1989 911 Turbo Flachbau

Since first introducing the 930 in 1975, the Porsche Turbo remains one of the most highly coveted and iconic 911s of all. The bookend years of the 930 are by far more desirable than those in between and represent investment grade caliber above the rest.

If you look at other serious collectibles – coins, stamps, baseball cards, watches, et cetera, the first and last of anything typically drives the very highest values. After all, Porsche only produced 283 of the Typ 930s for the world during that first year. Finally, after evolving the 930 for 14 years and fielding countless customer inquiries, did they decide to upgrade a 5-speed (G50) gearbox to the flat-six 3.3 single turbo engine. This made it one of the fastest production cars of its time. Porsche quoted acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.0 seconds for the 1989 model, and, with this “Slant nose” front end, a top speed of 175 miles per hour. To many enthusiasts and historians, the 911s of the G-Series era are the best 930 of all before moving onto the 964 platform.

In the early 1980s, Kremer Brothers Racing in Cologne collaborated with an aerodynamicist neighbor to create a smoother sleeker body for the competition version of the 930 known as the Typ 935. Ekkehard Zimmermann designed and fabricated the body kits. Initially, the Kremers raced these slippery cars exclusively but they soon began selling body kits to customers and a generation of Kremer K2, K3, and K4 bodywork made the 935s go faster and look even more outrageous.

Other outside “tuners” followed suit, leading Porsche engineer Rolf Sprenger to propose to management that Porsche could do all this, do it better, and earn the profits itself! The bosses gave their blessing and Sprenger, with a little help from some designers in Porsche Style, created the Flachbau, often called the flat nose or slant nose.

One of Porsche’s very first customers for slant nose was a wealthy businessman named Mansur Ojjeh. Among other business interests, he owned Techniques Avant-Garde, and TAG had acquired the Swiss watchmaker Heuer. Ojjeh and TAG Heuer became sponsors for Porsche’s very successful mid-1980s Formula One efforts with McLaren. Ojjeh had watched the 935 Kremers race during F1 weekends and wanted one.

Sprenger’s people, in a department named Special Wishes, created the next best thing for him since taking a full-on Group 5 racing car on the road anywhere in Europe was not possible. Starting with a Typ 930, they added 935 body parts and many other bits with an enhanced Typ 930 engine. Magazines did stories on the one-of-a-kind car and Special Wishes received many orders for either the M505 Flachbau coupe or M506 for the cabriolet.

Rolf Sprenger’s Special Wishes Department handcrafted each Flachbau to the customer’s demands. A 930 with the slanted nose for more aero (like the 935) instead of the normal 911 front end with air extraction vents and pop-up headlamps in place of the long “stovepipe fenders” and lights. Rocker panel extensions led to the rear fenders which housed the extra cooling intakes ahead of the rear wheels. Inside all the Special Wishes Turbos came equipped with luxuries like air conditioning, electrically adjustable Recaro seats, heated electrically operated outside mirrors, 6 speakers with an amplifier, power windows, and in this case an electrically operated cabriolet top. Between 1983 when the first prototypes sold and 1989, Porsche assembled a startling 948 Slant Nose coupes. In 1989, the Turbo cabriolet sold for DM 161,000 at the factory ($91,270 at the time.) The Flachbau options added another DM 77,330 ($44,390.)

Between the introduction of the Turbo Cabriolet model in mid-1987 and the end of production in summer 1989, it is hard to say exactly how many M506 examples were built. Out of those over the years, and especially in ’89, how many were Slate Grey Metallic? Good question; but we’ve certainly never seen another one and not many in any paint hue surviving in such condition as chassis ending 070308.