964 Works Turbo Look
Porsche revived its hallowed M491 option code for the last year of 964 production. Total 911 tells the story of the Works Turbo Look
This special factory 964 mixes the wide arches of a Turbo body with a nat-asp Carrera flat six – we reveal its story
It’s fascinating, the changing fortunes of the 964 generation. For years it was the unloved 911 (before the arrival of the 996), lambasted at the time for its nannying driver technologies including power steering, ABS and, most prominently, all-wheel drive. Porsche launched the all-wheel-drive Carrera
4 first in 1988, the traditional rear-driven Carrera 2 not arriving in 964 form until a year later in 1989. As we know, the C4 used a rendition of the 959’s complicated drivetrain, which maintained the 911’s rear-drive bias despite the introduction of power to all four wheels. 69 per cent of drive was therefore still sent to the rear, with 31 per cent being fed to the front. Chief engineer Helmuth Bott said at the time the goal of the 964 Carrera 4 was “to provide customers with handling characteristics that felt familiar to them and which were similar to rear-drive 911s, but with the benefit of additional traction in poor conditions.”
The idea of an AWD 964 was preposterous to many enthusiasts at the time, yet the company would go on to sell nearly 30,000 964 Carrera derivatives, 13,353 of which were the all-wheel drive (yet narrowbodied) Carrera 4. The 964’s considerable rise in popularity in years since is well documented, and the generation today is far from the least favoured – in fact, it is arguably the most highly thought of. That the C4 911 still exists today, alongside an all-wheeldrive 911 Turbo, tells its own story of success – the 964 Carrera 4 was a pivotal and ultimately successful milestone in the 911’s history.
Though the rear-drive C2 remains the most popular choice of 964, there is a highly desirable AWD 964 lurking in the model line-up, too. For the last years of 964 Carrera production in 1993 and 1994, Porsche revived its famed M491 ‘Turbo-look’ option code to create the 964 C4 Works Turbo Look, or 964 Widebody in the US. It is said that the reason for this introduction of C4 Works Turbo Look cars with their wide body was due to Porsche having a surplus of Turbo bodies which, frankly, it needed to get rid of. This was 1993, don’t forget, when the company was in questionable financial health, CEO Wendelin Wiedeking having to adopt a combative rationale to the company’s fiscal prudence. Cars simply needed to be sold, and this imaginative excercise was to the delight of enthusiasts.
However, the story is not without confusion: some wrongly assume that the WTL and Anniversary
964s are the same (they are not, as the latter was rear-driven and had a numbered production run, see boxout overleaf), though it has to be said that their specs are broadly similar, save for the various plaques on the parcel shelf and dashboard of the Anniversary model. If in doubt, check the options list for the vehicle: M096 depicts a genuine Anniversary car, its omission signifying it to be a C4 WTL.
The C4 Works Turbo Look is not to be dismissed, however, as it’s still an incredibly rare 911 indeed. Official figures are extremely hard to come by, and other articles in years gone by have confused the
964 C4 WTL with that aforementioned Anniversary. According to the Turbo-look Registry (turbo-look. com), however, there are just 191 examples of the 964 WTL built for ROW markets, with a further 267 made for the US market in 1994. These, as mentioned, are officially branded differently. It should also be noted that Porsche also made a Cabriolet version of the 964 WTL, called the America Roadster for the United States, and rather unimaginatively named 964 Turbolook Cabriolet for ROW markets.
Why was the car badged differently in the US? Again, we have an imaginitive US PR department to thank, the same concern who managed to conceive the idea of a 964 RS America which was, to all intents and purposes, a whale-tailed 964 Carrera 2 with just four options. This time the team latched on to the fact that 1994 marked 30 years since the first delivery of the 911 and, as the US was robbed of the official Anniversary model, decided to call the car ‘a C4 Widebody 30 Years of Excellence’. However, the weakness of the dollar in 1994 meant Porsche found it hard to sell cars, so just 267 examples of the 964 C4 Widebody were sold. While at face value this looks like the model flopped, the greater context that Porsche only sold a further 395 Carreras Coupes that year means we can look more favourably at the Widebodied C4 in the region.
In terms of spec, the 964 C4 WTL or Widebody’s brilliance was found in its basic pairing of a 964 Carrera 4’s engine and drivetrain to the body of the 964 Turbo, which of course was still rear-wheel drive. The 964 C4 therefore differs significantly from the M491-optioned G-series cars before it, which came fitted with Turbo brakes and chassis as well as the Turbo-wide body. The C4 WTL did however come with Turbo-spec anti-roll bars, measuring 21mm thick up front and 22mm at the rear. The C4 Widebodies produced for the US market generally boasted a more generous specification, equipped with automatic air conditioning, cruise control, a Blaupunkt hi-fi system and an electric sunroof. The 964 C4 WTL sold for DM145,900, some way short of the DM207,880
964 Turbo model that shared its wide body – a fair reflection of the difference in performance between the two 911 sports cars.
However, much like the Turbo-look G-series cars before it, outright performance isn’t high on the agenda of the 964 C4 WTL. Its portly weight of 1,520kg, while still powered by the Carrera’s 250hp, naturally aspirated M64/01 flat six sees to that. Moreover, the appeal of this special car is an aesthetical one: the C4 WTL’S stance as a wide-body, no-tail 911 makes for a unique, evocative sight. Sure-footed handling from the wider track and thicker anti-roll bars adds meat to the bones of the 964 C4 WTL’S cause, but make no mistake; the C4 WTL is a 911 whose specialty is ultimately its looks and rarity. It is a pleasure, therefore, to be admiring a stunning Polar silver example owned by serial Porsche collector Michael Meldrum. “It might not be one of the most invigorating cars to drive, but it’s certainly one of the most striking to look at,” he says as our photographer prepares some pictures in front of Houston’s dramatic cityscape. Michael has bolstered the appearance and performance of his 964 C4 WTL too, upgrading to Bilstein PSS10 coilover suspension and swapping out the factory Cup 1 wheels for Fikse FM10S. The way those delicate wide hips drape over the rear of the car is simply stunning, its silhouette an imposing one when we follow Michael from behind on the freeway after our static shots. It’s rare to see a classic car assert itself so convincingly on contemporary roads, which are commonly littered with two-ton metal behemoths.
In terms of legacy, the 964 C4 WTL’S is huge. This was the very first Carrera 4 to adopt the famous Porsche widebody, a practise that would become mandatory in the years to come at Zuffenhausen and still exists today. It’s also a model that bridges the gap from previous M491-optioned cars, which were designed to intrinsically mimic the Turbo cars they were based on, to the genuine special edition AWD
911s such as the 993 and 996 C4S, both of which are also highly thought of among enthusiasts today. The 964 C4 WTL is a quirky but worthwhile addendum to Porsche’s history of Turbo-look cars, its mark on the overall range being as imposing as its own presence on the road today.
Thanks
Thanks to Michael Meldrum for putting his wide-bodied 964 in front of the Total 911 cameras.