TYPE 930

Despite considerable motorsport success, by the 1970s, Porsche road cars were not seen as equal to those from the truly exotic supercar manufacturers such as Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. That all changed with the arrival of the Porsche 911 Turbo, or 930, which elevated the 911’s performance and the standing of the marque to hitherto unseen heights.

As is often the case in Porsche’s rich history, motorsport played a major part in advancing its road cars. In this instance, inspiration came from the mighty turbocharged 917 used in the Can-Am race series to huge success in 1972 and 1973. Ernst Fuhrmann had progressed from being Porsche’s Technical Director to Chairman of the board at this time and he is credited with bringing turbocharging to the 911. In a telling 1972 interview (with a well-known American journalist based in Germany, Jerry Sloniger), Fuhrmann waxed lyrical about the virtues of turbocharging and is quoted as saying “I wouldn’t exclude the possibility of putting a turbocharger on our road cars someday.”

It wouldn’t take long, as Fuhrmann asked his team to look into the feasibility of adding a turbocharger to the flat-six 2.7-litre engine in the 911 later that year. Early in 1973, an