When more is just enough
THE PORSCHE 930 has fascinated me since I was a kid. I first learned about them from an architect friend of my parents, who was a regular visitor to our house in the ’70s. On one occasion he was extolling the virtues of the then justannounced 911 Turbo to my dad and I was enthralled by what he was saying: all this ‘free’ extra power just from putting a turbine in the exhaust! How was that even possible? That’s why I’ve always been intrigued by the Porsche 930. It looks so good, too, with its fat arches and whale-tail protector.
I first owned a 930 a few years ago, a 1989 car. Much as I admired it I didn’t exactly fall in love with it, especially when I compared it with my Testarossa and Countach QV. Everyday usability isn’t necessarily such a great attribute in a collector’s car; I want excitement from my special cars, both visual and visceral, rather than sensible motoring. The turbo push seemed to have faded over time, too: 300bhp felt much tamer than road tests of the period promised.
After a couple of years
I sold the 930, thinking I’d never buy another. And then I saw this gorgeous example in vibrant red arrive at the Hairpin Company. It had several unique features, which initially made me think it had been modified at some point, but it turned out to be a product of Porsche’s Sunderwunch (Special Wishes) department. It left the factory exactly as you see it here. I’m told it was built for Kerry Morse, a Porsche collector in California. He is probably best known for his exploits in IMSA endurance racing, having owned two famous Porsche 935 racers, chassis 004 and 007 (‘Moby Dick’) back in the ’80s. Kerry had an excellent relationship with the factory and I’m told this modified ’89 G50 930 Turbo S was the result.
Annoyingly, the car didn’t come with an extensive history file to back this up. However, there are invoices from Freisinger Motorsport in Germany, which purchased it from a dealer in California back in 2019, alongside Kerry’s prototype 959 and a regular 904. Freisinger carried out a full restoration, then sold the 930 to another well-known Porsche collector in the UK. He then traded the 930 in at the Hairpin Company for another car.
I have the original spec sheet for the car which, interestingly, lists the 17in Ruf wheels as well as features including the special dash, a trick locking differential and a ‘It has a turbo punch more akin to a Ferrari F40’s than to that of any other Porsche 930 I’ve ever driven’
shorter gearlever. What makes this 930 Turbo S so unique, though, is that it has a 3.4-litre Porsche Motorsport engine with a K27 turbo, modified heads, a bigger intercooler and a quad-pipe exhaust. It boosts to 1.1bar (a regular 930 peaks at 0.8bar) and allegedly pumps out well over 400bhp. All I know is that it has a turbo punch more akin to a Ferrari F40’s than to that of any other 930 I’ve ever driven.
The ‘base’ car is a Turbo S, a version that the Special Wishes department built in tiny numbers in 1989. Records are hard to come by today but 33 in total are thought to have been built, ten of which were commissioned by Sonauto for the French market. They can be recognised by the motorsport-derived front air dam with integral oil cooler, the Porsche 959 steering wheel and seats, lowered suspension and a special central console with an outside temperature gauge.
Freisinger fully rebuilt both the engine and gearbox during the restoration, and only 1300km had since been recorded before I bought the car. I clearly needed to run the engine in, and what better way to do that than taking the 930 on a 1400km road trip on some of the best roads Spain has to offer?
There’s nothing like a trip like this to really get to know a car. Initial impressions were mainly good. All the usual 911 virtues came to the fore, the breed’s innate usability at the top of the list. There’s more storage space than you might expect, thanks to