BATTLE OF THE AGES
When the Porsche 959 arrived in 1986, it recalibrated expectations of what a supercar could deliver, both in terms of performance and technology. Magazines inevitably compared it with the more visceral Ferrari F40 that debuted the following year, but equally important was the 959 supercar’s role in fast-forwarding the underdeveloped 911 sports car into the modern era.
In fact, so advanced was the 959 that it’s taken until now for a 911 Carrera to match its performance. To learn more, we’re driving a Carrera 4S back-to-back with a perfect 959 from the Porsche Museum at Sonoma Raceway, near San Francisco, finding both commonalities and differences between two Porsches that feature flat-six twin-turbocharged engines, all-wheel drive and 0-62mph times separated by just a tenth.
In a roundabout way, the origins of the 959 go back to when the 917 Le Mans racer was outlawed from the World Sportscar Championship. Porsche switched to Can-Am for ’72 and ’73, and also added turbocharging, unleashing up to 1500bhp. That know-how filtered through to motorsport 911s and the road-going Porsche 911 Turbo of 1974, the
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