52 APRIL 2020 ~ CAR AND DRIVER

He seemed irritated that I had pulled over in front of his vineyard in, what, some
old 911 or something? I wanted to tell him that by stopping there, I had increased
UV]_\]R_afcNYbROfNZVYYV\[ObPX\XNfZ_ROba6¼TbRQUR\VPaNYR\S the car’s Paris-Dakar win and its Group B ambitions would be lost on this guy. The Porsche 959 was, and is, a subtle supercar, not a hair-metal extrovert like its Italian contemporaries. But then, I wouldn’t drive a Lamborghini Countach in URNcfa_N¦PP\YQdRNaUR_\_]\b[QV[T_NV[AUR&"&aUROYbR]_V[aS\_aUR[Rea three decades of any-road-anytime turbocharged all-wheel-drive 911s, doesn’t care about bad weather. Neither do its custodians from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, whence this car came. When rain shut down California’s Sonoma Raceway, our intended venue, they simply handed me the keys and told me to hit the road. I could scarcely believe it. It was like calling the Louvre and say- V[T'²5RfZfYNd¼_ZμUNcV[TN]N_af:Nf
I borrow the Code of Hammurabi?” And they
say, “Sure, but just try not to spill too much
queso on the section about oxen subleasing.”
The museum’s 1988 959 looks classic but
conceals a quiver of modern tech. It has an
adjustable suspension (damping and ride
height), anti-lock brakes, and multiple settings
for the torque-biasing all-wheel-drive system.
Gas-station attendants of the day were surely

9

THE GROUNDBREAKING

PORSCHE 959 WAS

30 YEARS AHEAD OF ITS

TIME, 30 YEARS AGO.

BY EZRA DYER

“THE 959

SERVED AS THE

TECHNOLOGICAL

LODESTAR NOT

JUST FOR PORSCHE,

BUT FOR THE

ENTIRETY OF THE

MODERN SUPERCAR

WORLD.”