RE: SOTW: Porsche 924

[Chris71]

5lab said:

blade7 said:

GC8 said:

Fat Albert said:

I have been driving a 944 Turbo as an everyday car for the past 3 years and still love giving her a good hustle down a country lane.

Mileage?

have another

I think an early 924 is actually the best looking car of the front engined porks. And I own a 944 s2. Just a shame they didn't do a cheap/powerful one

Depends on your definition of powerful. By standard 924 levels the 924S fits that bill quite nicely. Obviously won't touch an S2 in a straight line, but it is a substantial jump up from the 2-litre cars. The final model year 924S (by the time the 944 had moved on to 16 valves) came with a full 8v 944-spec engine in a lighter, more aerodynamic package.

[5lab]

Chris71 said:

5lab said:

blade7 said:

GC8 said:

Fat Albert said:

I have been driving a 944 Turbo as an everyday car for the past 3 years and still love giving her a good hustle down a country lane.

Mileage?

have another

I think an early 924 is actually the best looking car of the front engined porks. And I own a 944 s2. Just a shame they didn't do a cheap/powerful one

Depends on your definition of powerful. By standard 924 levels the 924S fits that bill quite nicely. Obviously won't touch an S2 in a straight line, but it is a substantial jump up from the 2-litre cars. The final model year 924S (by the time the 944 had moved on to 16 valves) came with a full 8v 944-spec engine in a lighter, more aerodynamic package.

I agree with everything you said, and I fully understand why porsche wanted to separate the 924 and the 944, but still (for me, and probably just for me) it'd have been nice if they'd done one with 200+ bhp that sold today for pennies

[caprirob]

Gruber said:

nosuchuser said:

Gruber said:

Inspired by this thread, I've just bought one on ebay (although not the actual SOTW). £900. Collecting tomorrow.

This puppy?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Porsche-924-Lux-1982-/11...

I emailed that link to the wife and was waiting on consent..

Awesome. Jealous.

That's the one.

Just look at the lovely brown velour!

Winning bid of......wait for it..... £924 !!

[CedricN]

Since the base 911 had 130hp it would be very wrong buisness wise to initially do the 924 more powerful, very much like the cayman/911 today.

If you lika 924 and Le mans, this is a nice video that really gets you into the le mans mood. A privater team that drove a 924 GTR on street tyre to a class win in 1982 !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqysjI9gM4&li...

[Paddy78]

I've just spent more than this on an exhaust! If I had somewhere to put it, I'd be going to see this tomorrow.

Love and Want!

[Strawman]

5lab said:

I agree with everything you said, and I fully understand why porsche wanted to separate the 924 and the 944, but still (for me, and probably just for me) it'd have been nice if they'd done one with 200+ bhp that sold today for pennies

The carrera, well it is 200+ BHP and a 924, but not cheap. I think the standard turbo is tunable to get more power from. You can also fit an LS1 engine into a 924, but they only do kits for the S or turbo models, too much needs changing on the standard 924 to make it cope with the power so it isn't economic to do.

[5lab]

CedricN said:

Since the base 911 had 130hp it would be very wrong buisness wise to initially do the 924 more powerful, very much like the cayman/911 today.

If you lika 924 and Le mans, this is a nice video that really gets you into the le mans mood. A privater team that drove a 924 GTR on street tyre to a class win in 1982 !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqysjI9gM4&li...

by 76, when the 924 came out, they were running a minimum of 200bhp. by 89, when they ran the 924 out, i think the 911 was around 250bhp? about the same as the 944 turbo so a bit of crossover there

[McSwerve II]

I had a Turbo a few years ago,procured from 911 Virgin for (I think it was described as) 'the price of a good sofa', my first outing into performance car ownership. (I was looking for a MX bike at the time)

From the 1970's interior to the explosions out the back from overrun, it was so different from my run of Euro box company cars, I loved it.

[GC8]

The 2.7 was the current 911 model then, making nothing like 200bhp, and neither did the 3.0l SC which replaced it, until it was facelifted years later.

[Nickellarse]

Cracking shed. So much you can do to them as well, without driving them into Halfords!

Find a great independant and it'll be cheap to run. The bodies are great and whilst many prefer the look of the 944, me included, you can't knock this motor.

The brown interior grows on you and if you don't like it then you could, for not too much wedge, convert to leder.

[anything fast]

that is a really nice car for the dosh and is still a proper porsche, just not a fast one

Always loved the 924 Turbo they did, especially the two tone silver with the cross spoke wheels, just looked right in every way...

[TORQ]

Superb shed, great thread too - inspired.

[dbdb]

GC8 said:

The 2.7 was the current 911 model then, making nothing like 200bhp, and neither did the 3.0l SC which replaced it, until it was facelifted years later.

IIRC the 2.7 911 produced comething like 170 bhp, and the 3 litre 911SC about 180 bhp, increased to 204 in about 1981. I remember one of my dad's business partners trading his earlier SC for one of the uprated cars about then. He used to change his cars all the time but was a confirmed Porsche fan. I seem to remember he reckoned the 911 didn't depreciate much.

The 924 was quite a powerful car back then, if not amazingly so. 125 bhp doesn't sound much now, but was a decent output in the mid/late 1970s.

