Even though Doug DeMuro doesn’t review older cars on a daily basis, the 959 clip uploaded on his YouTube channel is all sorts of wonderful. More to the point, the first Porsche supercar is an endless source of quirkiness.
As the headline implies, one of those quirks are the center-lock wheels. After popping the center caps, you’ll need the ignition key to unlock the wheels. Following this peculiar procedure, a small hexagon has to be inserted into the wheel bolt after which you’ll need a torque wrench to finish the operation.
Another interesting thing about the 959 that Doug points out is the G on the gear lever, which stands for Gelände or off-road gear. Two dials on the center console are also presented, one to adjust the dampers and the other to lift the hydraulic suspension.
In addition to being the first production car with tire pressure monitoring, the 959 also happens to roll on run-flat tires from Bridgestone. Denloc tires developed exclusively for the 959, which have been superseded by the RE71 NO with Denloc bead profile.
Only a handful of these tires are manufactured each year in Japan, and if you were wondering, these babies “cannot be installed on standard 17-inch diameter wheels and tires with standard 17-inch bead profiles cannot be installed on Denloc wheels.” Remember when Porsche used to overengineer their stuff? Pepperidge farm remembers…
Another highlight is the twin-turbo system, engineered with sequential turbocharging technology. This design uses one of the chargers to low engine speeds and the second turbine for high rpm. In other words, the engineers decreased turbo lag without compromising the horsepower or torque, which are delivered linearly throughout the rev range.
A total of 345 examples of the breed were ever made, and the 959 that Doug drives in the following video is estimated to start at around $1.5 million. Considering the exclusivity and the status among other legendary supercars, it’s easy to understand how pricing got to this level. When the first models rolled off the assembly line in 1987, these babies used to retail at $225,000 or thereabouts.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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