Intriguing Porsches that never made production

The precise location of the lesser-known part of Porsche’s car collection is rather closely held, because it contains models that are incredibly rare. And coming from a company that has hit possibly more desirability home runs than any other, that makes them valuable. These, then, are cars the firm failed to act on – but they are intriguing nonetheless. Let’s take a look.

RONAN GLON

Porsche 984 1984

The 924 filled the gap left by the 914 on the bottom rung of Porsche’s line-up, but the company toyed with the idea of an entry-level mid-engined roadster. The light, aerodynamic and affordable 984 was designed to lure younger enthusiasts into showrooms, especially in the US, from where Porsche predicted the bulk of sales would come. It had a 2.0-litre flat four tuned to send 137bhp to the rear wheels via a manual gearbox. The cabin used 944 bits and pieces, and the fully finished interior shows how close the 984 came to production. However, development stopped abruptly when US new car sales dropped in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash. Still, the idea clearly remained in Porsche’s mind, because it later conceived and then produced its mid-engined Boxster in 1996 – a key model that many say saved the firm from oblivion.