Porsche’s Unicorn: The One-Off 959 Cabriolet
Porsche never officially built a 959 Cabriolet. Someone decided to fix that oversight.
The result sits before you – the world’s only topless version of Porsche’s legendary Group B homologation special. A car that shouldn’t exist, but gloriously does.
The Original Icon
The standard 959 rewrote the supercar rulebook when it debuted in 1986.
Porsche’s technological sledgehammer packed a 2.85-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six producing 444 bhp and 500 Nm of torque. Numbers that still command respect today.
It wasn’t just raw power. The 959 pioneered tech that modern supercars take for granted:
- All-wheel drive with variable torque distribution
- Sequential twin-turbocharging for reduced lag
- Adjustable ride height and electronically controlled damping
- Tire pressure monitoring before it was federally mandated
- Magnesium wheels with hollow spokes
The 959 hit 197 mph when most exotics were struggling to break 180. It demolished 0-62 mph in under 4 seconds while shifting through a proper 6-speed manual.
Only 337 examples ever left Zuffenhausen. Each one a technological marvel that influenced every turbocharged Porsche that followed.
Chop The Top
This particular 959 began life as a standard ‘Komfort’ model owned by racing driver Jürgen Lassig.
Karl-Heinz Feustel later acquired the car and performed the unthinkable – converting it into a cabriolet through thousands of hours of meticulous engineering.
The finished product weighs 1,450 kg and retains every bit of the original’s performance credentials. The twin-turbo flat-six still delivers 444 bhp to all four wheels.
Feustel didn’t just hack off the roof. He engineered a proper convertible with a removable hardtop, interchangeable windscreen, and custom blue leather interior that would make Porsche’s own Sonderwunsch department nod in approval.
The Price Of Exclusivity
Currently searching for a new owner, this automotive unicorn carries an estimated value around £1.27 million.
Expensive? Certainly. But you’re buying exclusivity that even the most limited-production hypercars can’t match. This is a one-of-one creation based on Porsche’s most significant technological achievement of the 1980s.
For the collector who already has everything, including several standard 959s, this represents the ultimate Porsche conversation piece. The car nobody else can have.
The 959 Cabriolet embodies the audacity of taking perfection and asking: “What if we made it better?” Sometimes, the answer is worth a million pounds.
