Porsche 911 Turbo Flachbau

The vehicle in detail

In 1974, Porsche shocked the world at the Paris Auto Show by introducing their first turbocharged production car—the 930 Turbo or “Turbo Carrera”. From 1975 to 1977 the Turbo Carrera shattered records, dropped jaws and scared the best of the best back into their comfy naturally aspirated Carreras. Now, with that in mind, you’d think that Porsche would tame it down a bit, right? Think again. In 1978 Porsche significantly increased power by jumping from a 3.0L flat-six to a 3.3L, mated to a 4-speed aluminum 915 gearbox featuring taller gears and a heavier clutch—’78 was also the first year that the 930 came with a much-needed Intercooler. The 3.3L flat-six remained with the Turbo line-up for the balance of the G-Series run (’78-’89), all the way through to the 964 iteration (’90-’92)—no, we are not forgetting about the massively tuned 3.6 built for the series two 964 Turbo (’93-’94)—until a redesigned 3.6L from the 993 Turbo came about in 1995.

Now, throughout the 930 Turbo’s infamous production run there were a few options that set one apart from the other but, one option in-particular did that rather distinctively…option code, M505 (for the U.S.) or Flachbau—translating to, flat construction—better known as “Slantnose”. Paying homage to the looks of the legendary 965 race-car, Porsche would offer the Slantnose option code on Turbos beginning in 1982 and over the course of three generations, only 948 cars were fitted with this option.