The 80s
+1980
The Porsche 924 Carrera GT made its debut in the Le Mans 24-hour race, where all three factory entries saw the checkered flag. In the American SCCA championship, this sports car with its unusual transaxle driveline scored no fewer than 25 victories.
With its Type 935 and 911 SC competition cars, Porsche not only carried off the IMSA and TransAm series trophies but also three European championship titles and the driver’s world championship in the long-distance category. A further highspot of the season was the 1-2-3 victory in the Daytona 24-hour race.
For the 1981 model year, Porsche extended its long-term warranty against rust penetration on its cars to seven years. The warranty applied to the complete body, which was now built entirely from hot-galvanized sheet steel.
At the eighth International Conference on Experimental Safety Cars, held in October, Porsche AG displayed its Type 960 research study, the “P.E.S.” Similar in appearance to the 928, its entire front section was made from aluminum.
+1981
Peter W. Schutz, an American with German forebears, took over the position of Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG on January 1 from Prof. Ernst Fuhrmann.
The Porsche double-clutch gearbox (PDK), developed in Weissach, permitted gearshifts with no interruption to the power flow. It was first fitted experimentally to a Porsche Type 956 in 1983.
Porsche sent a prototype of the forthcoming Type 944, the “924 GTP Le Mans”, to Le Mansand straight away it finished the race with a class victory. Another Le Mans entry from Zuffenhausen took the overall victory. This car was a Porsche Type 936/81 Spyder, driven by the driver team Ickx/Bell; only shortly before the race it had been built up from a Type 936, as used in the 1976 racing season and fitted with a newly developed 2.65-liter, six-cylinder engine.
Porsche premiered the production version of its Type 944 at the German Motor Show in Frankfurt. With a 163 HP four-cylinder engine, the 944 was positioned between the entry-level 924 and the Type 911 SC.
The Porsche PFM 3200 aero engine was derived from the Type 911’s flat-six engine, and was notable for its low fuel consumption and noise emissions and its straightforward control system.
+1982
Early in the year the Porsche 944 reached the showrooms and aroused keen interest among representatives of the media, the dealership and potential customers. By the time this four-cylinder sports car went out of production in 1991, 163,302 had been built.
A further landmark in Porsche’s model history was the Type 911 SC Cabriolet, shown to the public for the first time in March at the Geneva Motor Show.
The 1982 motor sport season was notable for new record achievements on the racetrack. In Le Mans, the Porsche marque not only took places 1 to 5 in the overall ranking but also captured almost every class win and special category. The first three places went to the new Type 956, the first Porsche racing car to have a monocoque chassis and make use of the “ground effect” principle. Group 5 was won by a Porsche Type 935 K3, Group 4 by a Type 934; a Type 935 led the IGTX and a Type 924 GTR the IGT rankings. Other highlights of the season were a 1-2-3 victory in Daytona, the world long-distance championship drivers’ and constructors’ titles and victory in the IMSA series.
The Environmental Protection Measurement Center (MZU), the world’s first independent exhaust emission testing station, was opened in the late fall of 1982.
+1983
At this year’s IAA motor show in Frankfurt, Porsche exhibited a very special kind of high-performance vehicle: a “Group B” design study.
The Porsche 956 was made available to private teams for this year’s racing season. As a result, its successes were not limited to those brought home by the factory-entered cars. The previous year’s remarkable Le Mans success was actually surpassed: with Porsche cars taking the checkered flag in the first eight places. As the end of the season approached, race wins continued to multiply, culminating in international titles such as the constructors’ and long-distance world championships and the IMSA constructors’ and drivers’ titles.
During practice for the Nürburg Ring 1000-kilometer race, Stefan Bellof maintained an average speed of more than 200 km/h in his Porsche 956 – the highest figure ever recorded on this circuit.
Developed in response to a commission from the British McLaren International racing team, the “TAG-Turbo” engine first appeared in the McLaren MP4 Formula 1 racing car in the summer of 1983. With a total of 25 Grand Prix victories and three world championship titles, the “TAG-Turbo made by Porsche” became the dominant Formula 1 power unit in the 1984 to 1986 seasons.
In the late summer, as the Porsche 911 celebrated its twentieth birthday, the “911 SC” models were superseded by the “911 Carrera” versions. These had a revised 3.2-liter flat-six engine which, with a Digital Motor Electronics management system, now developed 231 HP.
+1984
A special “homologation series” of 20 Type Porsche 911 SC RS cars was supplied to private customers with motor-sport ambitions at the beginning of the year.
Porsche Cars North America Inc., a subsidiary of Porsche Enterprises Inc., took over imports of Porsche sports cars to North America on September 1, after the contract concluded in 1970 with Volkswagen subsidiary Volkswagen of America Inc. had expired on the previous day. Other companies founded at this time were Porsche España S.A. (Spain) and Porsche Italia S.p.A. (Italy).
As in the previous* two seasons, the Type 956 dominated long-distance racing and secured the constructors’ world championship for Porsche yet again. Although there was no factory team on the starting grid, seven privately entered Porsche 956 cars monopolized the winners’ rankings. An equally pleasant surprise: victory for a Porsche 911 Carrera 4×4 in the Paris-Dakar Rally. This all-wheel-drive prototype, finished in the colors of sponsor Rothmans, was driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne.
The TAG turbocharged engine scored a series of wins in the McLaren MP4/2 Formula 1 racing car. With twelve victories from sixteen races, Niki Lauda and Alain Prost led the drivers’ rankings unchallenged at the end of the season.
