1986 Porsche 959 Komfort
Spark - S4477 (resin)
Published 06/28/17
In 1983 Porsche’s racing department reasoned that the development of a rally car for Group B could bring benefits to their production cars. That’s how the 959 project came to life. It would basically have a rear-end mounted engine with four wheel drive and PDK clutch system. And of course, it would have to resemble the 911. The engine was derived from the all-conquering 956, a 2849 cm³ boxer-6 air-cooled but with water-cooled cylinder heads and with two sequential turbos capable of 450 hp.
The Porsche 959 is considered to be the most advanced car built in the 1980s. At the time, super cars were raw, uncomfortable and hard to drive. But the 959 was not only fast but comfortable. Porsche built only 329* examples of the 959, and lost money on every single one of them. The car was basically a cost-no-object technological tour de force. Though quite a few cars of the era could go as fast or even faster, none approached the package speed+comfort+ease of use that the 959 delivered.
Porsche produced the 959 from 1986 to 1988 and offered the car in two levels of trim, “Sport” and “Komfort”. That translates to race version (29 units built) and road version (294 built). My model is the “Komfort” version. Therefor, it came with all the bells and whistles, like driver-selectable torque split, tire-pressure monitoring and adjustable ride height.
And the model? One word: friggintastic. Spark nailed the 959 Komfort in 1:43, and for a huge 959 fan like me it looks terrific.
*: Counting the mysterious six extra Komforts built in 1992 from spare parts.