1966 Porsche 911S

After a long gestation period, the now ubiquitous Porsche 911 entered production in 1964 and, despite Porsche's own attempts to replace the model in the 1970s with the 928, much evolved versions of it remain in production to this day. The design was the work of Dr. Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander 'Butzi' Porsche and the company's joint founder and chief body engineer Erwin Komenda.

The long-running Porsche sports car first appeared at the 1964 Frankfurt Show as the '901,' but shortly after production proper commenced in 1964 had become the '911' following Peugeot's complaints about the use of '0' model numbers. It retained the Type 356's rear-engine layout but the 911 switched to unitary construction for the bodyshell and dropped the 356's Volkswagen-based suspension in favor of a more modern McPherson strut and trailing arm arrangement. The first incarnation of the 911 used Porsche's single-overhead-camshaft, air-cooled flat six engine displacing 1991cc and offering 130 horsepower. The engine was progressively enlarged and developed, eventually growing to more than 3.0 liters and, in turbocharged form, produced well over 300 horsepower. The first of countless upgrades to the perennial 911 came in 1966, two years after production had commenced, with the introduction of the 911S. Easily distinguishable by the Fuchs five-spoke alloy wheels, the 'S' featured a heavily revised engine offering 160 horsepower. The compression ratio was raised from 9.0:1 to 9.8:1 and twin three-barrel carburetors were fitted. The engine was backed by a five-speed manual gearbox, a rack-and-pinion system handled steering, and disc brakes at all four corners provided the stopping power. The 2+2 coupe had a base price of roughly $1,000 over the base 911 model.

1966 was the 1st year for a 911S in Europe and 1967 for the USA market.

by Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2020

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