The 984, Porsche’s diminutive concept from the late Nineteen Eighties would have come at just the correct time to completely redefine the small roadster marketplace, beating the new-for-1989 Mazda MX-5 to market by a few years. Porsche worked with Spanish automaker SEAT on a wide range of projects through the Nineteen Eighties, including this sub-2000 pound plastic-topped mid-engine two-seater. Porsche was aiming for a $14,000 price tag in 1987 and around 120 horsepower, which might have put it directly in step with Mazda’s long-lived roadster.
The project was originally built across the Seat “System Porsche” watercooled inline 4 engine present in the Mk1 Ibiza, but after SEAT backed out of the project, Porsche retooled the design with a low-slung aircooled flat 4. The prototype made use of an old Type 4 from the old 914, though the corporate was allegedly developing a brand new flat 4 engine for this automobile and intended for it to be utilized in small aircraft.
The design of the automobile is clearly inspired by then-contemporary 928 and 944 shapes, with the inside cribbed almost exactly from the late 944. This was an impressively modern design for the mid-Nineteen Eighties, and far of the main points from this automobile went on to define Porsche designs for the following decade.
Considering how successful the Mazda MX-5 was when it launched in 1989, bringing back the small European roadster formula, selling nearly 1 / 4 million units in its first generation, Porsche could have really had successful on its hands. When the corporate did finally construct a fairly inexpensive mid-engine roadster, the Boxster in 1997, it quickly became the corporate’s best selling model in history (though it has since been surpassed by Cayenne and Macan).
The world needs more inexpensive and light-weight sports cars. If Porsche had debuted the 984 within the late Nineteen Eighties, it’d now be the brand known for approachable entry-level sports cars as a substitute of six-figure SUVs. Or perhaps it might be each. Oh, what might have been.
Credit : jalopnik.com
