959 Parts & Accessories
Bent rim or scraped curb damage? We can source the exact factory wheel to match your car.
Cracked or cloudy headlights are easy to fix with genuine factory replacement units.
Cracked dash pieces or tired door panels? We can track down the correct interior trim.
Worn shocks, springs, or suspension hardware affecting your drive? We carry genuine replacements.
Wear and tear catches up to every engine and transmission. We can source the factory fix.
Scraped bumper covers, cracked spoilers, or missing trim, we can match the genuine part.
The 959 is the car that invented the modern Porsche technology flagship, and every turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Porsche built since owes something to it. Originally conceived to homologate a Group B rally racer, a program that ultimately got cancelled after Group B itself was banned following a string of fatal accidents, Porsche pressed on and turned the 959 into a road-legal production car anyway, unveiling it at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Power comes from a 2.85-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six, based loosely on 911 architecture but featuring an air-cooled block paired with water-cooled cylinder heads, sequential turbocharging to virtually eliminate lag, and a 4-valve-per-cylinder design derived from Porsche's "Moby Dick" Le Mans racer. Output reached 444 hp and 369 lb-ft in Komfort trim (450 hp in the track-focused Sport variant), paired with a 6-speed manual featuring an additional low-range "G" gear for genuine off-road use. Porsche's Steuerung Kupplung all-wheel-drive system, capable of continuously varying torque split between the axles based on conditions, was a genuine industry first. Porsche quotes 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and a 197 mph top speed, making the 959 the fastest production car in the world at launch.
The 959 pioneered technology that took the rest of the industry years, sometimes decades, to catch up to: electronically controlled adaptive damping, height-adjustable ride that automatically dropped at speeds above 100 mph to reduce drag, hollow-spoke magnesium wheels, and run-flat tire technology developed jointly with Bridgestone. Rothmans-liveried 959s finished first and second overall at the 1986 Paris-Dakar Rally, a dramatic real-world demonstration of the technology after the Group B program itself never materialized. Porsche built roughly 292 series-production examples between 1987 and 1988, plus a small number of prototypes, and the car was never federalized for US sale, a restriction that later helped inspire the "Show or Display" law allowing limited use of historically significant vehicles on American roads.
- Model year: 1986 to 1988 (limited additional units through 1993)
- Engine: 2.85L twin-turbocharged flat-six, 444 hp (Komfort) / 450 hp (Sport), 369 lb-ft
- 0 to 60 mph: 3.6 seconds
- Transmission: 6-speed manual only, no automatic offered
- Notable firsts: first production car with a continuously variable all-wheel-drive system; first production car with electronically controlled adaptive suspension
- Available as: 959 (coupe only, AWD, approximately 292 units produced worldwide, never officially sold in the US)
