Modern Classic: Porsche 968 Club Sport

The modern image of Porsche is that of affluence. In recent years, it has typically raked in revenues of around €40billion (A$67 million) but this financial safety blanket wasn’t always guaranteed.

Back in 1991, the company’s revenue at the end of the year totalled, and when converted to Euros – was €15 million (A$26.9m). In other words, it was 2666 times smaller than today. It was, by most measures, on life support. This was the situation that new CEO Arno Bohn had acquired. A man with no previous motor
industry experience, the former IT professional had a formidable task on his hands.

Porsche faced all sorts of challenges, chiefly around the entry-level models. The contract with Audi to build the four-cylinder 944 model line at Neckarsulm expired at the start of 1991 and Porsche figured the cars – which accounted for a third of its sales – could be built more cheaply at its Zuffenhausen plant. The company knew it had to refresh the ageing 944, which had been in production since 1982, but had precious little funds to do so.

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The powerplant was a longstanding sticking point. Porsche had an eight-valve 2.5-litre turbocharged engine in the 944 Turbo, which had just been axed in the repatriation of the line back to Zuffenhausen, and a sixteen-valve 3.0-litre unit in the 944 S2. Porsche had tried to engineer a 16-valve turbo unit back in 1987, but it created all sorts of headaches. In order to pass stricter EPA tests, the cylinder head would need to be rotated 180-degrees to ensure the shortest possible catalyst light-off. After a review, it was realised that nearly every component bar the cylinder block and sump would need revising, and Porsche canned the 16v turbo unit on the grounds of weight, complexity and cost.

Porsche also had the option of a 2.7-litre V6 that was effectively three-quarters of the 3.6-litre V8 it was developing for R&D boss Ulrich Bez’s 989 project, in effect the four-door 911. This looked promising, with engineers suggesting a 249bhp power output from the naturally-aspirated six. That all came to naught: the 989 project hit the buffers at the end of 1991 when supervisory board member Ferdinand Piëch cancelled the costly project, claiming it would cannibalise sales of the Audi A8. As Bez acidly commented, “I had a one-to-one meeting with him. You just can’t out-argue Ferdinand Piëch in that situation.”

A cheaper option was to buy in an engine from another manufacturer. This would allow the company a six-cylinder option to level with the likes of the new Toyota Supra and Nissan 300ZX, both of which were gorging on the 944’s market share in the key US market. Porsche first looked at the all-aluminium 3.0-litre inline-six it was developing for Volvo. This was little bigger than the four, lighter and 30 per cent cheaper to build, and would develop 200bhp for the entry-level car. Porsche’s board nixed the development in 1988.

The final attempt to buy in a powerplant came via a chance chat with BMW engine designer Karlheinz Lange, who had been in charge of developing the M50 2494cc straight-six. By late February 1990, Porsche had received an M50 engine and installed it into the 944 but as impressive as it proved in terms of refinement and tractability, it lacked the aggression necessary for a Porsche sports car engine and was shelved.

Porsche committed to a 944 S3, realising that it had to develop this model on the cheap and would need to squeeze yet more from the naturally-aspirated 3.0-litre engine. They targeted the 1992 model year for this new(ish) car, which needed to not only offer more power, but needed to do so while improving fuel efficiency and lowering emissions.

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Designer Harm Lagaaij had returned to Porsche from BMW in 1989 and was tasked with the styling of the new model. Lagaaij was keen to bring the aesthetic of the entry-level sports cars closer to that of the 911 and 928. “I was looking for some design cues, some links to familiar Porsches,” he noted. The fold-up circular headlights gave him that opportunity, aping the 928 and giving the car a more familiar Porsche face.

At the back, the old bumper assembly of the 944 was ditched in favour of a smoother polyurethane fascia, concealing an integral bumper as seen on the 928. Cooling ducts in the front clip directed air to the bigger brakes, while the front suspension featured adjustable rebound dampers and air deflectors to channel yet more cooling air to the brakes. Rear three-quarter windows were now bonded into place, a more aero-efficient door mirror design was developed and, at Arno Bohn’s request, noise damping was added around the starter motor in order to make it sound “less Japanese”.

