New MacPherson front axle provides

the negative scrub radius required by

the ABS system.

Control arm is an

aluminum casting and the torsion bar is replaced by coil

spring.

I t was born with project type number 964, the second-generation 911 designed to advance

Porsche’s long-lived sports car into the 1990s. Its project book contained a daunting list of goals: it would

be the first four-wheel-drive full series production sports car from Porsche, it would have a different body platform to accommodate the new technology, a modern heating and air conditioning system which would mandate major bodywork changes, an ABS brake system requiring new front suspension geometry to provide the required negative scrub radius, a new rear axle to provide room for the transaxle tube that accommodates the four-wheel-drive system. Despite the changes, it must preserve the elemental 911-ness at Porsche’s rear-engined, air-cooled core. And to build this new era 911, a new factory would be required. Not exactly a small order.

Today itis called the 911 Carrera4. Itlookslike a911, itfeelslike a 911 and it soundslike a 911, butits engine, gearbox, drive system, axles, brakes, steering, wheels and tires, underbody, nose and tail sections, spoilers, front and rear lights, fuel tank, heater, ventilation and air conditioning as well as the instruments are new. In fact, 85 percent of all the components in the Carrera 4 are absolutely new; the remaining 15 percent that are carried over from the standard 911 are essentially limited to those that you can see—the exterior panels and cockpit fittings.

Porsche and all-wheel-drive

On March 23, 1984, Porsche’s board of management gave the order to develop for production a four-wheel- drive 911, but Porsche’s history with all-wheel-drive goes back to 1902 and the beginning of the concept

By Betty J0 Turner.

Copyright © 1989 by the Porsche Club of America, all rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission.

when Ferdinand Porsche designed a Lohner Porsche with four electric wheel hub motors. It was the first four-wheel-drive automobile. In 1934 came the design of a rear-engine, all-wheel-drive vehicle based on the Porsche Type 32, the predecessor of the VW Beetle. Various wartime variants of the Beetle appeared with four-wheel-drive and in 1948 the extraordinary Porsche Cisitalia Grand Prix car appeared which put forward the novel concept of four-wheel-drive for racing rather than off-road use.

Aside from the 1955 development of the Type 597 Porsche Jagdwagen, ajeep-style hunting car based on

Dual ignition provides higher power output and improved exhaust gas quality.