Porsche got it wrong with the 959. Actually that’s a bit harsh. They didn’t get it wrong, they just missed the true opportunity laid out in front of them.
Let me explain. The 959 was supposed to be the most bad-ass 911 possible, the ultimate example of Porsche’s capability. But in the end it wasn’t. With the demise of Group B racing, a spiralling development budget and a dwindling market, it cost them vast sums of money, to the point of heavy losses during production and only 260ish cars ever made their way into the hands of the waiting owners. The final result, in 1986, was a car with an interior that looked too much like other lesser 911s of the time, had flaky switchgear and an underdeveloped, motorsport-based powertrain that continually let people down and hit their pocket hard. Owners that failed to treat it like a Queen ended up with a moody diva that would throw continuous mechanical strops.
What Porsche did end up with, however, was a devastatingly effective machine, the fastest production car in the world at the time (until the F40 deposed it a year later), capable of running rings around its opposition. It might not have been as great as it could have been, but it’s still an iconic supercar all these years down the track.
Thankfully for us, at least one made it to our neck of the woods. And what’s even better is that said car gets used. Properly. As evidenced above, diving under hard braking on the back straight at the Reem International Circuit in Saudi Arabia.