+1985
With a power output of 220 HP and a drag coefficient of cD = 0.33, the Porsche 944 Turbo, introduced in January, was one of the best performers in its class. Its engine was also the first in the world to develop the same power output either with or without exhaust emission control by catalytic converter.
At the German Motor Show in Frankfurt, the Porsche 959 was clear evidence of the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer’s technical competence. As part of its development program, the Porsche 959 was entered for the Pharaohs Rally – and won convincingly.
Available as an optional extra for the Porsche 928 S since 1983, the antilock brake system (ABS) was installed as standard equipment from the late summer of 1985 on.
Equipped with driveline, brake system and suspension components from the Porsche 944, the Type 924 S went on sale in September and represented the final development status of this Porsche entry-level model.
The Porsche 962 brought the constructors’ world championship back to Zuffenhausen for the fourth year in succession. Private Porsche teams were also highly successful in 1985, with excellent results in Monza and Le Mans, in the American IMSA series and in the German sports car championship.
In Formula 1, Alain Prost took the world champion’s title in a McLaren with TAG turbocharged engine.
+1986
At the beginning of the year, Porsche Italia S.p.A. in Padua begins to operate as Porsche’s Italian importer. At the same time, Porsche AG acquired a 100% holding in Porsche Cars Great Britain Ltd.
The Aerodynamic Research and Experimental Center was opened in Weissach, giving the Development Center there access to one of the international automobile industry’s highest-performance wind tunnels.
The Porsche 944 S, which became available in August 1986, was sold with emphasis on “technology that’s kind to the environment” and “functional, sporty character”. The large eight-cylinder Porsche sports car was extensively updated after a production period of nine years, and relaunched as the Porsche 928 S4.
In addition to the team and drivers’ world championships for sports cars, Porsche’s successes in the 1986 season included the Sport Auto Super Cup, the IMSA and Interserie titles and, with the TAG-Turbo-Motor, the Formula 1 world championship. The Le Mans 24-hour race brought Porsche its eleventh overall victory. The circuit-racing version of the Porsche 959, known as the Type 961, scored a class win in the IMSA GTX category. Three Porsche 959 cars were entered for the Paris-Dakar Rally, and all of them not only finished but also took first, second and sixth places in the overall rankings.
The Porsche 944 Turbo Cup, an environmentally acceptable race series, was inaugurated in 1986. The cars were all identical, with closed-loop, three-way catalytic converters as standard equipment.
+1987
The Weissach Development Center was extended to include a modern crash-test installation, with built-in control and monitoring equipment.
At the German International Motor Show in Frankfurt, the Porsche 911 Carrera Speedster attracted the crowds.
Further models were added to the 911 program in the spring: the Porsche 911 Turbo Targa and 911 Turbo Cabriolet. Yet another new version was the Porsche 911 Carrera Clubsport.
In the late summer, the four-cylinder sports car program was extended to include the Porsche 944 Turbo S. This was initially planned as a limited edition of 1,000 cars, but for the 1989 model year its 250 HP engine was also available in the standard Porsche 944 Turbo.
Entering the Type 962C at the company’s last factory appearance at Le Mans proved to be a very fortunate decision: it secured Porsche its twelfth overall victory – a record unrivalled by any other marque.
Porsche’s CEO Peter W. Schutz left the company on December 31. In his place the Supervisory Board appointed his previous deputy, Heinz Branitzki.
+1988
With the Type 2708 CART, Porsche ventured into unfamiliar territory. Developed for the American CART race series, it was an entirely new design with an aluminum and plastic monocoque body.
On August 25, the new Porsche body construction plant was opened in Zuffenhausen. It was capable of building 911 and 928 bodies on one and the same assembly line.
The RDK tire pressure monitoring system available for the 928 S4 was a global innovation. The Porsche 911 Turbo was uprated by fitting a new five-speed gearbox and a hydraulically operated clutch.
Porsche held a driving event for the media in October, to introduce them to the Porsche 944 S2. Its 3-liter engine with four valves per cylinder was not only the largest and most powerful naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine available on the international market, but also developed its power very smoothly, a virtue that did not elude the journalists who drive it.
To celebrate 25 years of “911” production, the all-wheel-drive Porsche 911 Carrera 4 was introduced in November, and ushered in the latest generation of this successful model, which was known internally as the Type 964. Among its design highlights were a new 3.6-liter engine and an aerodynamically optimized body with plastic nose and tail sections and an automatically extending rear spoiler.
+1989
Assembly of the open-top Porsche 944 S2 Cabriolet started at the beginning of the year; it was outsourced to the American Sunroof Corporation (ASC), which had a plant in Weinsberg, near Heilbronn. The most exclusive open-topped version in Porsche’s four-cylinder model line did not appear until two years later: this was the Porsche 944 Turbo Cabriolet.
At the IAA in Frankfurt, the Weissach-based engineers exhibited the “Panamericana” roadster study, created to celebrate Ferry Porsche’s 80th birthday.
Production of the “G-series” 911 Carrera and 911 Turbo models ceased in July 1989 – the end of an era. The model that followed, the Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (Type 964) were equipped with exhaust emission control by closed-loop catalytic converter, and an antilock brake system. During the 1990 model year both this and the 911 Carrera 4 (Type 964) reached the market in Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet body styles.
Starting in November, Porsche began to supply its “Tiptronic” transmission, which offered the driver either fully-automatic gear shifts or a means of selecting gears manually.
Also new at this time was the Porsche 928 GT; with a power output of 330 HP and a top speed of 275 km/h, it represented a new performance peak in the Porsche production-car program.
At the Mid-Ohio race meeting, Italian driver Teo Fabi achieved Porsche’s first win in the CART series, at the wheel of the Quaker-State Porsche with March chassis.