930
Time travel, so I thought, was the reserve of science fiction, but this late 1988 911 Turbo (930) has proved me wrong. Fresh as the daisies springing up in the surrounding Oxfordshire countryside, the car has recently emerged from a two-year recommissioning and bodywork restoration process carried out by air-cooled Porsche specialist, Mike Champion Engineering (MCE).
It's a 911 that's come full circle. A former Porsche Cars Great Britain demonstrator featured heavily in the pages of Autocar, Car and other motoring titles back in early 1989, this beautiful blue Turbo is once again in the hands of the press. And today really could be the late 1980s all over again — after hearing news of train strikes, a property market downturn and a cooling labour front, I switch on the radio and hear Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time blasting out of my 997's speakers as I make my way to MCE's base near Banbury.
This force-fed 911 has covered just ten miles since completion of the restoration, giving me a unique opportunity to understand just how this former Porsche flagship would have felt when new. It's a privilege and, I have to say, quite surreal — I'm experiencing what noted journalists, David Vivian, Roger Bell and Gavin Green, felt more than three decades ago in this very car.
Back then, it donned Porsche Cars Great Britain's famous 911 HUL number plate, reserved for top-tier examples of 911 Turbo and, latterly, Turbo S press cars. First used on an early 930 in 1975, it has since been attached to every subsequent generation of 911 loaded with forced induction.
Make no mistake, this car is the stuff of legend. It came from a time when did what it said on the tin (or steel). It signalled the presence of a turbocharged engine, rather than premium trim level, something the badge has come to represent today, best illustrated by its use on the was used as a byword for anything remotely exciting. It came to be used in branding for a wide variety of products, from cars to aftershave to sunglasses. Of course, even in the decade of ‘greed is good’, turbocharging for production cars was still in its relatively early stages of development, but there's no denying it was exciting.
