If you own a truly classic and/or rare Porsche nowadays, odds are it’s going up in value. The celebrated 959 is a perfect example, as it cost a little over $200,000 to purchase when it was new, whereas now, they can easily fetch well over $1 million.
Back in the mid-80s, this was the fastest street-legal production car in the world, and to this day, it still ranks no.1 on many people’s list of best supercars from that particular decade.
Driven here by Doug DeMuro is a bright red example which he borrowed from one of his viewers in California. Over the course of this review, DeMuro gushes about the 959’s acceleration, excellent manual transmission, overall cool factor, comfort, and… it’s off-road capabilities!
Yes, the Porsche 959 came with an off-road gear for low speed maneuvers, like if for example you needed to overcome mud or sand off the line. Another off-road related feature is its suspension, which lifts the car up and gives you a surprising amount of ground clearance, if say you want to go to a rally course. Impressive even by today’s standards, right?
Powering the 959 is a 2.8-liter twin turbocharged flat-six producing 450 PS (444 HP) and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) of torque, while a 6-speed manual gearbox sends all that muscle to an all-wheel drive system. Its top speed was rated at 317 km/h (197 mph) and the 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) sprint is dispatched in just 3.8 seconds.
In other words, this was the 918 Spyder of its time. The ’80s equivalent of a hypercar, in a time when the term hadn’t been invented yet.