Yahoo Autos Porsche Once Made a Van With the Heart Of a 911
Porsche has never been one to shy away from making rare models. We’re talking models where less than 10 have been produced, like the 964 Turbo Cabriolet and the 993 Speedster. Among these rarities is a particular Porsche that wasn’t actually a Porsche at all: the VW T3 B32. It doesn’t look like a Porsche, it’s not badged as a Porsche, but it will definitely sound, like a Porsche.
In 1986, Porsche was fielding two 959s in the Paris Dakar Rally driven by two teams: René Metge partnered with Dominique Lemoyne in one, and Jacky Ickx with Claude Brasseur in the other. And while these 959s were engineered to be off-road beasts, capable of handling the toughest rally in the world, they were still quick. With a 2.8-liter 400 horsepower flat-6, not much could keep up with them, including support vehicles. Porsche did have a third 959 on hand, which was considered for use as a support vehicle, but the team needed something both bigger and fast.
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Something else Porsche had on hand was a VW T3 van. Unfortunately, they were hilariously slow, and couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced nature of the race, where like every race, every minute counts. So rather than look for another vehicle or try and make do with what they had, Porsche engineers set to do what any gearhead would do and modded the T3 vans to work with their needs.
While standard T3s were available with an array of engines, ranging from 1.6-liter flat fours and I4’s all the way up to a 2.6-liter I5, they were all slow. So rather than mod the existing engine, Porsche took a 288 hp flat-six from a 911 3.2 Carrera and dropped it in the engine bay. Engineers then mated that flat six with a Porsche transmission that routed power to the rear wheels. And since this was meant to keep up with rally racing, engineers also gave the T3 a unique suspension setup and bigger brakes. It was said to have a top speed of only 116 mph, but in reality, it was around 135 mph.
