(car engine roars)
- It's the 80s super car that sparked
an international super car rivalry!
It's got technology so advanced
that it took 20 years for others to catch up.
It's a 200 mile per hour rocket
that was designed to race on the dirt!
Bill Gates helped pass legislation
just so he could get his hands on one.
I can already see you nerds in the comments
be like F40's better.
Well you're wrong!
You're wrong!
It's time to go bumper to bumper on the Porche 959.
I've never seen one in real life!
(funky rock music)
Everything about the 959 is unique.
From the blocky rear to the shiny silver leather,
this thing is the embodiment of the 1980s
and I'm from the 1980s so big bro can relate.
- [Randy Savage] Snap into a Slim Jim!
- When it came out in 1986
it was the most technologically advanced car around
and the first production car to hit 200 miles per.
(car engine roars)
Porche sold 292 of them for 300 thousand in 1980s money
which is about 660 thousand dollars nowadays,
but they didn't make any money,
because it cost double that to produce each car.
We here in the states didn't get to enjoy the 959.
It wasn't street legal because Porche couldn't afford
to supply the U.S. Department of Transportation
with the four 959s necessary for crash testing.
Some were imported via the gray market
or under show or display loopholes after 1999,
but they really couldn't be driven that much on the street.
This is the first one I've actually seen in person.
I am pumped!
Here's literally the first time I saw it.
Jesse shot it on his phone.
(laughs)
That's (censored beep) so sick dude.
The exterior looks exactly what you'd expect
a Porche 911 concept car to look like in the 80s.
The long sloping rear, the round headlights,
the low profile.
You'll also see some unique characteristics
that weren't found on other Porsches during that time.
These really pronounced side sills, and the rear vents.
The body is made of aluminum and Kevlar composite.
And the floors are made of Nomex,
which is a lot like Kevlar but it's more resistant to heat.
(deep bass music)
The rear end is the most 80s thang I've ever seen.
One large break light stretching across the back
like Kim Kardashian in them juicy pants.
But instead of juicy, it says Porche!
Above the tail lights is the wang.
Unlike the whale tail wings
found on other Porches of the time,
this one is seamlessly incorporated into the body
and flat enough to cut up a few lines
with your hedge fund buddies,
so you can explain why Huey Lewis & The News
is the best freakin' band to a girl
with crimped hair in the back of a cab.
"Uh, no babe, like, listen to it.
"No, are you listening?
"No, listen to the lyrics.
"Let's get brunch tomorrow.
"For sure, call me.
"Make me do it or I won't do it.
"Let's start a business, okay, alright."
- [Bobby Brown] Yeah!
- This was actually the first production car
Porche made that had air intakes on the rear fenders.
Bach actually played these rear vents
in the studio (harp strums)
when he recorded his original symphonies.
The tires themselves are very special.
They're Bridgestone RE71 Denlocs,
the world's first run flat tires, and they still make 'em.
The nose is 80s Porche to the T, or should I say the P.
(manic laughter)
It's got the classic round headlights,
overly complicated headlight washers which pop up
so they can break, and my favorite part about the front end.
What is this, a gas cap?
Put your liters of petrol in that cost $19 a liter,
because we live in the EU.
Popping the front hood reveals one of the most carpeted
and shallow frunks I have ever seen.
You could fit a pizza very, very well.
Pull these two little tabs right here, lift this guy up,
access the Porche First Aid Kid.
Everything is in German.
I think they included it because you're rally racing.
There's also a piece of chalk in here in case you have to
trace a body line around your co-driver.
Germans, baby.
You guys are (bleep) up.
Uh, again heres the gas cap,
and this is (sniffs) soaked in gas.
The doors are very satisfying to open.
Inside the handle is this little lever that makes
such a delightful little noise,
that you might think Donut has started making
ASMR videos. (clicks)
(whispering) That sounds so good.
I love how that sounds.
I could go to sleep right now.
