Porsche 959 - The Legendary Super Sports Car

Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by Porsche from 1986 to 1989, first as a Group B rally car and later as a legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring that a minimum number of 200 street legal units be built.

Among other vehicles, Porsche brought the legendary winning vehicle of the Paris-Dakar rally to the Eifel, flanked by its successors, the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder.

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The 919 Hybrid, which recently secured the 17^th overall victory for Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, rounded off the appearance. Another highlight took place in the Porsche Classic exhibition tent: motor racing legend Jacky Ickx came to give an interview followed by an autograph session.

An expert team from Porsche Classic offered owners of historic Porsche models assistance on issues of repair and selecting suitable parts. Porsche Classic currently has more than 52,000 original parts and accessories, such as the new Porsche Classic radio navigation system.

Specially developed for Porsche, it combines state-of-the-art technology with classic design and fits into all classic models with a 1-DIN slot. Also on display at the Porsche site covering more than 14,000 square metres were the drivetrain of a recently rediscovered 901 from 1964 and vehicles from the Porsche Museum.

Added to this were exhibits from Porsche Exclusive and Tequipment as well as the event truck from the Porsche Driver’s Selection featuring the current collection.

The 959 embarked on its triumphant procession at rallies and race circuits. The super sports car made its debut as a technology platform and the fastest production car in the world, which was limited to 292 vehicles.

Thanks to the innovative sequential turbocharging and intercooling, an in-house development by Porsche, the 2.85-litre six-cylinder boxer engine produced 450 hp.

Power transmission was the responsibility of a six-speed gearbox and an electronically controlled trans-axle all-wheel drive, which was tested in the victorious Porsche 953 at the Paris-Dakar rally in 1984.

In addition to the rally version of the 959, which won the 1986 Paris-Dakar, Porsche Classic will also be exhibiting one of the street-legal limited production series models. Together with the Carrera GT and the 918 Spyder, the 959 documents how Porsche as maintained the idea of the super sports car as a technology platform up to the present day.

Development of the Porsche 959 (originally called the Gruppe B) started in 1981, shortly after the company’s then-new Managing Director, Peter Schutz, took his office. Porsche’s head engineer at the time, Helmuth Bott, approached Schutz with some ideas about the Porsche 911, or more aptly, a new one. Bott knew that the company needed a sports car that they could continue to rely on for years to come and that could be developed as time went on. Curious as to how much they could do with the rear-engined 911, Bott convinced Schutz that development tests should take place, and even proposed researching a new all wheel drive system. Schutz agreed, and gave the project the green light. Bott also knew through experience that a racing program usually helped to accelerate the development of new models. Seeing Group B rally racing as the perfect arena to test the new mule and its all wheel drive system, Bott again went to Schutz and got the go ahead to develop a car, based on his development mule, for competition in Group B.

Porsche Classic is a division of the Zuffenhausen-based sports car manufacturer responsible for the maintenance of vehicles which were generally produced more than ten years ago. Its services cover all aspects of care and technical literature as well as the supply and reproduction of original parts and even extend to complete restoration.

The company is currently expanding its international dealer and service network to around 100 Porsche Classic Partners for the support and overhaul of classic cars. Porsche customers and potential customers can expect the complete range of Porsche Classic services from the Partners’ centres.

Through this measure, Porsche has integrated the care and value retention of modern classic and vintage cars into a comprehensive service concept, closely linking Porsche tradition and Porsche innovation.

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