1988 Porsche 959 Komfort

Description

The Type 959 was Porsche’s first true “supercar,” a design to which every imaginable accolade has been applied. Based on the company’s evergreen 911 sports coupe, it was built to win the FIA’s Group B World Rally Championship and, not incidentally, serve as an all-wheel-drive development platform for Porsche’s future 964 production series. The “Gruppe B” prototype was introduced at the 1983 Frankfurt auto show, where it stunned onlookers with advanced technology that included a chassis built of advanced lightweight materials, a rear-mounted, 2.8-liter turbocharged engine, and a mind-boggling array of electronic engine and suspension management systems.

To homologate the new Type 961 rally car, Porsche had to build a series of roadworthy cars to prove the 961’s legitimacy as a production model. When the FIA suddenly cancelled Group B, Porsche was faced with a dilemma; production of the road cars had already begun, but there was no longer a rally program to justify them. Porsche pressed ahead in hopes it could convince a fairly limited number of wealthy customers that a 200-mph road car was a practical investment and thus defray Porsche’s huge development costs. It need not have worried. Whenever Porsche builds the exciting and unexpected, customers will line up, and so it was with the very expensive 959, even though it is said that Porsche lost money on every one it built.

The 959’s chassis, on the same 89.4-inch wheelbase as the 911 Carrera, was made of carbon fiber, aluminum, and Kevlar. The roofline, doors, and interior resembled the 911, down to the ignition placed to the driver’s left. Porsche’s goal was to achieve zero body lift at speed, and it succeeded admirably. The nose was extended and flattened and featured near-flush headlamps with extensive ducting for cooling the front brakes and oil radiator. The rear of the car was also stretched rearward and liberally ventilated, and it was topped with a full-width rear wing. Beneath the body shell, though, was a double-wishbone, racing-derived suspension with coil springs and double shocks, adjustable shock damping and ride height, and an electronically managed all-wheel-drive system (Porsche’s PSK [Porsche-Steur-Kupplung]) that allowed the driver to vary the torque (370 foot-pounds at 5,500 rpm) between the rear and front axles, up to 80 percent, under hard acceleration. A full array of instruments kept the driver well informed of all the suspension and traction settings.

The flat-six engine, with air-cooled cylinders and four-valve water-cooled heads, was derived from both the “Moby Dick” IMSA GT racer and Porsche’s Indy open-wheel project. This engine mounted a pair of intercooled sequential turbochargers. A small turbo began producing boost almost from throttle tip-in, while the larger unit came in at about 4,500 rpm, generating a seamless flow of power. This engine pumped out a fearsome-for-the-day 450 brake horsepower at 6,500 rpm. The transmission was a Borg-Warner six-speed, with a very low “G” or “Geland” first gear for the off-road conditions that the 961 rally car might have encountered. A quite docile machine at civilized driving speeds, the 959 could leap from 0–60 mph in less than four seconds, do the standing quarter-mile in just over 12, and reach a maximum speed approaching 200 mph. In the fully leather-upholstered, carpeted, air-conditioned confines of a 959 “Komfort,” this was accomplished in a calm and controlled, even quiet, fashion.

When it came time to stop, huge power-assisted, ventilated disc brakes with ABS handled the task with aplomb. The 959’s 17-inch diameter magnesium wheels and special run-flat tires were specially designed by Bridgestone; hollow spokes allowed use of an air-pressure monitoring system. All told, a well-driven 959 could see off almost any other high-performance car on the planet; not until the arrival of Ferrari’s F40 a few years later was there anything to rival it. Including 16 prototypes, a total of 329 examples were eventually produced between 1985 and 1992.

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I am very pleased to be able to offer for sale this vehicle, one of Porsche’s legendary 959 “Komfort” models. Just 337 examples were completed during a very short production run. This particular example is the very well known Ex-Otto Glöckler 959 that he special ordered new for his Frankfurt, German Porsche Agency in and his own personal use in November of 1987. The vehicle was completed on May 4th of 1988 and officially invoiced to him new two days later on May 6th. Glöckler requested his new 959 be completed with the standard exterior paint code “Grand Prix White but when it came to the interior, rather than going with one of the choices Porsche offered, he chose to have a custom interior done in an all “Dark Blue” leather that matched his favorite suit. For additional options he chose a combination of seven different features, six of which all had to do with the seats. Both left and right seats were the optional Sport Seats that were further fitted with electric heaters and with supplemental electrical motors to raise and lower them for better comfort. The final chosen option was Bridgestone all weather Sport Tires. This was a normal domestic or German market example. Glöckler enjoyed and carefully cared and preserved his treasured 959 over the next several years until agreeing to a sale with Porsche collector Jürgen Oppermann. Oppermann re-regisgtered the car in his name and then later moved to Lugano, Switzerland. In doing so, he was legally able to bring his 959 with him making it one of just a very few that was formally imported to Switzerland in period. This Porsche remained with Oppermann when he again moved, this time to Gstaad. Opperman continued to care and enjoy his 959 over the next two decades completing extensive maintenance and services as required, the last of which was done in November of 2014 at the official Porsche Service Center in Staad. Upon completion of this work, he stored the 959 for a short period of time before agreeing to the sale to a UK based dealer who recently imported the car to the States where it was formally re-registered and titled for the first time outside of Europe. This Porsche has had just two long-term caretakers and is completely void of rust or accident damage of any kind. This all matching numbers, 959 has covered just 25,507 kilometers since new and will be sold complete with all of the original delivery items including the original Porsche build records, certificate of authenticity, books, tools and receipts going back to new.

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