PORSCHE INDEX 964 TURBO 3.6

HISTORY AND TECH

The 964 Turbo was almost the car that never was. The Vorstand approved the new 964 range in April 1984 with launch planned in autumn 1987. This would include Typ 965, the turbo version for which Porsche had greater ambitions than with the 930: it was planned that the 965 would share some of the technology of the 959 supercar that Weissach was building. Besides of course being turbocharged, the 965 would have options such as air suspension, four-wheel drive and

PDK as well as some of the aerodynamics of the 959. However, in what was an extraordinarily intense period in Porsche engineering, the timetabling went awry: so innovative was some of the 959 technology that suppliers could not deliver and while that programme fell behind, so did the 965’s. Even the 964 Carrera 4 was launched a year late, and when the C2 followed in 1989, there still was no sign of the Turbo: Porsche’s flagship was missing, an absence which caused much comment.

Project 965, to be called the 969, had stalled, its