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Model Guide: Porsche 911 Turbo |
PCA—In this edition of Test Drive News, a monthly newsletter for PCA Test Drive participants, we
dive into the 911 Turbo, covering the years it was officially available in North America, plus the gray market years of 1980-85. The first article below is PCA's Model Guide, where you'll find year-to-year updates plus buying tips and a list of common problems. |
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Test Drive is a unique program offered by PCA specifically for prospective Porsche owners still searching for their next vehicle. In addition to this newsletter, PCA Test Drive allows
you to experience several member benefits, including a six-month subscription to Porsche Panorama magazine, and access to PCA classified ads and the Tech Q&A forum. If you're not a Test Drive participant, click here to learn more and join. |
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PCA—Since it was first launched in the mid-1970s, the 911 Turbo has represented what Porsche considers the epitome of its road-car offerings in terms of performance and technology, and not much has changed with the exception of the odd supercar the manufacturer releases every decade or so. Porsche has had a Turbo for nearly every generation of 911, and today that means those in the market for one have many choices at various price points and
performance levels. Before we delve into the different 911 Turbos in the used-Porsche market, a little history. | | |
| | Car and Driver—Porsche wasn’t the first to apply turbocharging to production gasoline engines. GM had done it a decade before with both the Chevy Corvair and the Oldsmobile Jetfire. Which, in fact, means the 930 was actually the second production turbocharged flat-six. But while GM quickly abandoned the idea and didn’t return to it until the 1980s, once Porsche adopted turbochargers,
it never let go. And to this day, its most broadly notorious turbocharged car is its first: the 930. |
How Stuff
Works—America celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, and Porsche added to the fireworks with the mightiest 911 yet: the Turbo Carrera. This was yet another creation of the prolific Ernst Fuhrmann, who became Porsche chairman in 1972 (after the Porsche and Piech families relinquished control and the company became a joint-stock corporation with a board of directors -- today's Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG). Fuhrmann had designed the original quadcam 356 Carrera engine; he also directed
development of the 1972-73 European Carrera RS/RSR. | | |
| | Car and Driver—Following its domination of the Can-Am racing series in 1972 and ’73, Porsche decided to share its turbocharging technology with devout customers. A year after its 1974 Paris auto-show debut, the first Turbo arrived here as a 1976 model. At a time when the most powerful Corvette had 210 horsepower, a Mustang II “King Cobra” boasted 139 ponies, and recovery from the first
energy crisis had barely begun, Porsche’s 2825-pound Messerschmitt attacked the supercar class with 234 horsepower. |
Road and Track—The iconic 930 Porsche Turbo is one of those cars that will simply live on forever in the history books. This was the first time Porsche had turbocharged a 911—creating an entirely new beast, and launching a Porsche tradition that continues to this day. | | |
PCA—Mart Fresh is a column in which PCA media staff pick what they think are the freshest Porsches currently available in The Mart, and then attempt to explain their reasoning. Check out the most recent reviews
below:
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| | Autoweek—It wasn't that long ago that the Porsche 911 Turbo, the famous 930 model, could be found in good condition for the price of a new Volkswagen Golf. The 930 Turbo that debuted in the late '70s has always been known as a driver's car. Even as recently as 15 years ago, it was still considered a used sports car that was difficult to drive, offering few of the comforts that would be
expected in a 911. And 930 Turbos weren't particularly sought after by those looking for an easygoing weekend cruiser. |
Car and Driver—Set your time control for 1979. Forget everything automotive you've experienced in the last six years. Let yourself drift back, back, all the way back to a time when one high-performance automobile in America stood head and shoulders above the rest. | | |
| | Road & Track—The second generation of the 911 Turbo debuted in 1991 after the original was built for nearly 15 years. While the current 911 Turbo is known as a rocket ship, it's easy to forget that the one from the early 1990s was also super fast. |
Motor
Trend—Power is good, more is better, too much is just right-whether spoken by a corrupt military dictator or the steely-eyed driver of a pur sang performance car, the primordial lust is the same: a craving for omnipotent rule over everything you survey. | | |
| | Car and Driver—The bad news about the new Porsche 911 Turbo is that its owners are probably going to get a lot of speeding tickets. The good news is that if they can afford its $110,000 price, they can probably afford the tickets. |
Car and Driver—At first glance, the sports-car faithful will see the automatic Tiptronic transmission in a 911 Turbo cabriolet as an affront to their belief in the sanctity of the clutch pedal. Well, consider this one to be the reformer sports car, unwilling to accept the old doctrine that a fluid-coupling torque converter is a sinful device and three pedals are the only way to nirvana. | | |
| | Car and Driver—This is the sixth generation of the 911 Turbo. What could possibly be new about this new model? It has a new turbocharged engine with variable-geometry turbos that make 473 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque—58 horses and 87 pound-feet more than the last one. There's also a new four-wheel-drive system with electronic control over the way torque is distributed among
the four wheels. And thanks to the use of aluminum in key locations, it's about 90 pounds lighter than the 996 Turbo. Aluminum doors alone save 31 pounds. |
Jalopnik—The concept of a free lunch is an impossibility in nature. You need to put energy into a system to see it come out. However, used Porsche 911 prices, as we all know, don’t obey things like the laws of physics, and therefore sometimes present the market with world-beating cars for the equivalent of loaded minivan money. It ain’t free, but it’s close enough. | | |
| | Motor Trend—The laws of physics are immutable. But so is Porsche's attempt to overcome them. Ever since the first brutish 911 Turbo was launched in 1974, Porsche has been trying endlessly to tame its wildest beast. That first generation car -- the 930 -- was a powerful tail-happy monster, as you'd expect when you hang a 260 hp turbocharged engine over the back axle, and drive the
rear wheels through a motor renowned for its punch but not its reflexes. |
Motor
Trend—Nurburgring Nordschleife, December 2006. Walter Rohrl laps in a base GT2, time: 7:35, and returns with a list of modifications needed to make the car better. May 2007, back at the 'Ring, Rohrl at the helm again in a base GT2, time: 7:32. He then gets into the modified GT2 and, after breaking a time of 7:29 on the first hot lap, he begs Porsche to build this car. With a green light from the powers that be, Porsche begins work on project 727 (a nickname based on Porsche's target
time at the 'Ring). | | |
Test Drive News I hope you enjoyed this issue of Porsche Club of America's Test Drive News. If you have any questions or comments, please contact:
Damon Lowney Digital Media Coordinator & Test Drive News Editor damonl@pca.org (410) 381-0911
If you wish to advertise with Porsche Club of America, please contact:
Ilko Nechev Advertising Director ilko@pca.org (212) 490-2079 | | |
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