The Complete Book of Porsche 911
Page 16
By this time, Peter Schutz had gone. Styling chief Tony Lapine, recuperating from a heart attack, was asked to stay home, and Helmuth Bott had left. Porsche hired Ulrich Bez from BMW to take over Bott’s role as technical director. He immediately reexamined engine possibilities for the 965. As 911 development chief Fritz Bezner watched the debate, he began planning a fallback strategy. The Turbo was a profit leader for Porsche. Doing without one would hurt the company. He recognized that the 964 Turbo could grow from the “Sportkit” 330-horsepower version of the 3.3-liter 930 engine. It needed catalytic converters, requiring intake, exhaust, and cylinder head modifications. A month before the full management board meeting on December 20, Bez ordered Bezner to hurry development of this engine. Bez and passenger car chief engineer Horst Marchart set a target of 300 horsepower. At the meeting, the board agreed this was the new production 964 Turbo; and it killed the 965, sending its 16 running prototypes to crushers, cutting torches, and storage.
The new Turbo accelerated from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 5.0 seconds and was capable of a top speed of 270 kilometers (167 miles) per hour. It cost 183,600DM, about $110,600, at the factory.
The company fitted 17-inch “Cup-Design” wheels to the Turbo. The car ran 205/50ZR17 tires on the front and 225/40ZR17 on the rear. It weighed 1,470 kilograms, 3,234 pounds.
The 3,299cc (201.2-cubic-inch) Typ M30/69 engine developed 320 horsepower at 5,750 rpm. Porsche used cross-drilled rotors and four-piston fixed calipers with a reconfigured ABS to stop the car.
For the 1991 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland season, Paul Strähle’s AutoSport operation in Schöndorf won the championship with their driver Roland Asch in this car. It was their third championship in four years.
Roland Kussmaul in the racing department created these Cup cars. He lowered suspension 55mm (2.17 inches) and fitted specially manufactured Bilstein shock absorbers. The Typ M64/01 Cup engine developed 265 horsepower at 6,100 rpm.
Stylist Tony Hatter went back to work. “We had to redo it completely,” he said. “Take off all the aggressive looking hoops and things and make it a reasonable car.” Instead he widened front and rear bodywork and, with the help of engineers and aerodynamicists, created a new rear wing and new oval outside mirrors, adopted from Carrera Cup racers.
Porsche started production in May 1990 for the 1991 model year in Europe. Bezner retuned the 3,299cc (201.2-cubic-inch) engine to an emissions-controlled 320 DIN horsepower at 5,750 rpm, with 332 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm. His engineers adjusted the ABS and fitted cross-drilled rotors and four-piston fixed calipers on all wheels. A new limited slip differential, with variable “lockup” factors under acceleration, coasting, and braking, effectively managed the earlier Turbo’s characteristic oversteer. Porsche introduced the car at DM 183,600 ($110,600 in 1991 dollars). Remarkably, the company sold the car for $95,000 in the United States.
Weissach gutted the interior of all creature comforts but added a rigid roll cage and Recaro racing seat. The instrument panel, however, and the steering wheel, gear shifter, and foot pedal group were stock.
Two more target conflicts came to resolution in a performance record for the Turbo. The U.S. Congress enacted corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) ratings. In effect, this system permitted large auto manufacturers to develop and assemble less-efficient gas guzzlers, so long as they also sold fuel-efficient models that reduced the company’s fuel economy average to reach federal targets. To smaller companies such as Porsche, this situation represented a sizable hurdle. A fundamental technique to reduce fuel consumption was to slow engine speed by using higher gear ratios to achieve the same road velocity. Slower engines also ran quieter, a benefit to Swiss buyers, who encountered roadside microphones that enforced their country’s strict noise regulations. However, since gearing changes did not affect peak engine speed, higher gears produced higher velocities. As a result, German and English magazines testing the new Turbo reached speeds of 274 kilometers (171 miles) per hour. While government regulatory challenges such as these taxed engineers, designers, and production chiefs at Porsche, a more modest project in the racing department that invited U.S. scrutiny took form.
Late in 1988, Jürgen Barth proposed to competition director Peter Falk that Porsche might assemble two or three 964 RSR racers based on the C2 platform using 3.4-liter engines to compete in the 24-hour endurance race at Nürburgring. Porsche sales, including customer race car sales, had fallen with the depressed exchange rates. Years earlier, Norbert Singer had given a presentation graphically proving that when Porsche raced, sales rose. Falk approved the Nürburgring cars and a second project as well, one strictly for customers, based on the 964 C4 platform and some exotic spare parts Weissach had in storage.
Historically, when Porsche developed a new-technology race car, it assembled the few examples that other competitors and the public would see. But it also ordered many sets of spare parts. In the case of the 953-959 Paris–Dakar entries, Porsche produced three cars but had 30 sets of all-wheel-drive running gear. Barth envisioned producing a car similar to the 961 but for customer use for circuit racing.
