The high speed compression was not ported, it was just very very crude. There was a base-valve with a shimmed piston, only there were just like 2 shims and the valve was very simple. Effectively it was a little bigger given that you had two of these cartridges, but it wasn't like a pyramid shim stack on a modern damper. The low-speed damping was accomplished via the ports in the bottom. I sawed open the cartridge and took it apart, I got pics I've posted before of it. It wasn't *that* heavy, only half a pound or so heavier than the equivalent dorado and stem, boxxers were 7lbs, etc. Compared to a more modern 888 though it was.It's surprizing to me that so many people are so nostalgic for such a crappy, heavy, flexy fork that was nothing but a spring and a clunky ported damper.
The new one might be neato though. The new dorados and old whitebrothers UD things showed inverted forks could be made pretty stiff........