The Noise Regulation Problem Car and Driver noted that the 959’s G gear, originally a noise compliance workaround, turned out to work well in stop-and-go California traffic, solving a legal problem
and accidentally suiting urban driving at the same time. Credit: youtube.com/@RedlineNerd European pass-by noise regulations required vehicles to stay below specific decibel thresholds during standardized tests that measured sound at a controlled speed within a set zone. The sequential twin-turbocharged flat-six engine in the Porsche 959 produced remarkable noise; at standard RPMs in a typical first gear, it likely would have failed these requirements. To solve this, Porsche engineers reconfigured the transmission by placing the “G” gear at the base of the shift range. This meant that when the car navigated the test zone in what appeared to be “second gear ” on the shift gate, it was actually utilizing its third internal ratio. By keeping the engine RPM significantly lower during the measurement, the 959 successfully met all regulatory standards without sacrificing any of its renowned road performance.
What the 959 Actually Was
To understand why noise compliancemattered this much to Porsche, it helps to understand what the 959 represented at the time. The car was the fastest street-legal production car in the world when it was introduced. Its 2.85-liter sequential twin-turbocharged flat-six produced 450 PS at 6,500 rpm and 500 Nm of torque at 5,000 rpm. Road & Track measured a top speed of 198 mph and a 0-to-60 time of 3.6 seconds. Car and Driver called that figure 9 tenths of a second quicker than any other car they tested in the entire decade of the 1980s. The car carried Porsche’s PSK all-wheel-drive system, which dynamically shifted torque between the front and rear axles in real time depending on road surface and conditions. Porsche built only 337 examples in total, including prototypes, at a base price of DM431,550, which was still less than half what it cost Porsche to build
each one.
The G Gear’s Unplanned Everyday Value
What began as a noise regulation workaround turned out to be genuinely useful in normal driving conditions. Car and Driver noted that the short G gear “works great for stop-and-go California traffic.” The gear’s extremely low ratio made crawling through congested city streets easy and controllable in a car that was not designed for urban commuting at all. The 959 had also competed directly in the Paris-Dakar Rally, finishing first overall in 1986, where a low terrain gear served an entirely practical purpose on the rally’s unpaved desert stages. That dual identity, a regulatory compliant road car that also finished first in one of the world’s toughest endurance events, made the G gear a fitting feature on an unusual car. The gear solved a legal problem first, then turned out to serve the driver well in conditions its engineers had not specifically
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