Friday 27th March 2009

SOTW: Porsche 924S

Finally, shed is back in a Porsche. It's no 911 but it's good enough for us.

---

Ah, 1986… what a year. The Smiths declared The Queen is Dead as Johnny Marr and Morrissey went their separate ways. Duran Duran were still just about Notorious, while Wham, The Boomtown Rats and Madness all split up.

Actually I didn’t remember much about any of that, but I do remember motoring writers up and down the country taking the piss out of the Porsche 924. It was the archetypal hairdresser’s car, the un-loved, underpowered, bastard lovechild of a failed relationship, a puny weakling with a VW engine at the wrong end. Not worthy to wear a Porsche badge, they said.

Then in 1986 VW stopped making the 924’s engine and Porsche slotted-in the punchier 2.5 litre engine from its new 944. Badged the ‘S’, it turned the 924 into a sort of stop-gap 944 entry-model with 150bhp and performance more akin to the much more admired 924 Turbos. The reviews of the 924S were kinder, as I recall, but the car never really shook off the stigma of those early attacks in spite of its many likeable features. Perhaps it never will.

But I was a teenager at the time, and I didn’t give a monkeys about any of the reviews. One of my schoolmates had a fine looking mother, and crikey, did she look glamorous behind the wheel of her 924 S coupe.

So I offer you this week’s SOTW as a kind of sleazy tribute to sordid teenage memories. It’s the wrong colour perhaps, because in a perfect world it would be metallic blue. But in a perfect world it would be 1986 again, and my mate’s mum would be giving me a lift home from school…

Fast forward to 2009, and I’m not sure where a low-mileage 924S would fit into my life. A low-cost entry into the Porsche 924 Championships perhaps?

Autotrader ad says: 1986 Porsche 924 S, FH, 2dr, 2+2 S coupe. 67,000 miles, bronze, manual, 2479cc. 67,000 miles, 2 Door Coupe, Bronze, Petrol, Manual. Slight Dent to bumper see photo. Suiperb condition. New MOT. £999.

[Neomagic]

Great cars, still very underpowered though.

[Steamer]

Brilliant! I really liked the S too.

...that makes up for last weeks Wong-bridge effort.

[a5tondb9]

Really underated car! Have owned 2 and loved both of them. Nice handling and still a pretty car!
Great Shed!

[abarber]

Cracking cars!

[port and polish]

Is it wrong to like the colour?

[morgrp]

Nicer Teledials on these ones - Well engineered fun for the summer - big thumbs up from me

[SidewaysGav]

My brother has the same horrible coloured car but he loves it and it has done 350000 Km as we speak still his daily driver but he will now get a estate car to run and take it off the road then he says he will restore it but I guess it will be wheeled out of the barn in 20 years time by his daughter when she wants a cool ride.
It has been so reliable and it even ran over 100000km with both engine mounts broken.
As the car has spent most its life in Cologne city it wears its scares with grace.
Now it is a bit small for a family of 3 with all the gear. I will remind him to do sme work on it when it is in the barn and does not get forgotten like his 1957 Turner 803 sport that he has been rebuilding for the last 20 years.
Regards from Cologne just up the road from the awesome Nordschleife Nürburgring (Trackdays are coming up fast for us, if the snow would disappear)
Regards Sidewaysgav give me a wave when you are at the ring next time
I drive a yellow 1970 BMW 1600-2.

[Frimley111R]

Finally! A decent SOTW!

[Garlick]

Frimley111R said:

Finally! A decent SOTW!

What about my classic Rover V8? Legendary shed

[911motorsport]

Best SOTW so far

[Strawman]

Bargain, if FH means full history to verify the low mileage then there should be plenty of life left in it.

[Ricky944s2]

Frimley111R said:

Finally! A decent SOTW!

+1 Long time waiting!!!

Ive got its bigger brother now but my dad started his porsche ownership in a white Le Mans Special Edition 924!!

[S3_Graham]

i really should look at these next time im after a bargain!! i really like the look and love the sound of reliability!!

[Zumbruk]

I had a 924 Turbo the same colour (which, BTW, I rather like) about 18 years ago. The (financial) pain of ownership remains with me to this day. And I'm saddened to see that the bunch of lying thieves who stitched me up with it remain in business to this day.

[H22K]

one of my mates at school had a particularly delicious mum. Another mate somewhat split the ranks by staying over at his house one day and doing something unthinkable with a pair of our other mates mums undergarments.

Luckily the friend never found out. We thought it was hilarious / horrendous in equal measure. He didn't get to crash at many houses after that.

As for the car...It's on my list of "should really own one for a couple of weeks at some point".

[shoestring7]

Neomagic said:

Great cars, still very underpowered though.

150bhp and 1300kgs isn't too shabby, especially when it handles as nicely as a good 924S. I tracked one and enjoyed hunting down Caterhams in it.

SS7

[bencollins]

shoestring7 said:

Neomagic said:

Great cars, still very underpowered though.

150bhp and 1300kgs isn't too shabby, especially when it handles as nicely as a good 924S. I tracked one and enjoyed hunting down Caterhams in it.

SS7

were the caterhams parked?

[shoestring7]

bencollins said:

shoestring7 said:

Neomagic said:

Great cars, still very underpowered though.

150bhp and 1300kgs isn't too shabby, especially when it handles as nicely as a good 924S. I tracked one and enjoyed hunting down Caterhams in it.

SS7

were the caterhams parked?

Not pedalled with great enthusiasm, I'll admit!

SS7

[Neomagic]

shoestring7 said:

Neomagic said:

Great cars, still very underpowered though.

150bhp and 1300kgs isn't too shabby, especially when it handles as nicely as a good 924S. I tracked one and enjoyed hunting down Caterhams in it.

SS7

They go alright, my dad had a later 160bhp one which I found alright.

The 2.5 4 pot does sound nice though, it reminds me of a mk2 XR2 type of sound strangely.

The 924 should have look like the later 944 IMO.

[GC8]

Hardly the point; but the talk of VW engines and their stopping making it is absolute rubbish. To call it a 'VW engine' is as factually accurate as it would be to state that they have 'VW door handles'.