---
title: "You Could Afford Half of a Porsche 959"
description: "Actually, probably not."
date: "2015-11-09"
modified: "2015-11-09"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/827/you-could-afford-half-of-a-porsche-959"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "History"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "porsche"
---

# You Could Afford Half of a Porsche 959

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/110915_nonseq_bareporsche_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

When it was released in 1986, the Porsche 959 was the world’s fastest street-legal production car. Built to satisfy Group B Rallying homologation requirements and Porsche’s general phallus-measuring needs, the 959 was a legitimate 197 mph car with a twin-turbocharged 2.85-liter engine and an advanced all-wheel-drive system. The 959, along with the horse-of-a-different-color-and-that-color-is-red Ferrari F40, was the superlative Eighties supercar. New, one cost $225,000; Today, not one crosses an auction block for less than $1 million.

So, you probably can’t afford one. Maybe you can afford half of one, though? At the 1988 Toronto Motor Show, Porsche revealed this chopped 959, its bodywork peeled back like a corn husk to showcase the very technical systems that made it special. Look at that sexy plumbing, and those jet-black springs! It looks amazing. Maybe you can’t afford it.

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)