It's an ordinary working day in the north of Stuttgart, and outside Germany's Porsche Museum, most visitors are hurrying inside as quickly as they can. After all, they have come to see the cars.
Most are then distracted by a discreet silver colour and they pause for a moment. Just like in September 1983 at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, no one can ignore the Porsche 959.
Back then, the crowds held their breath and gaped in amazement. Today, smartphones click away and fathers reverently tell their children that this very car used to hang as a poster above their bed.
Forty-three years after its world premiere and 40 years after it actually went on sale, the Porsche 959 still captivates people. It is not the most beautiful Porsche of all time, nor is it the most successful.
It is however one of the most fascinating products ever to leave the factory and one that has made more history than most of the other exhibits awaiting visitors behind the glass doors of the museum at the sports car manufacturer's headquarters.
In the mid-1980s, amid a landscape of humdrum saloons and mostly modest-looking sportscars, the 959 seemed like a visitor from another planet.
The front end was familiar from the 911 yet beneath the car's gently sculpted bodywork hid a package of technology that was years ahead of the competition.
When the car finally hit the market in 1986, it cost an astronomical 420,000 Deutschmark to buy and, at 317 km/h, was the world's fastest road-going production sports car.
According to the Porsche chronicle, only 292 were built. German conductor Herbert von Karajan owned one, as did Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and tennis ace Boris Becker.
Porsche said the 959 was not originally intended for the road at all. Chief engineer Helmuth Bott developed it as a technology platform for the then-new Group B rally category.
The factory wanted to show just how much power could be harnessed safely using state-of-the-art electronics and a new all-wheel-drive system.
The Group B racing series came to an end sooner than expected but in 1986, the 959 won the Paris–Dakar Rally and impressively proved that high performance and off-road capability need not be a contradiction.
The 959's real triumph, however, took place on the road. For its first issue, the German car industry magazine Auto Bild put a 959 prototype through its paces in the snow.
With chief editor Peter Glodschey at the wheel, Germany's most expensive car powered through the laps and he never once lost control. With only slight movements of the steering wheel coupled with brief bursts of throttle, the 959 ran as if on rails, even when drifting.
Four decades later, it is not the sheer power that impresses the driver, but the effortless manner in which it is delivered to the tarmac.
The 2.85-litre six-cylinder boxer engine runs smoothly and almost calmly at first. Up to around 4,000 revolutions, the car seems almost tame.
Suddenly, the sequential turbocharging kicks in and the engine unleashes an explosive 450 hp and up to 500 Newton metres of torque.
The 959 doesn't just accelerate – it blasts forward. Even by today's standards, this surge of power has a raw force that takes you by surprise. Modern electric cars may be faster, but hardly any of them convey the moment when the power kicks in with such dramatic intensity.
And whereas its rivals of the time, the Ferrari F40 and the Lamborghini Countach, constantly remind their drivers that they had best not lose concentration for a second, the 959 exudes an almost stoic calm.
The steering wheel demands no heroic feats, the suspension operates smoothly, and the electronically controlled all-wheel drive distributes power so unobtrusively between the front and rear axles that you barely notice it at work.
A second lever on the right-hand side of the steering column even allows the power distribution to be adjusted to suit different road conditions. Today, such systems do their job invisibly in the background. In the mid-1980s, this technology was a sensation.
Speed-sensitive ride height control, electronically adjustable dampers, a Kevlar body, magnesium wheels and numerous electronic control systems were all part of a specification that was extraordinary even in motorsport at the time.
And yet: "When it made its debut, the Porsche 959 divided supercar enthusiasts." Compared to a contemporary Ferrari F40 many thought it was "a bit too boring".
The 959 was a collector's car from the outset due to its low production numbers and short production run and prices soared to over a million Deutschmark during the first classic car boom in the late 1980s. However, they plummeted just as quickly, according to Wilke and after that the car's value increased slowly.
The second heyday of the Porsche 959 began some three years ago, when modern supercars from Pagani, Koenigsegg became the new coveted collector's items for affluent motoring enthusiasts. "They discovered the 959 as the forefather of the genre and recognised its value accordingly," said the market expert. "These days, a Porsche 959 in good condition is worth around €1.4 million."
