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The shiftknob of the Porsche 959 which I always knew used a 6 speed transmission but never knew about the G,1-5 shift pattern. This excerpt from a Road & Track article explains it. "The 959 used a six-speed transaxle, but first gear was a creeper and not intended for pavement. Thus the shiftknob pattern: "G-1-2-3-4-5," with "G" standing for Gelände, or off-road."
Did you know what was the reason behind the G gearing in Porsche 959? When the 200 lucky first owners collected their 959s from the Porsche factory at Zuffenhausen they were among the first road-car drivers in history to have to adopt to a 6speed gearbox. Looking at the 'map' atop the shift lever, though, you could be forgiven for thinking there are only five forward gears. And top gear is indeed marked as fifth, but there's an extra slot marked 'G' (for Gelände; literally country) next to reverse, where you might normally expect first gear to reside.
Amazingly, considering how civilized the 959 sounds today, it wouldn't have passed the noise tests of the late 1980s unless Porsche had used this clever tweak. The test involved driving away from a microphone in first gear at full throttle, so arbitrarily labeling first as an 'off-road' ratio and renumbering the other five accordingly enabled the company to have the test carried out in what amounted to second gear. Clearly all those years of studying racing regulations with a microscopic attention to detail hadn't been entirely wasted...
Since Jerry posted a few of the cars at EPE I'll post this one. My lowly 996 GT3 was in good company while it was at EPE for some work. There always seems to be a 959 or two to ogle when I visit. Sorry for the poor quality.
You are correct! Also with an umlaut over the A, or "Gelaende" for non-umlaut spelling.
Originally Posted by dariog
Did you know what was the reason behind the G gearing in Porsche 959? When the 200 lucky first owners collected their 959s from the Porsche factory at Zuffenhausen they were among the first road-car drivers in history to have to adopt to a 6speed gearbox.
I have read the reason is that the governing body of road vehicles used in Germany, TÜV, did not recognize a six-speed gearbox. The TÜV's systems/charts/whatever did not have an allocation for a six-speed, and therefore no six-speed could be approved for German roads. With "5" as the top gear, it could be listed as a five-speed gearbox and approved for road use.
Originally Posted by Voith
Does anybody know, what is the material these spacers are made on 959 sport seats? I would like to replicate these holes in my sport seats.
Looks like the same material as the seat: leather (or cloth in some cases).
I would assume there is framework for it inside the seat: perhaps a metal or plastic ring.
It was an option via Exclusive. It is typically seen only on 959s, however I have heard at least one other car got the option as well.
All that said, the location of the belts is far from ideal. Much better than no hole (which is a bad idea), but still not great.
As you may know we are in the process of creating a series of new websites covering five additional rare, unique and low production Porsches as part of the www.rareporsches.com web series.
Unfortunately time has not been available to complete the websites in their entirety and so they remain 'under construction'. Over time we will 'fill in the blanks'.
However there has been great demand for the raw production data therefore we have decided to release this data even though the websites are not near completion.
Porsche lore 101.. demoted back to remedial course!!!!
Iļøt stands for āGelandeā.. meaning off-road or crawling gear.. a vestige of Porscheās history... Iāll let you enjoy finding out the rest... Iļøt so badass
Porsche lore 101.. demoted back to remedial course!!!!
Iļøt stands for āGelandeā.. meaning off-road or crawling gear.. a vestige of Porscheās history... Iāll let you enjoy finding out the rest... Iļøt so badass
