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Porsche 959
It’s perhaps clichéd to mention it, but this mechanical marvel became one of the poster icons for the Athena generation. I had one on my wall with a Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari 288 GTO with ‘decisions, decisions, decisions’ written underneath. Sadly, I’ve never had to make that decision but if I did I’d go for the Porsche. It was a technical masterpiece when it was introduced in ’88 and still commands real respect today. Based on the 911 but with highly sophisticated four-wheel-drive transmisson, twin turbochargers, electronic ride height adjustment and 450bhp it never quite managed the 200mph of its cruder rivals – topping out at ‘just’ 197mph. However there were some drawbacks.
That engine and complex transmission combined with its composite wind-tunnel honed ‘zero-lift’ bodywork made it fiendishly expensive to produce though, Porsche making a significant loss on every one of the 283 cars they sold. They are exceptionally rare and valuable and unfortunately Auto Trader doesn’t list any right now...
