Porsche 901 and 959: Definitive Legends of the Brand
MotorTrend‘s Jonny Lieberman takes two museum-quality icons for an epic spin at Sonoma Raceway in California.
When speaking about cars like the Porsche 901 and the 959, we aren’t even sure if terms like iconic or legendary are sufficient to describe them. This is why we understand the obvious excitement that MotorTrend host, Jonny Lieberman, had when finally getting to drive these cars. He states at the very beginning of the video, “I can’t believe this is happening, I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.” Well, it’s not every day someone even with his recognized reputation gets a chance to take out two literally priceless vehicles out to a race track.
We will explain a little bit about why each of these cars were so important for Porsche as a brand. Not to mention, their lasting effects on automobiles in general. Yes, they are that important and revolutionary for their time and their impact is felt even today. Think about the newest 911 we have available, the 992. Without either of these cars, there would be no 992. There perhaps wouldn’t even be the modern sports cars we see it today. Let’s see why.
The first vehicle to be driven by Lieberman is a 1964 Porsche 901 2.0 Coupe. This is the 3rd “901” 911 to ever be built. At the time, this 901 was replacing the increasingly old 356, Porsche’s first production automobile. Since the company built its brand around racing, it was important that their next vehicle followed this sports car ideology. Thus, the 901 was born. How did it end up being called the 911? Well, Porsche’s friendly French neighbors at Peugeot heard about their new sports car and essentially told them they couldn’t use any three-digit number with a 0 between the first and third digit. That style of numbering belonged to them.
So, Porsche did the reasonable thing at the time and conceded to the French brand. It simply wasn’t worth fighting over some numbers. Thus, they decided on another three digits, 911. With that, an icon was born. The car being driven by Lieberman in the video is actually one of three “911” 901s that were built before this accord came into place. As you might understand, this car is priceless as a result. Over a million 911s have been sold since this original 901. Lieberman describes the original 901 911 as being “in a lot of ways the birth of the modern sports car.”
What happens when you fast-forward 20 years into the future after the establishment of the original 911? That would be the 1986 Porsche 959 Komfort. The difference in development over 20 years between these two cars is stunning. Lieberman definitely can appreciate this vehicle for how special it is. He states “I’ve been doing this professionally for 15 years now, the entire time, I’ve been waiting to drive a 959.” The vehicle was a technological revolution for cars in general when it was released and its impact cannot be stressed more.
Money was not a concern for Porsche at the time of development, their only goal was to create the single most advanced sports car ever. With this, the 959 was born. 440 HP, sequential twin-turbos, AWD, and 197 MPH top speed. Not a single one of these items was standard during that time. It was the fastest car in the world when built. In reality, the world had never seen this level of technology applied to a car. To put everything into perspective, consider this fact. “450 HP? The new 992 has 450 HP. That’s how long it’s taken the 911 to catch up to the 959.”
34 years it took for the 911 to catch up to the power figure of the 959. That’s how advanced it was for its time. For the sake of making the most advanced sports car the world had ever seen, it cost Porsche $225,000 back in the ’80s to make a single one. That’s $530,000 in today’s money and even then, “Porsche still lost a half a million bucks on every one they sold.”
The 901 is the car that would come to define Porsche’s design language, conclusively. This is why they haven’t changed the overall shape of the 911 since the 1960s. We highly doubt that the 911 silhouette will ever change. Without the technological innovations made in the 959, we wouldn’t have AWD, twin-turbos, 911s like we have today. It is likely that the technology for such automotive applications of these systems would have taken decades to develop. So, if you ever get to see either of these models in person, it’s not a bad idea to be thankful for what they have given us.