Porsche Almost Replaced The 959 With A V8 Model That Cost Half As Much

The Porsche 959 is one of the automaker’s most famed models but did you know that Porsche also developed a successor for it named the 965?

Porsche’s aim with the 965 was to create a car that offered performance to sit between the 930 Turbo and the 959. It was conceived to feature some of the advanced technologies of the 959 but would have been much cheaper, making it more accessible to Porsche’s clientele. The automaker planned to put the car into production in 1990, dubbing it the 969.

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As this informative video from YouTuber 9WERKS TV reveals, Porsche built 16 prototypes of the 965 during its development and just one of them remains. It is found at the Porsche Museum and features many body panels from the 959 and has some of the 959’s features as well, including its all-wheel drive system and self-leveling suspension system.

Making this prototype all the more intriguing is the fact that it doesn’t have a small-capacity air-cooled engine like one may expect. Instead, it has a water-cooled V8 that was supplied by Audi. This engine was used for this prototype for radiator testing and Porsche’s ultimate plan was to equip the 965 with a water-cooled V8 of its own. This meant the 965 would have been the first 911-based model to feature a water-cooled engine.

Sadly, the project was killed off in 1988 by Porsche’s then-CEO Ulrich Bez due to spiraling development costs.