Development of the concept
Development of the Porsche 959 (hereinafter 959) started in 1981, shortly after the employment of company’s then-new Managing Director, Peter Schutz. Porsche’s head engineer at that time, Helmuth Bott, approached new Managing director with some ideas about 959. Helmuth Bott knew that the company needs a sports car that they could continue to rely on for years to come and that could be developed as time went on. Instead of lying back amongst their many laurels, the Porsche decided to bring all the knowledge, experience and hard-won data together, and create a car for the Future – a car that would beat all comers on road and track and which would form the symbol of Porsche. Seeing Group B rally racing as the perfect arena to test the new model and its all wheel drive system, Porsche went ahead to develop a car, for competition in Group B.
Launching in the market, statistics of production
The 1983 Frankfurt Motor Show was chosen by Porsche for the unveiling of its Group B car prototype. The first prototype modified like this was code named “F3”. The street version of the 959 debuted at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show as a 1986 model. The car was manufactured in two modifications: “Komfort” and Clubsport”. The Komfort modification was the most popular and was optimised for road driving and long cruises. Clubsport modification was intended for car race.
First customer deliveries of the 959 began in 1987. The car debuted at a cost of $225,000 USD or 420 000 DM per unit at that time, still less than half what it cost Porsche to build each one. In total, up to Year 1988, 292 units of 959 were built.
Design, interior of 959
959 used a body base of Porsche 911. The design of the car was also very similar to Porsche 911, however new bumpers, with integrated air vents (the rear bumper containing two air vents that would create a vacuum behind the car to draw out hot gasses from the engine) and a new rear spoiler and bootlid highlighted the sport silhouette. The shape, after long testing, was honed in the Porsche established wind tunnel, that ensured the ‘zero lift even in very high speeds this was very important for car handling. Also the back fenders have contained small air intakes, which were intended for cooling.
In order to create solid, lightweight shell, Porsche adopted an aluminium and Kevlar (the roof, fenders were made of this material) composite for body, instead of the steel normally used on their production cars. Kevlar is a material, having very high level of resistance to stretching (if the steel and Kevlar would be compared in respect of weight, Kevlar is 5 times stronger that steel), is especially lightweight, however it is very expensive. The car, made of this material, weighted 1450 kg and was able to achieve high dynamic characteristics.
The leather was dominant in the interior of 959 Komfort modification: the pillars, dashboard and seats trimmed in the finest. The interior colour was open to customer specification. However, despite few minor controls, the interior of 959 was almost identical to Porsche 911 model, therefore the customers complained that it was not as exclusive as it was introduced (i.e. Porsche’s greatest car).
Clubsport modification had decreased weight and roll cage. The carpets were jettisoned, replaced with thin felt, electric and heated seats were replaced with buckets, and standard harnesses replaced the inertia reel seatbelts. The rear perches were lost altogether, and the rear was dominated by a web of intertwined metal tubing – the roll cage.
Technical innovations and specifications of 959
During 1986, 959 held the title as the world’s fastest street-legal production car. As 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 because of the following reasons:
1. It was one of the first high-performance vehicles to use an all-wheel drive system, which can distribute the power to the axes in accordance with the driving conditions;
2. 959 was one of the first serial cars, having changeable turbochargers;
3. The Kevlar material was used for body manufacturing.
Porsche also developed the car’s aerodynamics on purpose to increase stability, as well the automatic height level adjustment suspension was installed in Clubsport modification. This suspension had four height levels and (through shock absorbers) might be adjusted considering the conditions of the road: the lowest level was intended for the track and in the highest level 959 could be driven in snow or crossing shallow fords.
959 also featured Porsche-Steuer Kupplung (PSK) which was at the time the most advanced all-wheel-drive system in a production car. Under hard acceleration, PSK could send as much as 80% of available power to the rear wheels, helping make the most of the rear-traction bias that occurs at such time. It could also vary the power bias depending on road surface. Porsche strived the car to be used to its greatest ability, no matter what the conditions. Thus, there was a dial on the dashboard with which the driver could select modes to conform to the current weather. The system started off as a ‘Wet and Dry’ only – but later during testing of 959 in Scandinavia, the engineers realised that even the ‘wet’ mode was incompetent in snow. A ‘snow’ option was added.
Porsche didnt develop a new engine, but improved the existing one. It was installed a boxer engine, with 2849 ccm displacement, having 6 cylinders and 2 turbochargers, which block was air cooled and the cylinder heads water cooled. Twin turbochargers benefitted from ‘multi-stage turbocharging’, in which boost strength was increased or decreased according to engine revs. This provides a lag-free system, and ensured a constant, smooth acceleration.The engine was coupled to a unique manual gearbox offering 5 forward speeds plus a “G” off-road gear (3500:1). The water-cooled cylinder heads combined with the air-cooled block, 4-valve heads and sequential turbochargers allowed Porsche to extract 450 hp from the compact, efficient and rugged power unit. Such a engine was also installed into Komfort modification without major changes.
Together with Dunlop Porsche created a tire capable to go without a pressure. Called the Denloc, the tyre featured much stiffer sidewalls, thus providing continued support in the event of a deflation, allowing a 959 driver to drive 100 miles, with a speed limited to 70 km/h, with a flat. The pressures were monitored by a computer installed at the dashboard, and the driver was alerted to a pressure drop. On purpose to save a weight, the spare tyre was not fitted in the 959.
Interesting
– In 1992/1993, Porsche built eight 959s assembled from spare parts from the inventory. All eight were “Komfort”-versions: four in red and four in silver. These cars were much more expensive (DM 747,500) than the earlier ones comparing to their prices. The cars were sold to selected collectors and today these cars by far the most sought-after 959s;
– The 959 was not street legal in the United States prior to 1999 when the “Show and Display” law was passed. During the model’s development Porsche refused to provide the United States Department of Transportation with the four 959s they required for crash testing, and the car was never certified by the NHTSA for street use in the U.S. With the passage of “Show and Display” the crash test requirements were removed and importation of the 959 was allowed, assuming the car could meet the emissions standards applicable in 1987. The 959 can be fitted with a catalytic converter and a rechipped computer which allows it to meet those emissions requirements;
– One of the infamous Porsche 959s is owned by Bill Gates. Built in the mid-eighties it was imported to the US. Since the car didnt pass the regulations of United States Department of Transportation? and United States
