Outsider: ’87 Porsche 930 Turbo
We seem to remember a road test of the Porsche Turbo performed by Danny Ongais. He liked the car but it was really scary at times and should be driven by skilled enthusiasts only. That was back during the introduction of the Porsche Turbo Carrera in 1976. It was a fast and demanding car to drive. And Danny’s warnings were not taken seriously as many 930s were demolished, mostly caused by wicked oversteer and incompetent pilots. We were working for VW/Porsche Audi back in 1978 when Turbos were a hot commodity. The 930 was Intercooled now, pumping out serious HP. You couldn’t get one at list price anywhere. Dealers in Manhattan were clipping investment bankers another $10 grand over for the privilege. And then Porsche announced 1979 would be the end of the 930 for the USA. That is when Porsche pandemonium hit.
There will be only 500 (if memory serves the writer correctly) Porsche 930 Turbos in 1979. Those 500 (?) people paid lots of money for those cars. Fast forward to 1986 and voila, the Turbo is back. Now it was tuned to meet emissions and sales returned to a brisk pace. Today’s black beauty is an ’87 from the estate of the previous owner. The seller owned a shop that cared for the car for many years. When the owner past, the car was brought to him for service. It sounds like he acquired the car but never officially registered it. Prior to the sellers possession, it was kept outside for three years and some of the black plastic and trim has suffered but the paint remains intact. The interior is remarkable for a car that spent that much time outside. Light gray interior is very unforgiving so this looks like a really nice one. It has a bunch of service records but nothing past 2010. The seller has done some recent ignition work and replace plugs and wires. This is an auction so we don’t know what it will sell for. It has 3 bids with 9 days to go and it is at $20,000. Click here for the listing.
Don’t know which gear you were in, but there was no dog leg first … maybe you were in reverse???
I was 15 when this car hit the market and worked as a valet. I remember this car pulling up and my manager knew how much I wanted to drive one so he flagged me out of the pool of drivers to park it.
I took the keys, pressed down on that heavy spring loaded clutch and slipped that odd dog leg 1st gear into place and stalled it in front of the owner. Several times. I finally got her to go and as soon as I was out of sight I stomped on that gas – Holly hell, it was like God pushed me down the road (after a moment of turbo lag). I landed up breaking her sideways and into a 360 or 2 around a corner and almost wrecked her in an impossibly bad manner. We limped back with my tail between my legs and have forever remembered this car and that night. It was a hell of a thing.