The Complete Book of Porsche 911
Page 14
WHEELBASE
2290mm/90.2 inches
LENGTH
4260mm/167.7 inches
WIDTH
1840mm/72.4 inches
HEIGHT
1490mm/59.6 inches
WEIGHT
1450kg/3190 pounds Komfort
1350 kg/2,970 pounds Sport
BASE PRICE
$217,500
TRACK FRONT
1514mm/59.6 inches
TRACK REAR
1525mm/60.0 inches
WHEELS FRONT
8.0Jx17
WHEELS REAR
9.0Jx17
TIRES FRONT
235/45ZR17
TIRES REAR
255/40ZR17
CONSTRUCTION
Composite, galzanized steel, aluminum, plastic
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, double wishbones, twin coil-over variable rate/height shock absorbers per wheel, anti-roll bar
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, double wishbones, single coil-over variable rate/height shock absorber per wheel, anti-roll bar
BRAKES
Ventilated, drilled discs, 4-piston aluminum calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ 959/50, water-cooled cylinder heads
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
2850cc/173.9CID
BORE AND STROKE
95x67mm /3.74x2.64 inches
HORSEPOWER
450@6500rpm
TORQUE
369lb-ft@5000rpm
COMPRESSION
8.3:1
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch DME, Sequential twin turbochargers, intercoolers
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
4.125:1
TOP SPEED
196mph
PRODUCTION
16 prototypes, 21 pre-production cars, 163 Komfort, 30 US Sport
1987-1989 911 CARRERA
H Program cars for 1987 saw significant improvements. The most noticeable for Carrera buyers was a new hydraulically operated clutch and five-speed transmission, the G50 model from Getrag. It introduced a new shift pattern, relocating reverse from right-and-down to left-and-up. Getrag’s linkages and Borg-Warner’s synchromesh system made shifting smoother and easier. Engine tweaks increased output of all catalyst-equipped Carrera engines from 207 to 217 DIN horsepower, still trailing behind the uncatalyzed engines producing 231 horsepower.
Optional on Carreras and standard on Turbos, two new power supplies appeared on the cabriolets. Through a system of motors and flexible and mechanical drives, owners could raise or lower the cloth top in 20 seconds from the comfort of their seats. This complex system incorporated 22 pivot points and 13 control levers, roof bows, and frames. It operated only when the vehicle was stationary. The plastic polycarbonate rear window still had to be zippered into place.
After several years as an option, the M505/506 steel slant-nose treatment for the Turbo became a regular production model designation, the Turbo SE in the United Kingdom and the 930S in the United States, starting in March 1987. Porsche manufactured a total of 591 of these bodies in coupe, Targa, and cabriolet configuration, with distribution around the world. Coupes sold for DN 202,330, roughly $93,240 at the factory at the time.
Beginning with 1987 and continuing through 1989, Porsche offered a Club Sport version of the Carrera coupe. The cars, with 231 DIN horsepower, were not available in the United States and sold originally for DM 80,500, roughly $44,700 at the factory. In addition to 189 coupes over two years, Zuffenhausen produced a single Targa Club Sport. All 190 came with a stiffer suspension, the fixed whale-tail rear wing, a front spoiler, and a Club Sport graphic on the nose of the car.
Porsche improved door seals and added discrete rain gutters to the Targa roof to better protect occupants in inclement weather. The Targa sold for 80,880DM in Germany and $33,450 in the United States.
To the great happiness of American customers, U.S.-destined 911s now looked like those for the rest of the world, better fared-into the fender lines. Front tires grew from 185/70-15 to 195/65-15.
The most significant change to 1987 models lay ahead of the engine in the new G50 transmission with Borg-Warner synchromesh and hydraulic clutch. Engine output of catalyst-equipped Typ 930/25 engines increased to 217 horsepower at 5,900 rpm.
Just after Porsche introduced its J Program 1988 model year to the public, the world’s financial picture changed considerably. Currency exchange rates already had affected Porsche’s profits, especially from sales in the United States. The dollar brought 1.8 deutsche marks on average until soon after October 19, 1987. That day on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 508 points, losing nearly 23 percent of its value. Through 1987 Porsche production slipped to 48,520 cars. U.S. sales that year dipped to 23,632 units, below half the total for the first time in more than a decade. Numbers fell further in 1988, when U.S. sales of all models reached just 15,737. Peter Schutz slashed production.
Porsche, hoping to precipitate buyer interest, celebrated the milestone of 250,000 911s manufactured on June 3, 1987. For 1988, on the 25th anniversary of the 911, Porsche released a commemorative model in Diamond Blue metallic paint and loaded with extra features as standard equipment, including a passenger power seat, central locking capabilities, and a headlight- and more extensive windshield-washing system. The cars were available as coupe, Targa, or cabriolet models. Seats, in silver blue crushed leather, had headrests embossed with Ferry Porsche’s signature. The company assembled 875 anniversary cars; 250 remained in Germany, 300 came to the United States, and the rest sold into other markets.
