993 (1994-1998)

During the early 1990s, Porsche was in major financial turmoil. Its cars – chiefly the 964-generation 911, the V8-powered 928 ‘land shark’ and the 944, once Porsche’s most successful offering – were being assembled on separate production lines with few shared components. Meanwhile, impressively affordable, fast and well-built sports cars from the Land of the Rising Sun were eating into market share the Stuttgart brand enjoyed for many decades. The writing was on the wall: Porsche needed to radically cut costs by developing new vehicles alongside one another, regardless of the mammoth expense involved in overhauling the plant at Zuffenhausen and irrespective of the seismic change in thinking required across the company.

A new way of doing things arrived with the adoption of Toyota’s Just-in-Time production methodology, whereby inventory levels are kept low and each technician receives only the parts they need when they need them, resulting in reduced waste, suppressed costs and greater productivity. Changes at boardroom level and a massive overhaul of the Porsche product line, including joint development of the 986 Boxster and 996-generation 911, not to mention discontinuation of the manufacturer’s ‘transaxle’ family of products in their entirety and the development of a then controversial line of SUVs,