Vehicle Description
This spectacular 993 Twin Turbo is one of the best 15,000-mile cars
we've seen in a very long time. Looking grand in its original
Arctic Silver paint and with its interior next to perfection, one
would be proud to be the next caretaker and driver of this
Turbo.
The 993 brought huge advances over its 964 predecessor. Engineers
and stylists within the company thought the 964 had gone a little
bit the wrong direction for a Porsche; chief of vehicle testing
Peter Falk felt that "agility" was missing. Visually the 964 looked
too much like the earliest 911s. It was time for change. New design
chief Harm Lagaay assigned Tony Hatter to make it new. Hatter's
design introduced wider, flatter front and rear fenders, which
began with raked-back elliptical headlights and subsided into the
trailing edge of the roofline, which then angled downward into the
rear bumper. The new body abandoned the angularity of the 964 for a
more organic form.
Engineers throughout Weissach strived to address complaints about
964 handling. Racing against time and budget constraints to
complete the 964 had to attach the rear suspension directly to the
car body, transferring road and suspension noise directly into the
interior. For the 993, they adopted the front-engine 928's
revolutionary "Weissach" multi-link rear suspension. These
components were mounted on an independent sub-frame that tamed
handling issues and isolated noise and harshness.
Where chief engineer Helmuth Bott's goal with the 964 C4 had been
all-wheel traction, his successor Horst Marchart pursued superior
handling. His engineers greatly revised the front-wheel drive
system and reduced its weight by half.
Engineers added a sixth gear to help the car meet or exceed U.S. or
rest-of-world fuel economy and noise standards. They also improved
the software, steering wheel controls, and shifting characteristics
in the upgraded Tiptronic S.
The 993 represented a new philosophy at Porsche towards it Turbos:
Any model offering more than 400 horsepower (in this case 408) was
to be all-wheel drive for stability, safety, and agility. The 993
Turbo instantly became the "affordable" Typ 959, and one legal in
all countries.
Overall, the 993 Turbo provided a better experience with less
cockpit noise and much smoother ride than its predecessor. To this
day, what is an older Porsche at this point and time? It has to be
a nice mixture of vintage and new.
We have experienced a big fluctuation in the market place when it
comes to Porsche Turbos. Prices soared to all time highs across the
board a few years back, and then underwent a pretty severe
correction in 930s throughout the Turbo line up. Now we see some
resurgence. Of course, the first and last year of the 930, and the
rare Typ 964 and ' 97 Turbo S models always get the attention they
deserve. But when it comes down to the 993s, the last of the
air-cooled Turbos are very drivable and hard to beat!