1991 964 TURBO
Author: Mike G.
Let’s turn back the clock to 1991. You are waking up on an early Saturday morning and are the owner of a 1991 Porsche 964 Turbo! What a life, right? Such a simpler time when horsepower numbers were not approaching 1000. Ugh, back when driving was driving and not a stat sheet competition. This is the era when driver nannies were few and far between, and the driver was required to manage the car’s capabilities, not the other way around. This particular 964 turbo is a 3.3 liter single turbo charged engine producing 315 hp @5750 rpm and torque 332 lb-ft @4500 rpm. Now that number seems bleak compared to modern cars. However, the turbo boost doesn’t hit until 4500 rpms and when it does it’s like a mule kicked you in the back, and the car surges forward at a remarkable rate. I can’t imagine owning this car in 1991, it must have felt like a space shuttle. Even by today’s standards the car is quick, not fast but quick.
The interior cabin of the car is small like a fighter jet! This 964 Turbo is from an era when sports cars were light, nimble and smaller than other cars on the road. The road presence of this 911 is remarkable, while we were doing the review of the vehicle we must have had a dozen people wave and say “nice car”, “man that’s an awesome classic”. Even in its black on black flying under the radar color it got that attention however, the rear fender arches and big tail wing give away that this is a special beast. Not to mention the block buster movie Bad Boys where the feature car was a 911 3.6 Turbo black on black driven by Will Smith. Most people see this black on black turbo and they think it is the Bad Boys car. We didn’t bother trying to correct people, we know our Porsches but trying to tell someone why this isn’t a Bad Boys car who doesn’t know Porsches is like trying to explain quantum physics to a grade schooler learning basic arithmetic.
In short, this car is a very special animal. Even though it isn’t the highly coveted 3.6 turbo, that car is roughly 200k more than the price tag this car carries in its current condition. Will you get 200k more car with the 3.6? Hard to say, two schools of thought on that. First one to the collector, hell yes!! They only made the 3.6 for one year and in very low numbers. So a rare bird to put it lightly. Additionally, all the big time Porsche collectors consider the 3.6 turbo the last of the last. What I mean by that it is the last air-cooled rear wheel driver turbo ever! That’s a big deal in the collector community. Second school of thought is these were meant to drive. Who cares what the mileage is as long as it has been maintained, who cares if it’s a 3.3 or 3.6, and who cares if it has been modified or not. These are your people who just want to experience the car on a regular basis. These people are not putting the car on display, they are living the dream of 90’s in the modern day of owning and driving the pinnacle of Germany engineering at the time. Now with those two schools of thought mentioned, one is not more correct than the other and it’s totally your preference and your dollars. How would you choose to spend them? I know how I would spend mine and I would be riding it into the sunset! So if you have the means and you are looking for a classic car that checks all the boxes: drama, presence, drivability, collectability, and sense of occasion, the 964 Turbo is your match!