He knew all about Ferdinand Piëch’s 911Rs. He had tested prototype 911 RS Carrera 2.7s and the racing RSR 2.8 and 3.0 models. FIA regulations at the time offered no series for all-wheel-drive cars to race, but Barth had seen manufacturers exert influence before. He felt certain that if Porsche pressed the point, a series and venues for races would open up. This was 1988, not 1973 or 1967, however; the element of timing made this car intriguing and its story and the lessons it produced relevant.
Throughout the world, those who survived the 1987 stock market crash and avoided bankruptcy sought new means to work their money. Successful business leaders always collected trophies, and although Porsche’s dealers could not sell a $70,000 Carrera to these folks, “investors” with no interest or experience with racing were buying Porsche 908 race cars for $400,000 and selling them a month later for $700,000. Legitimate race cars, even if they never raced, became a new investment target.
1992 Turbo S Coupe
Known internally as “the lightweight,” the S came in at 1,290 kilograms, 2,838 pounds, with 381 horsepower at 5,750 rpm, due primarily to different camshafts in the Typ M30/69SL engine. The company sold the cars only in Europe for 295,000DM, roughly $189,100. Photograph © 2011 Dieter Landenberger
One factor made Barth’s idea timely. In Washington, EPA and DOT regulators clamped down on “gray market” auto importers in 1987, enforcing rules they previously had monitored less vigorously. Red flags went up in U.S. Customs sheds, because a growing number of 1973 RS 2.7s came into the United States as race cars. These didn’t look like racers; they had full interiors, and very few had roll bars. A dozen years later, this tripped up PCNA’s efforts to bring in 959s and set off alarms anytime a Porsche appeared. As racing journalist Kerry Morse explained it, “You can’t bring a car into the U.S. with a seventeen-digit serial number, a roll bar, and air conditioning, and call it a race car. The folks at the EPA and DOT are not stupid.” Their diligence, however, contributed to the racing car investment frenzy.
Porsche Cars North America proposed a Carrera Cup series for the United States, but was unable to come to agreement with any sanctioning body for 1992, so only few cars reached American racers. Most were converted back to production models.
For the 1992 season engineers found another 10 horsepower in the planned M64/03 CUP USA engine to increase output to 275 at 6,100 rpm. Instead of opening a season in the United States, Porsche succeed in launching the series in Japan.
YEAR
1991-1992
DESIGNATION
911 Turbo
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Coupe
WHEELBASE
2272mm/89.4 inches
LENGTH
4250mm/167.3 inches
WIDTH
1775mm/69.9 inches
HEIGHT
1310mm/51.6 inches
WEIGHT
1470kg/3234 pounds
BASE PRICE
$95,000
TRACK FRONT
1434mm/56.5 inches
TRACK REAR
1493mm/58.8 inches
WHEELS FRONT
7.0Jx17
WHEELS REAR
9.0Jx17
TIRES FRONT
205/50ZR17
TIRES REAR
255/40ZR17
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, lower wishbones, MacPherson struts w/coil springs, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti roll bar
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, MacPherson struts w/coil springs, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti roll bar
BRAKES
Ventilated, drilled discs, 4-piston aluminum calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ M30/69
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
3299cc/201.3CID
BORE AND STROKE
97x74.4mm/3.82x2.93 inches
HORSEPOWER
320@5750rpm
TORQUE
332lb-ft@4500rpm
COMPRESSION
7.0:1
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch DME with sequential injection
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
3.44:1
TOP SPEED
167mph
PRODUCTION
3,660 coupes in 1991, 1992
When the goal was ultra light weight and the man in charge of the project was racer and customer racing manager Jürgen Barth, the result was a no-frills coupe weighing 1,100 kilograms, 2,200 pounds, compared to the stock C4 coupe at 1,450 kilograms, 3,190 pounds.
1990-1991 CARRERA 4 LIGHTWEIGHT
Two significant race car features motivated speculators: These cars were purpose built in ultralimited quantities, and those numbers were easily verified. So these cars were importable. Morse also knew Jürgen Barth, calling on him during his frequent visits to Germany and often staying in Barth’s home. On one trip in mid-1989, he stopped in and asked his friend what was new.
Barth explained that he planned to gut the 964 interior and body of all excess weight and install beefed-up running gear to create a 964 RS. He said he was considering assembling just a few—8, 10, 12—cars at around DM 200,000, roughly $110,000 at the time. Morse committed to buying one on the spot.
About a month later, Helmut Flegl, who was number two in engineering behind Ulrich Bez, questioned the project. Flegl was codeveloping the 964 Carrera Cup cars with Roland Kussmaul, and he wondered where Barth’s RS fit in their programs. Barth responded to each inquiry and pressed ahead, ultimately removing close to 350 kilograms (770 pounds) of weight from the C4s. He replaced doors and front and rear deck lids with thin gauge aluminum and side windows with Plexiglas. A roll bar ran the perimeter of the stark interior, which was most remarkable for its two large knurled knobs on the instrument panel. These were not Turbo boost controls, familiar to many 935 racers, because this engine was normally aspirated. These two controls directed differential bias from front to rear and left to right.
