TRUE BLUE

For many 911 enthusiasts, the 964 is as good as it gets. Granted, the 993 was the ultimate evolution of Porsche’s original air-cooled 911 concept, and there’s no denying the technological developments the model brought with it, but it’s a softer design when compared to its predecessor, a 911 which strikes the perfect balance of performance, reliability and quintessential classic Porsche looks. And if you’re going to invest in a 964, then the one to have is the Carrera RS, right? Absolutely, but did you know the RS came in different flavours to suit different applications? As a case in point, the lesser spotted N/GT was the period’s truest race car for the road.

Porsche achieved huge success in the FIA’s Group C motorsport category, a formula introduced in 1983, primarily for the World Endurance Championship (WEC), its pinnacle being the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 956/962 proved dominant and, as the decade drew to a close, the series was verging on eclipsing the popularity of Formula One, not least because of the colossal performance achieved by participating cars and the inherent danger involved in keeping them planted to the asphalt. Development objectives were aerodynamics for maximum speed with relatively low lift, the least possible weight and optimum stability, enabling each car’s engineering to withstand constant maximum stress over the duration of punishing endurance races.

THE END OF AN ERA

The beginning of the end for Group C came in 1999. Technically, the then new Mercedes CLR was based on the CLK-LM, a car which had been