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Cars you didn’t know you want: This 1986 Porsche 959 prototype, P.O.A.

You can now buy the only prototype Porsche 959 in private hands – and it’s arguably the fastest 959 ever – price on application.

Porsche stunned the world of sports cars in 1986, the arrival of the hi-tech Porsche 959 redefining what it meant to be a supercar.

Active suspension, all-wheel drive, and a twin-turbo 2849cc flat-six making an astonishing-for-the-time 331kW were the technological highlights. Throw in a claimed top speed of 320km/h and a 0-100km/h benchmark sprint of 3.7 seconds, and it’s little wonder the Porsche 959 adorned the bedroom walls of many a young petrolhead in the 1980s.

Just 337 Porsche 959s rolled off the production line between 1987-93, the then new price of DM431,550 ($AU325,000) less than half of what it cost Porsche to build each car. Yes, that’s right, Porsche lost money on every 959 sold. But what it lost in Deutschmarks, it made up in a phenomenal display of technology that left its rivals scrambling.

Of the total run of 337 cars, 37 were pre-production and prototype models and it’s one those that is the focus of this story.

Because it’s for sale. And it’s arguably the fastest Porsche 959 of them all.

It’s not often car enthusiasts are given the opportunity to buy a prototype, but thanks to British classic car broker Girardo & Co, the only privately-owned Porsche 959 prototype is currently for sale.

According to Girardo, ‘F9’ is one of just three F-series prototypes built to the lightweight ‘Sport’ (959 S) specification which did away with niceties like air conditioning, central locking, and rear seats as well as the cumbersomely heavy adaptive suspension. Just 29 of the svelte production Porsche 959 S were ever made.

The F9 prototype was used primarily to test the 959’s transmission, and thanks to weight-saving measures tipped the scales at around 100kg less than the final production car. The fastest 959 ever? Not unreasonable to suggest.

Inside, F9 is fitted with the Komfort pack that adds carpet and leather, although this feature did not make it into the final production S model. Similarly, there are non-functioning switches and dials for the air conditioning while the rotary dials used for the 959’s adaptive suspension are also non-functional.

Distinguishing the F9 protype from the final production car are elements like the clearly hand-crafted rear wing, exhaust tips that droop downwards, a lack of sound-deadening lining inside the wheel arches while the headlights are devoid of the production car’s washer jets.

The provenance of F9 suggest that Porsche gifted the car – as well as the sister F7 prototype – to then US Porsche and Audi distributor Vasek Polak with the caveat they only be used for display purposes. How serious was Porsche about its caveat? The cars were supplied without keys.

Polak loaned both prototype cars to Japan’s famous Matsuda Collection where they remained on display for many years.

Both prototypes were offered for sale following Polak’s death in 1997, with Italian rally driver Mauro Bompani snapping up the still keyless F9.

After a long period of negotiation, Porsche supplied Bompani with a set of keys for F9, as well as confirming the car’s provenance. The Italian held onto F9 for around 20 years before selling it on to Austrian car collector Georg Konradsheim who in turn sold it to its current UK-based owner in 2020.

Now, Girardo and Co is offering F9 for sale, price on application. As a guide, the last Porsche 959 prototype to come up for sale – F7 – sold at Sotheby’s in 2018 for $US1 million ($AUD1.435 million). Expect the asking price on F9 to be more.

Regular production 959s currently command prices north of $US2million ($AU2.97 million). Earlier this year, Bring a Trailer sold a pristine low-kilometre 959 Komfort for $US2.125 million ($AU3.05 million), believed to be a record for road-going 959s.

The highest price ever achieved by any 959 is a whopping $US5.9 million ($AU8.47 million) for a Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar rally car, sold by RM Sotheby’s in 2018.

If that’s just a little out of your price range, you can always pick up a poster of the car that rewrote the rule book on what it meant to be a supercar. Prices start at around 10 bucks.

Photos: Girardo & Co.

The post Cars you didn’t know you want: This 1986 Porsche 959 prototype, P.O.A. appeared first on Drive.