Porsche 964 Carrera 4
Highlights
- Beautiful restoration
- Full service history
- Well-maintained vehicle
1989 was a remarkable year for Porsche. The 911 became the 964—and with the Carrera 4, it was equipped with permanent all-wheel drive for the first time.
What looked like a new variant of the 911 at the time, however, had a highly interesting technical history. The powertrain of the 964 Carrera 4 is essentially a slightly simpler offshoot of the legendary Porsche 959, the technology showcase with which Porsche launched its first supercar in the 1980s.
Hellmuth Bott, then head of development at Porsche and one of the great engineers of that era, was largely responsible for its technical development.
Bott wasn’t exactly a man of many words. When a journalist once asked him how this technically highly complex 959 actually drove and whether the enormous effort involved in the all-wheel-drive system was even noticeable compared to a conventional rear-wheel-drive Porsche, Bott replied:
“At 180 kph, the 959 gets a little restless.”
Pause.
A typically Hanseatic-long pause.
Then he added:
“On gravel.”
Apparently, that was all you needed to know.
And indeed, this brief exchange captures quite a bit of Porsche’s philosophy at the time. Technology wasn’t developed to be explained in a brochure, but to make a car better. The 959 served as the test bed. The 964 Carrera 4 subsequently received a simplified version of this concept, suitable for mass production.
The result drives with surprising ease today.
The 3.6-liter boxer engine responds instantly, the all-wheel drive gives the car superb traction, and yet the Carrera 4 remains a true 911: compact, direct, and with that mechanical feedback that’s increasingly missing in later generations.
You don’t constantly notice just how much technology is at work beneath you.
You just notice that it works.
Automatically translated by DeepL. View original version (DE)
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