The solution for more power came from an unlikely source. Porsche had commissioned Hydraulik-Ring GmbH, a small company on the outskirts of Stuttgart, to develop a chain tensioner for the 944 S2. In 1989, the company entered into talks with Porsche to assess whether this cam-drive chain could perform a dual purpose and also vary the inlet valve timing. The result was an elegant piece of engineering that used an oil-pressure driven shoe to move the tensioned side of the chain by 5.8mm, tightening it, and doing the opposite for the slack side. This would then advance the inlet camshaft with respect to the exhaust side, advancing inlet valve timing between 1500 and 5500rpm. Helped by a new inlet manifold configuration, improved cooling, forged rather than cast con rods, a lighter crank, a freer-breathing exhaust and a redesigned flywheel, peak torque was rated at a healthy 225lb/ft at 4100rpm and peak power to 240PS at 6200rpm.

An Audi-designed Torsen limited slip differential was supplied by Getrag, and a C90 six-speed manual gearbox, also developed by Audi under consultation with Porsche, was also readied. At this point, Porsche had been working on a dual-clutch PDK transmission, but it wasn’t production ready by 1989, so the company developed a version of the ZF 4HP18 four-speed automatic ’box, labelled it Tiptronic and offered it with the option of a clutch-pack limited-slip diff.

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But what would it be called? Given the amount of new content in what ostensibly started out as an extensive facelift, Ulrich Bez felt that the 944 S3 moniker was inadequate. “We needed to give it a new name to push it,” said Bez. “It was not the most desirable thing to do but we couldn’t just stop with the 944.”

His equivocation showed clearly that there was some discomfort within Porsche as to whether the public would be fooled by this modest sleight of hand. In the end, the 968 badge was arrived at. Don’t ask what it means. It was merely a vacant number.

A brief appearance

Vacant wasn’t a word that could be used to describe the Porsche stand at the 1991 Frankfurt Show, however. It was rammed with every variant of the 968 it could lay its hands on. Coupes, cabriolets, manuals and Tiptronics were all present, with the messaging very clear.

“Fully 82 per cent of the components are newly developed,” said one brochure, keen to distance the 968 from its predecessors which, if we recall, initially sprung from Porsche being saddled with the 924 – a customer project rejected by Audi. For years it was the very definition of the problem child. While the 968 didn’t represent the clean sheet reboot that would later come with the Boxster, it nevertheless wiped enough of the slate clean. Or at least Porsche thought it did.

Others were not quite so convinced. Road tests grumbled about the fact that Porsche had paired a lugging torque monster of an engine with a six-speed manual. The fact that the Tiptronic could only register an 8.9-second 0-100km/h time versus the manual’s 6.6-second showing also drew comment. Engine resonance was an issue as were the interior ergonomics. Scattered switchgear was a particular 944 weakness and the 968 did nothing to address it. Many reviewers felt that, in the face of more vibrant competition from Japan, the 968 was too dear and not special enough, no matter how sparkling its ride and handling were.

Demand proved slack. After enormous cost-creep in its development, the 968 was not paying for itself back. Porsche had predicted production at 35 cars per day, split equally between the coupe and the Cabriolet but, in reality, it was a good day if Porsche built 12. Even after its initial publicity blitz, firm orders didn’t make four figures for 1991. Arno Bohn, after months of internal bickering over the renewal of his contract, resigned at the end of September 1992. If Porsche thought the 924 was a problem child, the 968 was all of that and more.

His successor was former board member for production, Wendelin Wiedeking, and one of his first jobs wasto axe the 968. “I made the decision to stop its production to clean up the lines,” he told Karl Ludvigsen for his book series Excellence Was Expected. “After checking, we found that at those volumes we couldn’t make a go of it. It was not an easy decision… Also the 968 was only on the market for a year and a half when we made the decision. The doctor had to cut off the legs to save the patient. We had to write off the huge investment that had already been made.”

Despite being on death watch, for model year 1993 the 968 enjoyed its final flourish, the Club Sport. Porsche had used the CS badge before, on the delayed and confused 928 CS of 1988, but this time round, it coalesced into a far more cohesive package. Porsche did what should have been done long before: cut cost out of the vehicle and made it more exciting to drive.

