Twenty Years Boosted

Generally speaking, 1975 wasn't a good year for cars. The Clean Air Act's regulations hit with full fury that season; nearly every new car came equipped with a (then-cursed) catalytic converter and had to run on that dreaded new unleaded fuel. Suddenly, high-performance anything seemed to be a thing of the past.

Then Porsche introduced the 911 Turbo Carrera, and 14-year-olds in every study hall in the land had something new to dream about. With a whale-tail spoiler and swollen rear fenders grafted onto the familiar 911 shape, it was instantly recognized as the baddest boy on a pretty wimpy new-car block.

But the street-going 911 Turbo wasn't really much more than an afterthought for Porsche. Constantly changing sports-car racing regulations necessitated that Porsche build a road-going version of its turbocharged race car. The 911 Turbo, commonly known to Porsche aficionados as the 930, was that car, and it's been perhaps the single greatest high-performance icon in the world ever since. There have been many other turbocharged cars, but there's only been one "Turbo."

Until the introduction of the new '96 model, there had been three distinct periods in Turbo engine development.