PORSCHE 965

Zuffenhausen’s ill-starred 959 diffusion line

- ANDY ENRIGHT

PORSCHE 965 1988

PORSCHE WAS IN TROUBLE in the late Eighties. To put in perspective quite how deep it had sunk into the financial mire, consider this. Despite a six-week halt in production in 2020, the company built 272,162 new vehicles. Back in ’87, it built a mere 48,520 vehicles and, aside from the facelifted 928 S4, they were all versions of the elderly 911, 924S, or 944. The only truly new model was a financial basket case. The first customer deliveries of the 959 supercars began in 1987, with Porsche charging A$292,000 for a car that cost double that amount to bring to market.