Over Easter weekend I made it a point to do a photo shoot with my friend’s 1993 Porsche 968. He kept going on and on about how clean it was and how it had exclusive parts and that it was a pretty color and I just never got around to seeing it. Well the timing worked out perfectly for both of us and as the sun came up on Easter morning, a Midnight Blue Metallic coupe came to pick me up.

You may recognize the Porsche 968 as the less ugly 928, but it was also the last front engine Porsche until the Cayenne SUV in 2002. The 928, which began production in 1977, was Porsche’s first attempt at a V8 grand touring car and, through modern eyes, it was pretty ugly. In 1992 the 968 came along as the final evolution of Porsche’s front engine, rear wheel drive coupes and they seemed to get the recipe just right.

The 968 maintained some of its rear-engined brother’s body lines, had sharper angles, and a more luxurious interior than the previous iterations. While carrying over the 3.0 liter inline-4 engine (237 hp) from the top 944 models, it also introduced a turbo’d version of the engine with only 8 valves. The 968 Turbo S produced 305 horsepower and the Turbo RS produced 337 horsepower; in 1993! Those are 4-cylinder powers that can still be appreciated today.

So what makes this 968 unique? First of all, it is in pristine condition for being over 20 years old, and second of all it has some custom modifications built specifically for a 968 from a company that literally specializes in 968s; RS Barn. These are no out-of-the box products, they were designed, tested, and perfected right in the U.S. (Pennsylvania to be exact). Here is a list of special mods built only for this car:

  • Joni coilovers and a torsion bar re-index. (something you have to do when lowering Porsches)
  • M030 sport package – includes sway bars and big brakes. (Factory from Porsche)
  • Custom exhaust, headers, chip, and tune. (RS Barn)
  • Airbox snorkel mod.

With only 12,776 Porsche 968s every made only 4665 made their way to America and of those only 50% of them were coupes (not convertibles). That makes this 968 a very rare car in this area. Right now you can find a few online from the $15,000 range to the $30,000 range depending on spec and miles, but I have no doubt that the value will continue to increase as my generation becomes more able to afford them. Hopefully you’ll be able to catch this one at the upcoming Cars & Coffee of Siouxlands!