Autoblog: The world's first ever Porsche 911 Turbo

CrzRsn

So long, and thanks for all the fish
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Some people attending the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance last weekend walked past this Porsche 911 Turbo, giving it nary a glance. After all, it was tucked a little out of the way, and even with its tweaked bodywork and decals, if you've seen one 911 Turbo, you've seen them all, right? Well, no. Anyone who paused long enough to read the info card owner Murray Smith placed front of the car learned that, in fact, this Turbo is more special than others. You see, it was the prototype - the first factory-turbocharged Porsche 911 road car, period.

As the story goes, it began life as a regular '73 911S company car driven by Porsche chief engineer Helmuth Bott. From there, it won the Porsche genetics lottery when it was sucked into the automaker's experimental program to serve as the basis for the Turbo. As such, it became the first roadgoing Porsche 911 to get the turbo engine, along with the now-famous widebody treatment and whaletail.

Once its developmental role was complete, it became the 911 Turbo display car for the Paris, Frankfurt, and Tokyo motor shows, but the story doesn't end there. Following a subsequent factory RSR conversion, this 911 Turbo was raced by Aussie Porsche importer Alan Hamilton during the mid-1970s. The icing on the cake for us came at the day's conclusion, when we got to hear the car fire up and get in line for the procession past the podium. It sounded like God on speakerphone. For a 911 with this provenance, that seemed entirely appropriate.


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I love those 'turbo' stickers on the rear quarter panels. I wish I could have the FIRST of something. Even the first production 930 Turbo would do just fine for me.
 
I don't even really like 911's, and I came hard. That's just awesome.
 
That is something I'd call worthy of a car show. I love seeing things like this, too bad GM is one of the only companies that ever bothers selling out it's historical cars. And IIRC it was only because of the depression last year...
 
Fucking awesome! And the decals are epic! If I had a Turbo I'd get some identical ones made for mine! Too bad we don't get an engine shot
 
Video, sound, giebs!
 
SpockWin.jpg
 
There are a few interesting stories about the background of the 911 Turbo.

Most sources say it was a result of the 1970s oil crisis, and a demand for turbocharged (displacement on demand) engines that consumed less fuel. Which, considering the thirst of early turbo engines, is a moot point. The Turbo was Porsche's way of being able to compete with cars with much bigger engines, while retaining their small and compact f6 engine. It is also turbo charging that has propelled Porsches to most of their ridiculously large total of race wins.

The development team who did the 911 Turbo was split in two fractions; one that wanted to be a hardcore higher performance extension of the Carrera RS; the other who wanted to use the Turbo's increased torque to morph it into something more like a GT. The car that emerged turned out to be closer to the latter than the former. In most people's opinion that was the correct decision, although no road legal hardcore version of the Turbo emerged from the factory until the (964) Turbo S in 1992.

It's interesting to see these things, although I'm surprised Porsche sold the "first" of something to a private customer, they certainly wouldn't do that today.
 
I don't even really like 911's, and I came hard. That's just awesome.

+1
Modern 911?s are kinda dull-looking compared to older 911?s, and this one is just epic.
 
+1
Modern 911?s are kinda dull-looking compared to older 911?s, and this one is just epic.

I credit that to the massive exterior design changes in recent designs.
 
I credit that to the massive exterior design changes in recent designs.

the what?







:p

they just werent that good with tracing paper every year
 
Those stickers NEED to make a comeback.
 
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