Photo: Bring a Trailer
The Porsche 911 Turbo is one of the most notorious names in automotive history. For almost half a decade, the Turbo set the benchmark for what a sports car can be. From the very first iteration, in the form of the infamous 930 Turbo, this fire-breathing monster challenged every car enthusiast that dared to get behind the wheel.
It all started, as every great story, on the race circuit with a flat-12 powered mentalist. The Porsche 917 demolished everything that dared stand in its way at the 24 hours of LeMans. This absolute beast was a huge gamble for Porsche, as they were struggling financially. The 917 was essentially a 600 hp (608 ps) canoe – but, someone at Porsche decided that it wasn’t enough, and slapped a turbocharger the size of a dust bin on the flat-12, resulting in a machine born from the fiery depths of hell that terrified every driver that was brave enough to take it for a spin. I’m talking 1100 hp (1115 ps) in an 850-kg (1870-pound) car. They nicknamed it the “Turbopanzer”, and I can’t think of a better name for this absolutely insane contraption So, they took this beast racing at Can-Am, where it proved to be too fast, and it got shut down. This left Porsche with huge turbo cravings, so they started to look somewhere else.
They landed on Group 4 Grand-Touring. The perfect place to start dominating again, with a turbocharged version of the already fast Carrera RS, but there was a little hair in the soup: the cars needed to be homologated, which meant Porsche had to build road-going versions, and sell them to the public, and this, ladies and gentleman, is how to Porsche 911 Turbo was born.
The first generation, the 930, was a tricky beast to tame, as it had the perfect recipe for disaster - lightweight body, heavy engine that was really far behind and a slow spooling turbo that when it finally made boost, hit you like a freight train. Oh, and that was in a time period when the only safety features were your hands, your feet and your skill behind the wheel. This resulted in a lot of deaths and even more crashes, earning the most infamous nickname that a car ever received – “The Widowmaker.”
Through generations, Porsche’s troubled child started to get a little tamer, but still keeping that insanity that makes you go into a little shock every time you press the gas - or the hyperspace button, your call. Modern 911 Turbos set record-breaking sprints from 0 to 60, but if you fancy a little bit of classic neck-snapping acceleration without stepping into a death trap, the 993 generation is the perfect choice for you.
For example, this 1997 911 Turbo is for sale on Bring a Trailer, and it is the best example that a motorist can ask for. It is in pristine shape, mechanically and visually perfectly sorted, but with 75,000 miles (120,701 kilometers) on the clock, it wasn’t a garage queen, so you can drive it the way it was meant to.
And with just over 400 hp (406 ps), all-wheel drive, a manual transmission and very little electronic interference, it is every driver's dream. It’s raw, without tearing your face off, it’s fast and visceral without trying to kill you every time you go near the gas pedal – it’s the perfect mix between modern and classic, and for that reason, you should try and snatch one while you still can. The bidding for this particular one surpassed 110,000 dollars, and it will certainly go a lot higher, but it is a great investment for one of these cars, cars that connect with us on a deeper level than any new one will ever be able to achieve.
So you can now go fill that turbo-shaped hole in your heart with this amazing machine.
They landed on Group 4 Grand-Touring. The perfect place to start dominating again, with a turbocharged version of the already fast Carrera RS, but there was a little hair in the soup: the cars needed to be homologated, which meant Porsche had to build road-going versions, and sell them to the public, and this, ladies and gentleman, is how to Porsche 911 Turbo was born.
The first generation, the 930, was a tricky beast to tame, as it had the perfect recipe for disaster - lightweight body, heavy engine that was really far behind and a slow spooling turbo that when it finally made boost, hit you like a freight train. Oh, and that was in a time period when the only safety features were your hands, your feet and your skill behind the wheel. This resulted in a lot of deaths and even more crashes, earning the most infamous nickname that a car ever received – “The Widowmaker.”
Through generations, Porsche’s troubled child started to get a little tamer, but still keeping that insanity that makes you go into a little shock every time you press the gas - or the hyperspace button, your call. Modern 911 Turbos set record-breaking sprints from 0 to 60, but if you fancy a little bit of classic neck-snapping acceleration without stepping into a death trap, the 993 generation is the perfect choice for you.
For example, this 1997 911 Turbo is for sale on Bring a Trailer, and it is the best example that a motorist can ask for. It is in pristine shape, mechanically and visually perfectly sorted, but with 75,000 miles (120,701 kilometers) on the clock, it wasn’t a garage queen, so you can drive it the way it was meant to.
And with just over 400 hp (406 ps), all-wheel drive, a manual transmission and very little electronic interference, it is every driver's dream. It’s raw, without tearing your face off, it’s fast and visceral without trying to kill you every time you go near the gas pedal – it’s the perfect mix between modern and classic, and for that reason, you should try and snatch one while you still can. The bidding for this particular one surpassed 110,000 dollars, and it will certainly go a lot higher, but it is a great investment for one of these cars, cars that connect with us on a deeper level than any new one will ever be able to achieve.
So you can now go fill that turbo-shaped hole in your heart with this amazing machine.
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