1988 Porsche 959 Komfort

Offered by RM Auctions | Milan, Italy | November 25-27, 2016

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Porsche has been building sports cars since the tail end of the 1940s. In there, they’ve sprinkled in a variety of race cars and even an off-roader. But it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that they decided they’d get into the supercar game, which in fairness to Porsche, was really just beginning to kick off in earnest.

The 959 went on sale for the 1986 model year and was sold through 1988 (though a handful were built in 1992 and 1993 as well). It was a technological wonder upon it’s introduction. Conceived to help Porsche crush it in Group B rallying, the 959 has a traditional-for-Porsche rear-engined layout but all four wheels are powered via a ground-breaking torque-distributing 4WD system. The engine is a 2.8-liter twin-turbo flat-6 making a serious 450 horsepower.

Sixty mph was achieved in less than four seconds (remember, this was the 1980s) and the top end was 195 mph. The body was made of a complex aluminium and Kevlar mix to keep weight at a trim 3,200 pounds. This car is being offered at a huge 850-lot single-collection liquidation sale and it is one of the higher-mileage 959s you can probably find, having covered nearly 30,000 km in its life. But hey, at least someone was using it. Only 329 959s of this type were built and you can find more about it here. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $1,078,560.