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The expensive and heavy electrically-adjustable seats were the first thing to go, replaced by hard-shelled fixed-back Recaro buckets with the rears painted in one of the five standard body colours (Paint To Sample was a rare option). Rear seats? Gone. Also nixed were the rear speakers, the electric hatch release, the climate control, the electric adjustment for the door mirrors and the heated washer jets. Even the driver’s airbag was deleted, along with the electric windows, a decent percentage of the cabin soundproofing and – as long as air conditioning wasn’t optioned – the car’s battery was switched for a smaller version. Porsche claimed a weight saving of 50kg, although quite how many cars left the factory in such an attritional specification is debated.

The engine and transmission was left alone, as by this time the budget for developing this model was minuscule, but the suspension did come in for some attention. Ride height was dropped by 20mm, and options included a Torsen limited slip differential, an even stiffer spring and damper package,
fatter anti-roll bars and cross-drilled brake discs.

The acid test

Wheels first got its hands on a 968 CS in the April 1993 issue, where it was pitted in a handling test against the likes of the Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R, Mazda’s RX-7 and MX-5, the Honda NSX, the BMW M5 and the Ford Falcon GT and ZR6 models. Dick Johnson was tasked to assess the vehicles on track at Eastern Creek, and the results brooked little in the way of dissent.

“Figures and feel agree that the best handling car your money can buy is the Porsche 968 CS,” Mike McCarthy and Mark Fogarty’s feature concluded. “It’s Dick’s pick and the only car rated in the top three on the track, on the road and by the [Correvit data logging] computer.”

“I think it was a foregone conclusion… the Porsche is purpose-built for this sort of thing,” noted Johnson. “So the 968 wins on the basis of its sheer consistency, speed, precision and grip,” the feature noted. “There is a downside, however. Handling harmony is at the cost of a Spartan interior and a rock-hard ride.”

Others agreed. The Club Sport emerged victorious in UK magazine Performance Car’s comparison with the BMW E36 M3 and the Audi S2, and then aced the field at that title’s well-regarded Performance Car of the Year award, despite being crashed during the track exercises at Cadwell Park, damaging the front end and then being dropped from the tow truck, nerfing the rear. That one really lived up to the Club Sport’s advertising strapline “Weight reduced. Pulse raised.”

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Autocar opined that “there is no better drive around today”, while Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport declared that, “In its dynamic qualities, the 968CS even challenges a Carrera and simply drives away from many other cars that are hierarchically above it.”

The fact that the brilliant Club Sport, due to its spared-back equipment list, was priced here at $119,900, fully $20k cheaper than the standard 968, helped its cause, although it couldn’t approach the value proposition of the $75k Mazda RX-7 or, for that matter, the $72k Nissan 300ZX.

Story arcs like this are rare. The hero car that finally came good after massive adversity seems altogether too Hollywood to ring true, but that’s exactly what the Porsche 968 Club Sport represented. It not only rehabilitated the image of the 968, but also spawned the vanishingly rare Turbo S (17 produced) and the unicorn Turbo RS (four built) versions of the 968.

It also served to raise expectation for what Porsche could do with its successor, the Boxster. A total of 1371 Club Sports rolled out of Zuffenhausen before the final car came off the line in 1995, representing around 12 per cent of all 968 production. A grand total of 19 were officially imported by Porsche Australia.

A true modern classic in every regard, the Porsche 968 Club Sport remains an undervalued gem. Used prices start at around $80,000, which is less than opening book for a used garden-variety 718 Cayman 2.0-litre four. That’s faintly unbelievable, given the storied position of the 968 Club Sport. It remains the most highly regarded of all the transaxle cars, the apotheosis of a 20-year development story.

Today’s 718 Cayman GT4 RS owes much to the lessons learned from the 968 Club Sport program. The old stager may not have saved Porsche financially, but it helped rehabilitate its reputation exactly when it needed it most. It’s hard to put a price on that.

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A question of Sport

So what, then, is the 968 Sport? It doesn’t exist, at least according to the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. An enterprising character at Porsche Cars GB figured out that they could order Club Sports from Germany loaded with options. So these luxury versions left the factory as genuine Club Sports, with Club Sport VINs. Eventually Porsche conceded and listed an option code P35 for all of the parts that were put back in to make the Sport model, as listed on the build sheet. It was a success too, outselling the Club Sport by 306 units to 179 in the UK, and as a result aren’t worth quite as much as an original CS. Many have retrospectively been partially decontented towards a Club Sport level of trim.

Specs

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This article originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of Wheels magazine. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue since 1953.