RE: SOTW: Porsche 944 track car

[NJH]

Honest opinion, the ropey cars under a grand are a good buy to break for parts.

...and another thing. How is it that when the cars were generally in decent nick, easy reasonable OEM price parts availability and ripe for making into cheap track cars hardly anyone did (thinking back to about 10 years ago). Now when many of em are basically heaps of crap that will burn through your wallet like a wild fire everyone suddenly thinks 944s are ideal track slags.

[GC8]

Bandwagon Neil. Also, following the PH 'because racing car' meme, theyre tatty inside and the cheapest way to deal with that is to remove the trim and not buy and expensive replacement.

Noits a racing car...

[hairykrishna]

SteveRST said:

So, here is my new fix'er - up'er , all £500 of it. With a few months tax and 9 months MOT, BUT it's a non-runner! It was running and for sale on ebay & gumtree for £2000, but apparently the seller tried to start it the other night and it wouldn't start. Seller amended the advert to £500 and I thought, "Hmmmm, it's worth a go!" (after a few beers)

Could easily be a proper bargain. There are a few things that stop a 944 starting that only cost a few quid to fix. My immediate thought is DME relay - take a couple of lengths of wire with you and you might be able to drive it home!

[B'stard Child]

SteveRST said:

I just bought a shed Porsche 944 on ebay last night (bought without viewing of course!) - How weird that the 944 is this weeks SOTW!

So, here is my new fix'er - up'er , all £500 of it. With a few months tax and 9 months MOT, BUT it's a non-runner! It was running and for sale on ebay & gumtree for £2000, but apparently the seller tried to start it the other night and it wouldn't start. Seller amended the advert to £500 and I thought, "Hmmmm, it's worth a go!" (after a few beers)



So am I stupid/brave ? - Will find out soon as I'm going to tow it home later (only 5 miles down the road - the location kinda sold it to me too!) I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed!

Steve

Stupid/Brave? Neither it's a gamble and I'm sure you'll be fine - did chuckle at the after a few beers bit

Even if it was something horribly terminal and unfixable (and I'm struggling to think of anything that would be) I wouldn't mind betting you'd still recover your outlay breaking it for spares

Start a thread on it in readers cars (or whatever the section is called) and I'd bookmark it just to share in the adventure that I'm sure you'll have

[legalknievel]

GC8 said:

I believe that it is the faux 'preparation' thats winding people up. If it was a tatty old series one 944 for sale, not represented as something that it clearly wasnt, then I wouldnt have commented.

Yeah, after my earlier outburst I have to confess I saw this a couple of days ago on a classifieds boredom buster and decided it was a bit pony. So long as there's no general 944 hating going on I'm happy...

[GC8]

I currently own three. Series 1 2.5l; series 2 2.7l and 944 Turbo.

[Liquid Knight]

One for the PPC £999 Challenge.

[dinkel]

Couple of 924s at the Snett 360 2011:

Mike Bell's attack.




Psychadelic!

[SteveRST]

OK, for those that did see the previous post I made about the £500 eBay "non-runner" 944 that I bought last night.
Well, I just Drove it home! Amazing what a set of jump leads can do

Liking my impulsive eBay shed

[GC8]

Itll probably break down again... Id guess FPR or DME relay.

[MadDog1962]

Not fast enough to be a good track tool, and too tatty to be daily driver. I guess if the body s in decent shape it might be a fixer upper, or possibly a parts car. I think that this a 700 quid breaker.

[noell35]

About 20 years ago I had a Top Gear magazine and a highlighter pen. This 944 looks uncannily like the resulting pictures

[GC8]

The reason that most 'tack cars' like this have a crap seat and nothing else, is that a cage will cost the best part of £1,000 (even a RC cage could cost this fitted) before fitting; decent dampers will cost at least £500 (probably closer to £1k min with bushings), tyres and a good service will add the best part of a further £1,000 - whos going to put this much money into a £500 car, and thered be more to come too?

Btw: the vendors surname is Heap, which is fitting!

[kikiturbo]

SteveRST said:

I just bought a shed Porsche 944 on ebay last night (bought without viewing of course!) - How weird that the 944 is this weeks SOTW!

So, here is my new fix'er - up'er , all £500 of it. With a few months tax and 9 months MOT, BUT it's a non-runner! It was running and for sale on ebay & gumtree for £2000, but apparently the seller tried to start it the other night and it wouldn't start. Seller amended the advert to £500 and I thought, "Hmmmm, it's worth a go!" (after a few beers)



So am I stupid/brave ? - Will find out soon as I'm going to tow it home later (only 5 miles down the road - the location kinda sold it to me too!) I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed!

Steve

mate, your car has "LS3 conversion" written all over it..

http://www.renegadehybrids.com/944/LS-1/LS-1.html
http://www.texasperformanceconcepts.com/LS1Convers...

[Ferosferio]

SteveRST said:

OK, for those that did see the previous post I made about the £500 eBay "non-runner" 944 that I bought last night.
Well, I just Drove it home! Amazing what a set of jump leads can do

Liking my impulsive eBay shed

Great result, congrats! Presume we can expect a build/resto thread of sorts? I for one would subscribe to it, got a soft spot for the 944.

[petefrst]

Edd China knows a thing or two about a track ready 944...

[GC8]

Im not sure, that was an extremely lame programme. Remember the 'Porsche racing orange' racing wheels, which were D90s?

[anonymous-user]

hairykrishna said:

legalknievel said:

So many nay sayers. I'm so glad I have never listened to any of the rust bucket, money pit, disintegrating sill harbingers who discourage purchasing a car that was considered by many at one point to be the best handling car in the world. Put some decent shocks on it, a set of toyos, and you're away. Great fun on the limit, nothing complicated in them so easy to work on, and a replacement engine costs 200 quid on eBay if the worst does happen. The only real money spent has been down to my rubbish driving and off piste excursions...

This does look crap in white, though...

Nobody's bashing the idea of a 944 - I've had two. It's just the advert gives the overriding impression of one that's a heap.

Have to agree and I ran a 944 Lux a few years ago as a track car!

[anonymous-user]

NJH said:

Honest opinion, the ropey cars under a grand are a good buy to break for parts.

...and another thing. How is it that when the cars were generally in decent nick, easy reasonable OEM price parts availability and ripe for making into cheap track cars hardly anyone did (thinking back to about 10 years ago). Now when many of em are basically heaps of crap that will burn through your wallet like a wild fire everyone suddenly thinks 944s are ideal track slags.

An early Renaultsport Clio would make a much better track car than this 944 imo !

[Liquid Knight]

kikiturbo said:

SteveRST said:

I just bought a shed Porsche 944 on ebay last night (bought without viewing of course!) - How weird that the 944 is this weeks SOTW!

So, here is my new fix'er - up'er , all £500 of it. With a few months tax and 9 months MOT, BUT it's a non-runner! It was running and for sale on ebay & gumtree for £2000, but apparently the seller tried to start it the other night and it wouldn't start. Seller amended the advert to £500 and I thought, "Hmmmm, it's worth a go!" (after a few beers)



So am I stupid/brave ? - Will find out soon as I'm going to tow it home later (only 5 miles down the road - the location kinda sold it to me too!) I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed!

Steve

mate, your car has "LS3 conversion" written all over it..

Or if you don't win the Lotto there are plenty of cheap 540/740 BMW's to borrow a V8 from.