Throughout model years 1987, 1988, and 1989, Porsche manufactured 189 of these Club Sport Carreras. The company deleted anything not necessary for competition, including standard Carrera fog lights.
The only “badge” on the Club Sport was this graphic along the front fender. Porsche sold the 1988 model for 82,000DM, roughly $46,590, at the factory. The company manufactured a few Club Sport Targa models.
Porsche fitted the simplest whale tail rear wing to the car. Horsepower output remained unchanged at 231 (making it a non-U.S. product), but the Typ 930/20 engine revved more quickly due to lighter intake valves.
Rear seats came out, as did the radio, the covers over the door pocket, sun visors, and power window systems. Compared with the 1,210-kilogram (2,662-pound) Carrera coupe, the Club sport weighed 1,160 kilograms (2,552 pounds).
In the final year of the 911 Carrera 3.2, Porsche introduced a Speedster version, 35 years after bringing out the original 356 model. The company produced them both in narrow body and Turbo Look versions.
There was no difference between the instrument panel and seats of the Speedster and the Carrera Cabriolet models. Porsche fitted a slightly lower windshield in an aluminum frame that owners could remove from the car.
The most significant styling statement of the car came from its distinctive rear “humps,” part of the plastic rear hatch that tilted up for manual roof access. The car was strictly a two-seater.
Porsche manufactured 2,103 Turbo Look Speedsters. They sold for 110,000DM in Germany and $65,480 in the United States.
YEAR
1987-1989
DESIGNATION
911 Carrera
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Coupe, Clubsport Coupe, Targa, Cabriolet;
Speedster and Speedster Turbo Look (1989 only)
WHEELBASE
2272mm/89.4 inches
LENGTH
4291mm/168.9 inches
WIDTH
1652mm/65.0 inches
1775mm/69.9 inches (Speedster Turbo Look)
HEIGHT
1320mm/52.0 inches
1220mm/48.0 inches (both Speedsters)
WEIGHT
1260kg/2772 pounds (coupe, Targa, Cabrio)
1160kg/2552 pounds (Clubsport)
1210kg/2662 pounds (Speedster)
1290kg/28
38 pounds (Speedster Turbo Look)
BASE PRICE
$33,450 (1987 Targa)
$33,745 (1988 Clubsport)
$65,480 (1989 Speedster)
TRACK FRONT
1398mm/55.0 inches
1372mm/54.0 inches (Speedster)
1432mm/56.4 inches (Speedster Turbo Look)
TRACK REAR
1405mm/55.3 inches (Speedster)
1492mm/58.7 inches (Speedster Turbo Look)
WHEELS FRONT
7.0Jx15 - (7.0Jx16 Speedster Turbo Look)
WHEELS REAR
8.0Jx15 - (9.0Jx16 Speedster Turbo Look)
TIRES FRONT
195/65VR15
(205/55ZR16 Speedsters)
TIRES REAR
215/60VR15
(245/45ZR16 Speedsters)
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, wishbones, MacPherson struts, Longitudinal torsion bars, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti-roll bar
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, light alloy semi-trailing arms, transverse torsion bars, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti-roll bar
BRAKES
Ventilated, discs, 2-piston cast iron calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ 930/20
(930/21 for US, Canada, Japan)
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
3164cccc/193.1CID
BORE AND STROKE
95x70.4mm/3.74x2.77 inches
HORSEPOWER
231@5900rpm (930/20)
207@5900rpm (930/21)
TORQUE
209lb-ft@4800rpm (930/20)
192lb-ft@4800rpm (930/21)
COMPRESSION
10.3:1 (930/20) – 9.5:1 (930/21)
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch LE-Jetronic
fuel injection
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
3.44
TOP SPEED
152mph
PRODUCTION
35,571 coupes, 14,486 Targas, 19,987 Cabriolets all years
189 Clubsport coupes,
1 Clubsport Targa;
171 Speedsters;
2,103 Speedster Turbo Look
The 930 S used the Performance Kit option, taking the 3,299cc (201.2-cubic-inch) turbocharged/intercooled Typ 930/60S engine to 330 horsepower at 5,750 rpm. Several modifications through Porsche’s Sonderwunsch, “Special Wishes,” department brought output up considerably higher.
1990 930 S Turbo Cabriolet
Company engineers and designers got involved with this project once everyone recognized that this was the final 3.3-liter Turbo to be produced.
Starting with model year 1987, Porsche referred to the Slant Nose Turbo models as the 930 S, offering them in coupe, Targa, and Cabriolet models. Louvers atop the front wheels were an extra cost option, 2,185DM, $1,162.
A sensor registered rainfall, lowered side windows, raised and locked the cloth top, closed the windows, re-armed the alarm, and sent the owner a pager message.
