1991 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 (964)

Written By:

Mike G

Man, oh man was this was unique Porsche 964 to drive. The color on this vehicle was viola which was a light purple. This was a Japan import car. For those of you that don’t know your Porsche history very well here is a little lesson. In the 90’s Porsche was struggling as a company, struggling so badly they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Well, in the ’90s the Japanese economy was in the stratosphere. They were making so much money they had no idea what to do with it. Enter the legendary Mizawa Porsche dealership in Japan. This place was importing all the Porsche legends of the time the 964 RS in all the juicy colors you guessed it they got a ton of them. 964’s in wild colors like this yep they got them. Why you may ask, was it just the economy? No, they still had to choose these wonderful colors and the Japanese had style and got all the bright and unique colors because they could. They had so much money they weren’t worried about if the color was loud for resale they were living in the moment. They wanted it at the time because bright colors were cool at the time. Unlike the standard primary colors, they stay away from that. So that was the cliff notes version of why so many cool Porsche 911’s for the late ’80s and 90’s come from Japan. 

Stats on this one are not overly impressive for modern standards but think of time. Horsepower was at 247 @ 6100 rpm and 228 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm. The C4 which this was weighed 3,252 lbs which is pretty heavy for a 911. This is because the all-wheel-drive system is very old, and this was the first time it was ever being put into mass production for Porsche. When driving this C4 compared to my C2 was considerably different in the steering and weight department. My C2 weighs just under 3,000 lbs because I was able to get some weight of it. You can certainly tell when the car has the horsepower numbers mentioned. Anyway, that’s not really fair because my car has a lot of modifications done to it. This C4 was very close to stock. It still very fun to drive, let’s face it you don’t buy a Porsche 911 of this vintage and expect it to be fast. You are buying it for the feels and the looks. It had both in spades. Love the way this car looked. Since it was a ROW rest of the world car it didn’t have a sunroof which I love. I feel the 964 with a sunroof just messes up the roofline to the eye. The color just oozed 90’s which I love because it made you feel like you just went back in time.

Final thoughts on this car, I really enjoyed the car. I felt special driving it. It was a sense of occasion and that is exactly what you want to feel when you drive a vintage air-cooled 911. The combination of color and feels this one was special. Also, knowing the history of the car living in Japan is another cool factory. Despite the fact it being a C4 I would still like to own this car because all the special things I mentioned already. You could even daily drive this car if you lived in a cold climate due to the fact of it being a C4. Again, this isn’t a speed demon and as long as you approach it that way this car was so great in so many ways. Until the next time CheeRS.