Pitter patter, pitter patter, click.
You want to replace fluids in a normal car,
you just pop the hood and find the cap, but not in this car!
This is a Porsche 959!
You don't do anything normal in this car.
On each side, are these little caps
which look like fuel doors, but they're not fuel doors!
To open these guys, you pop the hood,
and then pull these really cool yellow latches
that look like the latches that pop an airplane door open.
"Are you willing and able to sit in this exit row,
"to add suspension fluid and oil?"
"Uh, yeah, I enjoy the extra legroom."
Hood rat first class.
Pull on the one on the right and it opens
the port above the passenger's side wheel well
to give you access to the Earl.
Pull the one on the left and it opens the hatch
above the driver's side wheel well,
where you can top-off your suspension fluid.
Suspension fluid?
What the heck is this guy smoking?
'Cause I want some of it.
Slide into the DMs and I'll get you some.
The fluid is for the 959's super special,
hydraulically adjustable suspension system,
which we will get into in a minute,
so keep watching and smash that like button.
(techno music)
Engine is shoehorned in tighter
than Axl Rose in leather pants.
The 959 has a 2.8 liter, sequentially turbocharged,
six cylinder, Boxer engine, and is based
off the engine used in Porsche's 956 and 962 race cars.
It's got dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder,
a Bosch Motronic 2.1 fuel injection system
keeps the engine fed with fuel.
The cylinder heads are water cooled,
and the cylinders themselves are air cooled.
This is pretty significant, seeing as Porsche
didn't use water cooling systems in their engines
on production cars until 1999.
All-in-all, the 959 makes 444 horse powers at 6500 RPM
with 369 (laughs) torques.
The use of sequential turbos means smoother delivery
across the power band.
Das is lit.
The Sport model can do zero to 60 in 3.6 seconds.
That's in 1986, and it's got a top speed of 198.
This thing fricking rips!
That's all cool and good, but maybe the best part
of the engine is another fun little sticker,
that explains the firing order of the cylinder.
♪ 1-6-2-4-3-5 ♪
♪ I got it ♪
♪ She wants it ♪
If you pluck this belt, the tone makes you poop your pants.
The car's got tons of little quirks and features like that.
- [Man] Swag.
- Things that only make sense in the 80s,
like this sticker right here, that simultaneously advertises
that it has a Blaupunkt stereo,
but says do not steal it, alright.
We do have a Blaupunkt stereo, yes,
but do not steal it!
Because you'll need a code and you won't be able to use it.
Alright, you'll have to get an Alan Turing.
Let's see how that Blaupunkt stereo sounds.
(8-bit music) I love this song.
Before today, I'd never seen one of these in real life,
and now I'm sitting in one.
I got expelled from high school.
Holler!
Surprisingly, I fit perfectly in this car.
All the seats are covered in this three-toned,
sparkly leather and I love it.
It makes me feel like I'm at a birthday party
in 1986 at McDonald's, and Grimace is a small German man.
It's quite a relief that I fit perfectly in this car,
being a big, buff man, like I am.
The front buckets are serious, nice and deep,
just like big bro's pockets,
and the bolsters keep you tucked in
when you hit the chicanes.
The front seats might be tight,
but the rear seats are insane.
I'm not sure if there's a human that actually fit in these.
They probably just included them for insurance purposes.
In the middle, you got your shifter, per uzhe.
It's got five gears, plus the reverse, and a gelande gear,
which is German for terrain,
which makes it the first production car
with a six speed manual transmission.
The galande gear is a super low gear for off-road crawling.
The project name for the 959 was actually Gruppe B,
but in 1986, it took 1st, 2nd, and 6th place
at the Paris Dakar Rally.
That's crazy.
That's like if a Pagani Huayra won the Baja 1000.
- (laughs) Holy (bleep), dude!
- These robust, rally inspired function,
carried over to production car.
There are three buttons directly above the shifter,
right here.
This one to the left has a little suspension icon.
