911 AT 60 THE END OF AIR COOLING

As part of the Neunelfer's 60th birthday celebrations, Total 911 looks back to the final days of air-cooled with the 964 and 993

- Kieron Fennelly

Emblematic of the increasing difficulties confronting Porsche in the second half of the 1980s, the launch of the new 911, the 964, in October 1988 was several months later than planned. Heinz Branitzki, the interim CEO at Zuffenhausen, announced that this was “the 911 for the next 25 years”. Given the accelerating rate of change in automobile design, Heinz’s declaration wasn’t intended to be taken literally, but the company’s evident pride was understandable: the 964 was the first significantly new 911 since the original 901 in 1963.

Although to the uninitiated it looked virtually the same as the preceding Carrera 3.2, the 964 was a markedly redeveloped model. A conservative Vorstand had, however, instructed the stylists to change nothing above the axle line – much to their frustration. As a result, Ben Dimson’s smoothed bumpers that blended the previous impact-bumpers with the body were, together with some side skirting, the only obvious visual differences.

Yet if the 1963 shell was retained, underneath the changes were comprehensive. Gone were the torsion bars – we’d wanted to get rid of those for years, observed Peter Falk – replaced by coil springs and all-round strut suspension, with the rear axle retained by aluminium semi-trailing arms. A major factor in this redesign was Porsche’s intention to incorporate 4x4 transmission. It also meant that at last a 911 could accommodate power steering and ABS – attributes to be expected in the 911’s price bracket.