The classic stereotype of a California tech CEO is a certified nerd: someone obsessed with numbers, data, and whatever the next big thing is. Sports cars and going fast? Maybe not so much. But John Ternus clearly didn't get that memo.
Ternus is a serious car guy. He took over as Apple CEO less than a month ago, and he's reportedly a big fan of cars and motorsports. His garage is said to include some pretty serious hardware, including one of the rarest modern Porsches ever built.
Meet Apple's Car-Guy CEO
Ternus reportedly owns one of just 77 Porsche 935s ever built—the modern-day take on the legendary 1970s “Moby Dick.” Based on a heavily reworked 911 GT2 RS, the 935 gets a carbon-fiber body and a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter flat-six making 700 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque.
This isn't some six-figure garage queen, either.
Ternus reportedly takes his 935 to Laguna Seca, where he gets to put all that power to work. He's even said to have posted lap times under 1:40 at the famous California circuit. That's nowhere near the Czinger 21C's outright record, but it's still seriously quick for someone whose day job is running Apple rather than a professional racing team.
And the 935 isn't exactly a car you'd want to learn track driving in. It weighs just 3,042 pounds and packs 700 hp, all wrapped in a body that's essentially a giant carbon-fiber race car for the road. Porsche built just 77 of them, and they started at more than $800,000 when the car launched in 2018—before options and customization.
In other words, this is about as far from a typical CEO commuter car as you can get.
Ternus Is Also A Big F1 Guy
Ternus reportedly has another serious motorsport obsession, too: Formula 1. There's no indication that Apple has any plans to get involved in F1, but the company has certainly become more interested in the automotive world over the years.
So, could we someday see that famous bitten-apple logo on an F1 car? Probably not anytime soon. But with a Porsche 935 in the garage and sub-1:40 laps at Laguna Seca, Ternus has already established that he's not your typical tech CEO.
Never say never.
