In the early 1990s, the UK had a tax threshold that hit new cars priced over £29,000. The standard Porsche 968 sat comfortably on the wrong side of that line, and Kevin Gaskell, then running Porsche Cars Great Britain, was watching half his market walk into Audi and BMW showrooms instead.
His solution became one of the smartest product plays in Porsche’s modern history. He called the factory in Germany and asked them to build a 968 under £29,000. The factory said it was impossible.
Gaskell asked again, and he told them how to do it.
Take Everything Out and See What’s Left
“Take everything out of the car,” Gaskell recalled in a recent interview with Richard Farleigh. “Leave four wheels and an engine, and then let’s put a few bits back in.”
That’s exactly what happened. The rear seats were taken out, as was the air conditioning and electric windows went. Even the Sound deadening got stripped while the wheels got painted instead of chromed. Color options got cut to five flat paints, Speed Yellow, Guards Red, Maritime Blue, Riviera Blue, and Grand Prix White, per Porsche’s own archive, and Recaro bucket seats replaced the powered chairs.
The suspension was dropped and stiffened.
The one thing Gaskell added back was an Italian Momo steering wheel, stamped with a Porsche crest because the factory wouldn’t supply one.
“What’s the first thing you touch when you get in a car? Steering wheel. Oh, this is lovely,” he re-enacted.
The result launched at the 1992 Paris Motor Show wearing a four-foot Club Sport decal down each flank. Sticker price: £28,995. No tax payment was triggered and half a market reopened overnight.
Performance Car magazine named it Performance Car of the Year in 1993, beating a field that included the Ferrari 348 Spider, the Lancia Delta Integrale, and the Lotus Esprit S2. Walter Röhrl, Porsche’s two-time World Rally Champion and factory driver, called it the best-handling car the company had ever built.
Gaskell’s team had to send a technician around the UK in a van, painting Club Sport decals onto customer cars after delivery. The factory never intended those decals to be standard, but owners insisted – nobody at the golf club wanted to say they’d bought the cheap Porsche.
Thirty-three years later, a clean Club Sport trades for £50,000 to £65,000. The cheapest Porsche of its generation has now become one of the most coveted. A tax dodge engineered backwards into a masterpiece.