That's how you adjust the stiffness.
And the knob on the right, when you turn this guy,
Dr Pepper shoots out of the steering wheel
right into your mouth.
Haha, JK.
This knob adjusts the ride height.
That is what the suspension fluid is for,
fully adjustable ride height,
a feature that must have been super futuristic in the 80s.
It's got three different positions, with the highest one
being eight inches higher than the lowest one.
That's pretty good. (laughs)
Above the hazard lights and the defrost button,
is a digital clock, which doesn't seem
like a big deal in 2019, but it's also got
a stopwatch function, which you didn't find
in a lot of cars in the 80s.
Comes in handy if you're laying down a hot lap
at the Nurburgring or when you're trying to see
how long it takes Augustus Gloop
to pop out of the chocolate lake.
"He's in the tube."
You're a fat little boy, aren't ye?
The 959 uses a Porsche-Steuer Kupplung, or PSK,
all-wheel drive system that was one of the first
of its type in a production car.
Instead of a center diff, the PSK system
has a multi plate clutch that uses
six pairs of friction plates to carry out the torque split.
Each pair is individually controlled
by one of eight computers in this car,
and actuated by hydraulics.
This lever to the right of the steering wheel
lets you control which traction mode you're in,
which you can see in the gauge right above it.
There are four modes in the Porsche 959.
The sun represents ideal driving conditions,
like a dry road or a track.
Then there's the raindrops, or as I like to call it,
the Migos function.
♪ Raindrop, drop top ♪
No, it's not a drop top, it's a hard top.
It's a coupe.
The Migos function is for wet conditions, like rain.
Then there's a snowflake mode,
which is for when the driver is too politically sensitive.
Also it's for driving in the snow.
And then, there's full traction mode,
which completely locks the torque split
to 50-50, front and rear.
To the left and right of the gauge
are these little percentages.
The meter on the left tells you how much
of the percent is going to the rear wheels,
and the one on the right, tells you
how much percent is going to the front wheels.
More easy, baby.
There's four other gauges on the dash,
aside from the traction meter.
You got your speedo, you got your tach,
you got your boost on the bottom,
then you got oil pressure and temp,
then finally gas and battery.
It makes me feel, honestly, like I'm in a little spaceship.
Feel like Han Freaking Solo.
Get off my plane, Chewy.
- (laughter)
- Above that thief proof Blaupunkt tape player,
is this cluster of warning lights
and this weird little speaker.
The speaker buzzes in different times and variations,
like Morse code, to let the driver know,
"Hi, buddy, your oil is low"
or "Hey, buddy, your tire pressure low"
or "Hey, friend, your self esteem is low"
Don't you think I know that, robot!?
This is the first Porsche that we're doing on this show,
so I want to point out that all Porsches
have the ignition on the left,
and that is a little homage to Le Mans,
because when you're in Le Mans,
you gotta hop in the car, and you wanna start the car
and put it into gear at the same time.
I'm starting a Porsche 959. (laughs)
(engine starts)
(chuckles)
(pop music)
(kiss smacks)
The 959 was too radical and too expensive
to build to stick around for long.
It's the only super car built to go off road
and we'll probably never see one like it again,
but it didn't die in vain.
Technology from the 959 lives on in the Carrera GT,
the 918, and the rest of Porsche's regular lineup.
But most importantly, the 959 showed the world
what a rear engine design could do
and helped save the 911 from certain death in the process.
Big shouts to Drive Coffee for helping us make this video.
They supplied us with this car.
We drink it at the office.
It smells freaking great.
This one has a 959 on it.
You wanna learn more about the 959,
go back and watch this video again.
Smash that like button.
Follow me on Instagram @jamespumphrey.
Follow Donut on Instagram @donutmedia.
We're gonna do this show every Tuesday until the day I die.
♪ Until the day I die ♪
Let me know in the comments what other cars
you want us to cover, I love you.
I think you're supposed to brew it.