Alois Ruf fitted the “Group C Turbo Ruf” coupe with his twin-turbocharged 3.4-liter flat six, developing 469 horsepower at 5,950 rpm. When Road & Track magazine set out to find the fastest car on earth, this CTR reached 342 kilometers (213 miles) per hour on the Nardo circuit in Italy. Photograph courtesy Ruf Automobile GmbH
1987 RUF CTR “YELLOW BIRD”
To establish another milestone, Alois Ruf accepted a challenge from Road & Track magazine to determine the fastest car on earth. He created what looked like a standard Carrera, painted it yellow, and designated it CTR 001. Despite its brilliant color, its looks were severely understated, part of Ruf’s shrewd philosophy. The car weighed just 1,173 kilograms (2,580 pounds), with 469 DIN horsepower on tap. Ruf and his staff modified the body to be more slippery, the suspension and brakes to handle exceptional speeds, and, of course, the engine to produce them. The magazine nicknamed it Yellow Bird, and when its trial against a dozen challengers was complete, Ruf’s narrow-body turbo had reached 211 miles (338 kilometers) per hour, making it the fastest of the lot. He assembled another 28 CTRs and converted 25 (or so) more 3.2 Carrera coupes into the 469-horsepower turbocharged coupes.
Porsche again used the 1987 Frankfurt show to test customer response and excite buyers by showing a “design study” called the 911 Speedster. Weighing about 70 kilograms (154 pounds) less than the production cabriolet, the Speedster was strictly a two-seater, with an unpadded, hand-operated cloth top hidden beneath a molded plastic tonneau cover. According to Jürgen Barth, this was to be the first of three variations on the Speedster that also included a removable hardtop version and a Club Sport version with a tiny windshield that was strictly meant for road course competition.
Porsche’s Speedster, fitted with the standard Carrera 3.2-liter engine of 207 SAE horsepower in the United States and 231 DIN elsewhere, became part of the 1989 model year K Program. Coupe, Targa, and cabriolet models continued largely unchanged, except for a new alarm/immobilizer system that placed light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the door lock buttons as standard equipment. Engineers worked out the kinks of mating the Turbo’s power and torque to the Getrag transmission, and the G50 five-speed became standard for 1989. Porsche manufactured 2,103 Turbo-look Speedsters and 171 standard-body models for worldwide markets. But its previously largest market, the United States, was hemorrhaging. Sales of all models in America reached only 9,479 cars.
Over the course of its life, from 1984 through 1989, Porsche had raised the price of the 3.2 Carrera coupe from DM 61,950 (roughly $21,737 at the time) on introduction to DM 86,000 ($45,745 in 1989 dollars). U.S. buyers saw prices increase from $31,960 to $51,204. Comparing dollars to deutsche marks is not exactly pricing apples against oranges. The difference in those figures reflected the healthy profit Porsche enjoyed from favorable exchanges. The more than doubling in dollar values of home-market prices represented Schutz’s efforts to maintain costs, trim overhead (he interrupted production for a week or longer each month starting in 1988 to keep employees on the payroll and the company alive), and to return some profit to owners.
Unfortunately, neither Schutz nor Helmuth Bott, who had conceived it, was at Porsche to see the 1989 Carrera Speedster come to the market. Bott had supervised the 959, and while it garnered Porsche thousands of pages of newspaper and magazine attention, crediting the company with advancing the state of the art in automotive technology, the entire project cost the company nearly half a billion deutsche marks. In 1988 dollars at 1.76 to the deutsche mark, that figure of roughly $240 million amounted to roughly $720,000 per car, about three times the delivery price. Peter Schutz shouldered the responsibility for high costs and overruns. Blame did not come from the owners, but it resonated with several of them and among outside shareholders, who lost 30 percent of their share value as effects of the 1987 market crash rippled around the world.
Peter Schutz endured two tough years. During the last one, for most of 1987, his wife, Sheila, lived in Florida, where she built a business restoring, renovating, and reselling homes. She visited him regularly, but she found Germany’s male-dominated society uninviting to an independent outsider with ambition. Schutz suspected that those who blamed him for economic downturns welcomed the chance to end his contract a year early. In early December, Porsche’s Supervisory Board accepted his resignation. By mid-January 1988, he was at home in Florida.
Helmuth Bott, having lost his champion in the abrupt and dramatic change of management, held on at Weissach until late 1988 to see off the last of the 959s. When they were gone, except for a few spare parts to build a few final cars a few years later, he retired. He was 63. At the beginning of his career, he had tamed the handling of the 356s. At the end, he established a new automotive category, the super car. His 959 became the ultimate driving machine, the target for other manufacturers who dared to dream.
The CTR engine, with 98mm (3.86-inch) bore and 74.4mm (2.93-inc
h) stroke, displaced 3,366cc (205.3 cubic inches). The car, nicknamed Yellow Bird for its bright color during a dull grey day photo shoot, weighed 1,170 kilograms (2,580 pounds). Cars sold for 288,000DM, roughly $160,000. Photograph courtesy Ruf Automobile GmbH
YEAR
1987
DESIGNATION
Ruf CTR “Yellow Bird”
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Coupe
WHEELBASE
2272mm/89.4 inches
LENGTH