MODEL HISTORY

The 968 Club Sport is a curiosity from Porsche’s back catalogue, the only front-engined car to be given the Club Sport treatment and also one of its sweetest cars, endorsed by none other than Walter Röhrl as Porsche's best handling car. Given the 911’s back catalogue, that's quite the accolade.

The 968 was an evolution of the 944 and took up the baton in 1993. Despite Porsche claiming the 968 was 83% new and a fresh new look taking cues from the 928, sales were slow. Its high list price, awkward looks and poor press reception meant that sales were slow. The ageing platform it was based on (first seen in the 924) was no longer competitive and the boom in affordable sports cars had left Porsche in a pickle.

The BMW M3 had moved up market in six-cylinder E36 guise and the Japanese had muscled in on Porsche’s territory with the likes of the Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7 and Toyota Supra. All had over 280bhp for less money, making the 240bhp, four-cylinder Porsche look undernourished.

Money was very tight at Porsche but the 968 still had a few years of production left to run. In an attempt to reconnect with customers and prove that Porsche could still make a great driver’s car out of the 968, the Club Sport was developed. By taking a regular 968 and putting it on a diet, sharpening its chassis, and adding a few colour-coded touches, it transformed the mediocre 968 into the car it should always have been.

This time, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and the Club Sport even took Performance Car magazine's coveted Car of The Year title, fending off the likes of the box fresh Supra, Lotus Esprit S2, Lancia Delta Integrale, TVR Griffith and Ferrari 348 Spider in the annual showdown. Autocar also awarded it their ‘Best Handling Car’ title. The CS was unveiled in 1992 and built between 1993 and 1995 for the UK, European, Japanese and Australian markets. A total of 1923 cars are believed to have been built, with 179 cars coming to the UK.

Five colours were available - Black, Maritime Blue, Guards Red, Grand Prix White and S