Modified electronics and the free-flow exhaust boosted engine output to 265 DIN horsepower, up from the stock 3.6-liter engine’s 250. A stainless-steel exhaust system made this one of the loudest 911 racers in history. It weighed about 1,105 kilograms (2,430 pounds) and from the outside appeared unremarkable, with neither flares nor modified bodywork. As the first example neared completion, the new Carrera 4 Leichtbau, or C4 Lightweight, earned one last important distinction.
After the dozens of failed attempts to import 1973 RS 2.7s and later 959s with 17-digit serial numbers, almost anything Porsche manufactured earned critical scrutiny from EPA, DOT, and U.S. Customs inspectors. Porsche race cars usually had six-digit serial numbers without letters. Barth got the Lightweights numbered beginning with 964001, like factory works racers rather than like customer cars with identification beginning with WPOZZZ.
Word spread among Porsche race car devotees. This was a car that might never race, but it was rare and available. The run grew to 21 cars and sold out. Number 964001 went to a collector in the United States. It and the next three emerged between September and November 1990 as 1991 models. Internal politics drove up Barth’s hoped-for price of DM 225,000DM to DM 285,000 at delivery, roughly $172,000 at the time; some of Porsche’s decision makers had seized the opportunity to wring extra profit from this odd market. This price was difficult to accept when race-ready 964 Carrera Cup cars, for which a series in Europe and the United States already existed, cost DM 123,000, or about $78,365 in the United States. Some people wondered aloud if 953 running gear was worth an extra $100,000. Deliveries continued through 1991, but the “collector car as investment” bubble was set to burst.
On the eve of the 1993 recession, prices for cars such as the Porsche 917K crept above $4 million, and some historic race cars sold for as much as $25 million. Prices swelled to many times life size as sharp speculators skipped to the next trend. This left hundreds of amateur players holding cars attached to ruinous loans. Barth had to send letters to buyers reminding them of their commitments.
One of its most interesting features was fully adjustable drive balance not only front to rear but left to right. The Typ M64/C4L engine developed 265 horsepower at 6,750 rpm, making the C4 lightweight an extremely potent product. Porsche assembled something like 21 of these cars.
Car 964021 left Weissach in late 1992. The C4 Lightweights made money for Porsche, as Barth’s projects nearly always had done. It cost Porsche nothing to delete sound insulation and add parts that had been gathering dust. The legacy of these cars lived on in the message that special limited editions appealed to loyal enthusiasts. As it had learned with the 1973 RS, the 959, even the 1989 Carrera Speedster, Porsche understood its best customers would dig deeply to own something unique.
Far outnumbering the 70 Cup cars and the 21 Lightweights, Porsche assembled 20,666 C2 and C4 models in 1990. The M Program 1991 cars provided driver and passenger air bags. But Japanese competition ate into Porsche’s market share, and the company manufactured just 13,816 cars.
YEAR
1990-1991
DESIGNATION
911 Carrera 4 Lightweight
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Coupe
WHEELBASE
2272mm/89.4 inches
LENGTH
4275mm/168.3 inches
WIDTH
1652mm/65.0 inches
HEIGHT
1255mm/49.4 inches
WEIGHT
1100kg/2420 pounds
BASE PRICE
Not available
TRACK FRONT
1420mm/55.9 inches
TRACK REAR
1530mm/60.2 inches
WHEELS FRONT
8.0Jx17 “Cup”
WHEELS REAR
9.5Jx17 “Cup”
TIRES FRONT
245/620 – 17
TIRES REAR
265/630 – 17
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, lower wishbones, MacPherson struts w/coil springs, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti roll bar
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, MacPherson struts w/coil springs, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers, anti roll bar
BRAKES
Ventilated, drilled discs, 4-piston aluminum calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ M64/01
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
3600cc/219.7CID
BORE AND STROKE
100x76.4mm/3.94x3.00 inches
HORSEPOWER
265@6720rpm
TORQUE
224lb-ft@6720rpm
COMPRESSION
11.3:1
FUEL DELIVERY
B
osch DME with sequential injection
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
3.44
TOP SPEED
Not available
PRODUCTION
22
Porsche offered the America Roadster and the European Turbo Look Cabriolet with either manual or Tiptronic transmissions. It manufactured just 250 copies. Photograph © 2011 David Newhardt
1992-1994 CARRERA TURBO LOOK (AMERICA ROADSTER), CARRERA RS, CARRERA RS AMERICA, TURBO SLANT NOSE, AND SPEEDSTER
Lessons seldom get lost at Porsche. Turbo-look bodies had sold well enough on 3.2 Carrera models that marketing created similar wide bodies on 964 platforms. To commemorate a particularly significant U.S. export in 1952, the company issued a 1992 America Roadster, called the Cabriolet Turbo Look in Europe. To encourage U.S. sales, the car sold for $94,960, about $11,000 less in the States than in European markets.