word here on when this 959 arrived in the States, but it’s for sale now and presents a nice opportunity for American buyers who may have long been looking for one.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort at Mecum Auctions Monterey

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One-Off: 1987 Porsche 959 Cabriolet

For fear of having three Porsche features in a row today, I’m going to go ahead with this post regardless. I typically avoid featuring air-cooled Porsches. The market seems saturated with them and values appear to be leveling off for run of the mill variants. In addition, as enthusiasts discover other Porsches that are more rare, such as the 944 Turbo, 968 and 928GTS, values increase for these cars and sometimes surpass their rear-engined counterparts. Those points considered, even though it isn’t fully air-cooled, you don’t see a 959 come up for sale every day. You especially don’t see the only example of a Porsche 959 Cabriolet come up for sale every day. When I first saw this car, it was like seeing a mirage. The transformation from coupe to convertible suits the lines of this 959 fairly well but I admit I did a double take upon seeing it. I knew this wasn’t an officially sanctioned Porsche. Perhaps growing up in the 1980s and seeing 959 bodykits on convertible Porsches reduced the wow factor a bit for me. Blame it on the crystal that aftermarket tuners were smoking back in that decade.

In any case, this one-off for sale in Italy came to be via an unfortunate accident back in 1998, when owner and Porsche racing driver Jürgen Lässig owned it. According to Top Gear, a company called Auto Becker in Germany purchased the wreck and went to work. What resulted is the work you see before you and comes replete with two windscreens (a Speedster version comes with the car which can be swapped in) as well as a hardtop made from the original roof. A US based collector once paid over three million Deutschmarks for this car after setting eyes on it at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Now it is up for sale again at an equally eye-watering price.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 959 Cabriolet on Classic Trader

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1985 Porsche 959 Prototype

Here is something we don’t come across everyday. Not only a very rare Porsche 959, but one of the original prototypes Porsche used for development testing of the components that would be fitted to these technological marvels. The ad below can tell you the specific history of this prototype so I won’t regurgitate that here, but the short version is that this prototype was involved in ABS and tire testing at the high-speed ring in Nardo, Italy. Once 959 production was completed and the prototype was retired from testing service it was returned to the Porsche factory for a full refurbishment before making its way to its first private owner. Its ownership history appears to be fully documented, with much of that history spent in collections in Japan, prior to its current availability. The 959, of course, is one of Porsche’s most historic cars, most famously for the way in which it challenged the Ferrari F40 for supercar supremacy in its day. The two car makers took very different approaches to their supercars with Porsche following its generally tack of combining the best of luxury, technology, and performance in a single package while the F40 stripped out seemingly everything to offer the purest driving expression Ferrari could manage in a road car. While never really the prettiest of machines, the 959 served as a testament to Porsche’s engineering capabilities and provided a testing bed for many features that would make their way to the 911 over the years that followed. The 959 prototypes, like the one seen here, were built off of the 930 chassis and used in a variety of development settings. Reportedly 29 total were built and it is believed that 10 have survived. For collectors with a keen interest in Porsche history, I would imagine the opportunity to have one of those prototypes would be tough to pass by.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 Porsche 959 Prototype on Art and Revs

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Coupe Week: 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort

As we near the end of Coupe Week we’ll take a look at one of the ultimate coupes Porsche has produced. The 959 needs little introduction from me; upon its release it was one of the most jaw-dropping technological marvels buyers would have the opportunity of purchasing. The most obvious contrast to the 959, of course, would be the Ferrari F40. Two different answers from two different marques to the need for a halo car. Like most things Porsche, the 959 is both a showcase of performance, but also refinement and technology that pushed the envelope of how we would even conceive of a supercar. With twin-turbocharging and all-wheel drive the 959 also foreshadowed many of the technological innovations to come for the 911 and paved the way for much of the 911’s continued success. It goes without saying that these are extraordinarily rare to come across for sale so when one does it is always worth a look. Here we have a Silver 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort with Black leather interior and a mere 16,500 kilometers on the clock.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort on Copley Motorcars

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