AutoCult Porsche 965 V8 Earl-King (1988) (Germany)

About the Original

The Porsche with an Audi engine

There might have been numerous discussions about the successor of the type 911 in the premises of Porsche. In 1982, once again such an exchange of ideas took place. It was decided to test the model range in various concepts for the future. Among these concepts was also the idea of a lightning Porsche with 370 hp, permanent 4-wheel drive and an automatic gearbox.

The new test vehicle series got the designation “965”. A high performance engine, which turned out to be problem later on, was fitted in the rear. Tremendous heat accumulation and insufficient performance output were the keywords and the constant companions of the engineers on the job. Over the course of the further development the project got the internal designation “969”. In the meantime Porsche moved away from the idea to fit a classic V6 drive and focused on a V8-engine. Porsche took a V8 engine from an Indy Car racecar for tests and also worked on the development of an own V8 engine. Finally the research work ended with the decision to use a standard 3.6 V8 (PT) of Audi, therefore a third-party engine. But the 234 hp-strong engine fitted only with various tricks and adjustments into the tight rear end of the car. In the end these compromises led to a loss in performance of 16 hp, which was evidently counterproductive.

End of 1988 the project was due to be discontinued, which signified the end for the Porsche 965 respectively 969. In total 16 prototypes for tests were built from which one survived to this day.