Nothing said moneyed at the dawn of the 1980s like a set of keys to a 911 Turbo but for one in a position like one Mansour Ojjeh, a Turbo like any other in the hands of a man with a statement to make, wasn’t a statement at all. His company, Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) were in bed with McLaren at the time, supplying engines to the British F1 squad, as developed with Porsche in their employ. In sportscar racing at the time, the Group 5 935 Porsche had been enjoying a significant monopoly. Itself a heavily modified version of the contemporary 911 Turbo, the 935 was a monstrous representation of the 911 shape to the ultimate extreme – the loose Group 5 special production regulations allowing for a swollen smoothed-over ground-hugging chin, broad shoulders and hips and a gloriously crude wedge wing. In truth, the 935 was what every self-respecting early ‘80s 911 Turbo owner wanted his car to look like. Ojjeh being in the privileged position that he was, took those desires straight to Porsche. Thus the 935 Street and, consequently, the Porsche Exclusive division, simultaneously came into being.
The resulting machine was, underneath, some ways removed from the 700bhp+ fire-breathing racer from which it drew its aesthetic inspiration. The big arches, wing, vents and slanted nose were all present and correct but dulled by measures to the end of roadworthiness. The neutered chin spoiler and jacked-up ride height made it more at home battling London speed-humps than sucking itself to the asphalt at 200mph down the Mulsanne. Nevertheless, this was the ‘80s. First impressions were all you needed. Image was everything. So, unless you parked it up next to Moby Dick itself – a luxury we were afforded at 76MM – this one-off 935 Street did exactly as it said on the tin: replaced the smugness of any "regular" 911 Turbo owner with the green of envy.