One to Buy: Non-sunroof Apple Green 1976 Porsche 911 3.0 Turbo (930)
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Although Porsche’s RS-badged 911s of the early 1970s had, in performance terms, been a match for anything the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini had to offer, the typically pared back nature of these lightweight homologation specials meant they were not seen as direct rivals.
However, when Porsche subsequently released the luxuriously equipped forced induction 930 to pave the way for a turbocharged model to go racing in the second half of the decade, the German firm suddenly had a genuine rival to Ferrari’s 365 GT4 BB and the Lamborghini Countach.
The opportunity to spec. the 930 with a better equipped cockpit came about as a consequence of changes to the Group 4 regulations which saw a higher minimum weight limit brought in. The combination of genuine supercar-rivalling performance with all the comforts most buyers expected at this end of the market catapulted the 911 into elite territory.
Although Group 4 only required a production run of 400 units within a 24 month timeframe, the 930 (better known as the 911 Turbo) actually proved so popular that it remained in production until 1989 when the G body 911 was replaced by the heavily revised 964.
A 3.3-litre engine was brought in for the 1978 model year, but today it is the original 3-litre variants that have developed arguably the strongest following.
One of these cars in an exceptionally rare colour is set to go under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s auction in Monaco on May 14th. A 1976 model year home market non-sunroof variant originally delivered that February through Porsche Dusseldorf, chassis 9306700325 is reputedly one of just four completed in Apple Green. Inside, ‘0325’ was configured in Black half leather with matching Berber fabric seat centres.
Today, this matching numbers machine has covered a little under 80,000km.
