Porsche 959 prototype to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson

When Professor Helmuth Bott arrived at the fledgling Porsche sports-car company in 1952, he was in his late 20s. The young engineer's first assignment was setting up a gearbox test stand for the company's new all-syncromesh Type 519 transaxle.

Thirty-one years later, he gave the go-ahead for the development of a car that was to be the ultimate bleeding edge of what Porsche knew about building a rear-engined sports car. The result is spoken of in hushed tones to this day. It inspires a deeper reverence than its follow-ons, the 911 GT1 Stra

By Davey G. Johnson