1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

• Revisions to the suspension and power delivery made the 964-based 1993–1994 911 Turbo, currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, the first of its kind that didn’t bite.

• A nearly identical sample we tested back in the day had an as-built price of $109,644. Fewer than 1500 were built.

• This clean 1994 model has just 25,987 miles, and bidding is open until Sunday afternoon, April 3, with the current bid at $310,000.

UPDATE: The Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 sold at auction for $470,000.

This particular 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 isn’t 100 percent authentic, but it is an extremely well-cared-for example with just under 26,000 miles on its odometer. The minor (and perfectly reasonable) modifications it has acquired over the years—aftermarket springs, stereo, and exhaust—seem readily reversible to anyone wishing to put it back to fully-stock condition.

But that’s not the point. We’re interested in this particular car because we tested one almost exactly like it back in mid-1993. This was the stage at which a 3.6-liter air-cooled turbo engine replaced the blown 3.3-liter that came before. This enlarged turbocharged flat-six made some 355 horsepower and 384 pound-feetof torque, but with that came a much more drivable power curve that was, according to us at the time, much more accessible to mere humans because “One no longer needs to have graduated from the Hans Stuck opposite-lock academy to explore the full potential of this car’s awesome power.”

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Stylistically, the 964 generation of the 911 is notable because it is the last iteration where, at first glance, the majority of its body panels look like they emerged from the same stamping dies that produced earlier 911s. That’s largely the case, except here the front and rear bumpers are fully integrated into the body. Underneath, though, the changes were more drastic, with coil springs replacing the torsion bars found on earlier models, and essentials like power steering and ABS making an appearance for the first time. The 964 isn’t the last generation to be air cooled, though. That distinction belongs to the 993 that came after.

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In testing, the 1994 911 Turbo impressed us at the time, with a 4.0-second zero-to-60-mph spurt and a 12.4-second quarter-mile pass, which is a little better than the Cayman S we tested five years ago. As for the tires, we enthused at the time that its 18-inch 225/40 front and 265/35 rear tires were “the fattest, lowest-aspect-ratio tires ever offered on a 911, and they cling to the road with a magnetic grip that feels to be easily more than 0.90 g.” One would hope. Today, in Porsche terms, 1.1 g is the new 0.90 g.

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What we didn’t know at the time was that the 1993–1994 911 Turbo 3.6 we wrote about would go on to be one of the most desirable 911s on the planet, with fewer than 1500 examples produced. At the time of this writing, the Guards Red car that is the subject of this auction had been bid up to three times higher than the cost of our original test car. It will surely be higher by the time you read this, with a couple more days of bidding yet to come before the auction ends on Sunday, April 3. Where will it wind up? We’re not sure we want to know.

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