Porsche wasn?t the first to apply turbocharging to production gasoline engines. GM had done it a decade before with both the Chevy Corvair and the Oldsmobile Jetfire. Which, in fact, means the 930 was actually the second production turbocharged flat-six. But while GM quickly abandoned the idea and didn?t return to it until the 1980s, once Porsche adopted turbochargers, it never let go. And to this day, its most broadly notorious turbocharged car is its first: the 930.

After the overwhelming success of the turbocharged twelve-cylinder 917/10 and 917/30 Can-Am cars, Porsche delved deep into forced-induction flat-sixes with its racing machines, starting with the 934 and 935 sports cars (which the 930 was originally developed to homologate) and the 936 prototype. Turbocharged boxer sixes ruled the Porsche racing roost through the 911 GT1, winning Le Mans outright in both prototypes (936, 956, 962, WSC-95) and outrageous derivations of production cars (Kremer 935K3, 911 GT1). The 930?originally badged as the “Turbo Carrera”?carried the banner of Porsche motorsport like no other production automobile from Zuffenhausen until the arrival of the 993 GT2, a car which was fundamentally a return to the basic rear-drive, big power, kill-yourself, homologation-special concept of the 930.
Porsche combined the knowledge it gleaned from both the 930 program and its racing cousins to build the mythic 959, the most technologically advanced car of the 1980s. In short, Porsche?s ...