FORCE FED

The 911 Turbo also celebrates 50 years this year and it all kicked off with the G-Series

- Glen Waddington

THESE DAYS ALL mainstream 911s are turbocharged; only the hardcore GT3 models are naturally aspirated. Yet still the daddy is a Turbo with a capital T. And that began in 1974, when racing began to improve the breed in a whole new way.

I vividly recall my first drive of a 911 Turbo, actually a 1980s one, in Guards Red (of course) and with the 3.3-litre engine that replaced the original 3.0-litre, though still a G-Series - and still with a four-speed manual gearbox!

It arrived, codenamed 930, in 1974, transmogrified by the addition of a Kühnle, Kopp and Kausch turbocharger, inspired by the racing RSR and the fire-breathing 917/30 Can-Am car. Bulging rear wheelarches housed a wider track, and that whale-tail spoiler (it started here, folks) helped keep the wider rubber stuck to the floor, by reducing rear-end aerodynamic lift from 397lb to less than a tenth of that. It was priced around £15,000 in the UK, money that could have bought a decent home in many parts. Or two Carrera 2.7 MFIS. Reading the feature before this will tell you what a sound investment that might have turned out to be!