This car, Lot 164, sold for $257,600, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams Cars’ Scottsdale, AZ, auction, on January 25, 2025.
We have reviewed the history behind the development of Porsche’s turbocharged boulevard burner before. To recap: Compressed air can be crammed into cylinders by exhaust-flow-driven turbine (turbocharging) or via engine-belt-driven turbine (supercharging). The latter consumes horsepower to spin the turbine, so turbocharging is often preferred.
Supercharging and turbocharging go back to the early 1900s in locomotives and heavy equipment. Modern-day turbo usage started in the 1960s with GM’s Olds Jetfire and Corvair Monza. The 4,000 turbocharger kits Michael May sold for Ford’s V6 Capris raised a lot of interest, as did the short-lived 1972 BMW 2002 Turbo.
Porsche takes over
Porsche played with turbocharged 911s early — first an unspectacular late-1960s 2.0-liter and then an interesting 1972 2.7-liter. The latter led directly to the 3.0-liter 930-series 911 Turbo, introduced in 1975.
In 1978, the 930 engine was enlarged to 3.3 liters, an intercooler was added, and wheels moved up an inch to 16 inches — all meaningful advances. That architecture soldiered on through 1989, with a total of 20,685 G-Body 930 Turbos sold. The next advance was supposed to be a 3.6-liter 911 Turbo developed off the new 964-series engine of 1990. Scheduling and money issues intervened to delay that project.
With financial pains mounting, Porsche turned to special models to add profits. Bringing back a 911 Turbo was an easily accomplished first step. Porsche slightly upgraded the 930’s 3.3-liter engine and introduced the 964-series Turbo 3.3 in September 1990, as a 1991 model.
The new Turbo
Porsche widened the 964 body to accept larger wheels: seven-by-17-inch Cup Design in front and nine-by-17-inch in the rear. The chassis used was the C2 two-wheel drive. (C4-like all-wheel drive would wait until the 993-series Turbo of 1996.) The intercooler was enlarged, as was the turbocharger. Anti-roll bars were now 21 mm in the front and 22 mm in the rear. The G50 5-speed gearbox introduced in 1989 on Turbos (1987 on 3.2 Carreras) was maintained and ABS was included.
The 964 Turbo coupe initially carried an MSRP of $95,000 vs. $61,915 for a C2 coupe. After delivery and federal taxes (gas-guzzler tax, remember?), $105,300 was typical before any options. Actually, the loaded Turbo did not have many options, but a useful one was the limited-slip differential that cost $891. The public loved the muscular look of the 964 Turbo, especially from the rear. Porsche sold 3,660 examples of the car.
Evolutionary achievement
The slightly uprated 3.3-liter engine generated 320 horsepower and 362 lb-ft of torque. The turbocharger was now a K27 rather than the K26 used on 1978–89 930s. Two-valve-per-cylinder heads endured as Porsche continued its reluctance to air-cool a four-valve head in a production car. The engine had the new type number of M30/69.
The new unit generated performance of 4.4 seconds to 60 mph, running the quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds at 112 mph. Top speed was around 170 mph. Later, Porsche offered a “power kit” (option code X33) that included uprated camshafts, a new intake manifold and bigger valves. This added 35 hp, for 355 total.
Road testers found that the 964’s new rear suspension helped with oversteer and rear-end breakaways. But the boost still came on suddenly, which meant that care was needed in corners. For reference, a Corvette ZR-1 was two seconds quicker at Roebling Road than the 964 Turbo in a Car and Driver comparison test. Remember, the Turbo was a loaded luxo-cruiser; a track-focused 964 Carrera RS would have spanked the ’Vette.
964 Turbo specials
Starting a money-making trend, Porsche added a Turbo S (aka the Leichtbau, or “Lightweight”) in 1992, selling 86. With lightening and suspension brought over from the Carrera RS, weight went down to 2,884 pounds and the engine was uprated to 381 hp.
In January 1993, Porsche finally brought out the M64-based 3.6-liter Turbo (type M64/50) with all-new engine architecture, 355–360 hp, and 384 lb-ft of torque. The base price was around $99,000. Porsche sold 1,437 of them. That was followed by a series of uber-expensive Flachbaus (“flat-noses”) built in four models: X83 (10 units, Japanese market), X84 (27 units, RoW), and X85 (39 units, U.S. and Canada), plus 17 cars with standard upright fenders, aka “Package Cars.” Porsche’s need for profits and significant Exclusive Department handwork led to sticker prices of more than $160,000.
Worth noting: Andial in Santa Ana, CA, modified 964 3.3 Turbos to homologate the car for IMSA’s Bridgestone Supercar Championship series. They were ordered to be about half a power kit, with changes to the turbocharger, manifold, camshafts, valve train and timing. Sold as “S2,” Andial built 20 — 18 for the U.S. and two for Canada. The installed S2 kit cost $10,000.
The price is right
A review of public sales in 2023–24 shows 20 of the 964 Turbo 3.3s sold in a wide price range of $169k to $376k. Low-mileage examples similar to our auction car included one with 18k miles in Grand Prix White for $269k, 16k miles in Turquoise (bonus money) for $250k, 10k miles in Midnight Blue Metallic (big bonus money) at $326k, and 12k miles in Ferrari Fly Yellow (huge bonus money) for $376k.
Our subject car was a 1990s classic, painted Guards Red over a beige interior with optional leather trim. It had low mileage with a good maintenance history. As the catalog never mentioned original paint, it is a safe bet that the car has had a full repaint. Otherwise, it looked to be in clean and original condition, as would befit the mileage. The car sold at $230k hammer, so $257,600 after buyer’s premium, which is fair money both ways. ♦