[Track Rod]

It's covered 100 MILES without fault! Lexus must be s******g themselves!
Seriously, though, great SOTW; probably my favourite yet. I would love to buy it, but I'm not that mechanically adept and a 27 year old car, no matter how good, would be a concern. One of these is definately on my wish list, and I couldn't care less if other people (snobs) think it isn't a 'proper' Porsche-whatever that means. As a previous post said, if it was badged as a VW, everyone would be saying how great it is. And it is! Audi engine or not. IIRC, the later 944s (S2s?)had a Mitsubishi vvt system, nobody says they aren't proper Porsches 'cos they have Japanese bits?

[Chris71]

5lab said:

Chris71 said:

5lab said:

blade7 said:

GC8 said:

Fat Albert said:

I have been driving a 944 Turbo as an everyday car for the past 3 years and still love giving her a good hustle down a country lane.

Mileage?

have another

I think an early 924 is actually the best looking car of the front engined porks. And I own a 944 s2. Just a shame they didn't do a cheap/powerful one

Depends on your definition of powerful. By standard 924 levels the 924S fits that bill quite nicely. Obviously won't touch an S2 in a straight line, but it is a substantial jump up from the 2-litre cars. The final model year 924S (by the time the 944 had moved on to 16 valves) came with a full 8v 944-spec engine in a lighter, more aerodynamic package.

I agree with everything you said, and I fully understand why porsche wanted to separate the 924 and the 944, but still (for me, and probably just for me) it'd have been nice if they'd done one with 200+ bhp that sold today for pennies

Very true.

A few extra cylinders would have been nice too. I think all Porsches take a while to truly get under your skin, but that's perhaps exaggerated in the case of 924, 944 and 968 where you don't have a nice flat six (or V8) to speed up the bonding process.

Just imagine a car with the front engined Porsches' attention to detail, balanced handling and practicality combined with something like an Alfa V6. It would be perfect.

ETA One of my (older!) colleagues has just dug out a copy of Road & Track from 1978. There are some fascinating comments in it. Lots on down-sizing and efficiency improvements, a piece about how new turbo diesel units dispell any notions of diesels being slow and unresponsive, but it was the following passage that caught my eye:

"Porsche is known to be evaluating several different versions of a turbocharged 924 - a large turbo 170bhp variant and a 150bhp model with a smaller turbo. It's thought the turbocharged 924 may take over from the 911 series once it's introduced."

Much as I love the front-engined cars, I would have to conceded R&T and others that made the same observation got their predictions a tiny bit wrong there.

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 30th March 14:12

[Twincam16]

Chris71 said:

Very true.

A few extra cylinders would have been nice too. I think all Porsches take a while to truly get under your skin, but that's perhaps exaggerated in the case of 924, 944 and 968 where you don't have a nice flat six (or V8) to speed up the bonding process.

Just imagine a car with the front engined Porsches' attention to detail, balanced handling and practicality combined with something like an Alfa V6. It would be perfect.

ETA One of my (older!) colleagues has just dug out a copy of Road & Track from 1978. There are some fascinating comments in it. Lots on down-sizing and efficiency improvements, a piece about how new turbo diesel units dispell any notions of diesels being slow and unresponsive, but it was the following passage that caught my eye:

"Porsche is known to be evaluating several different versions of a turbocharged 924 - a large turbo 170bhp variant and a 150bhp model with a smaller turbo. It's thought the turbocharged 924 may take over from the 911 series once it's introduced."

Much as I love the front-engined cars, I would have to conceded R&T and others that made the same observation got their predictions a tiny bit wrong there.

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 30th March 14:12

Any chance of scanning and posting up that R&T article? It'd make for a fascinating read.

[carreraplanes]

Slightly misleading statement in the article:

'And although the 924 has a fairly solid reputation for reliability, if anything does go wrong you'll be potentially faced with some nasty Porsche-priced parts bills.'

Nothing could be further from the truth. Consumeables (pads, alternators, gaskets, etc. etc) are available from GSF car spares, Porsche only stuff tends to be heavy items like cylinder heads, or switches and guages which are easily sourced 2nd hand on ebay or such like. You can run these things for mk 2 Golf money which is about right as most of the bits originate from VW. Make no mistake these things are cheap as chips to run.....

[Hugo a Gogo]

I've posted this before, but please supply a list of the VW parts that fit

it's a short list, shouldn't take you long to type out

[mr2j]

Really good shed this week, although in that ballpark I'd rather have a Starion or a MkIII Supra. That's proper retro-cool to me (EACH TO HIS OWN). I suspect a Starion in decent condition is a lot more expensive now...

Yup... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C114130

No idea what kind of steer it would be compared to the porsche but i wouldn't pay any heed to the "of course the porsche is better, it's a porsche" crowd.

[Strawman]

mr2j said:

Really good shed this week, although in that ballpark I'd rather have a Starion or a MkIII Supra. That's proper retro-cool to me (EACH TO HIS OWN). I suspect a Starion in decent condition is a lot more expensive now...

The Starion is fugly not retro-cool though, also comparing like with like examples the turbo Starion costs about the same and produces 2 BHP less than the 924 turbo.