Thursday 28th April 2016

Porsche celebrates 'Transaxle Day'

Porsche Museum marks 40th anniversary of the 924's introduction with a special exhibition

---

While the writers of press releases often seem to have swallowed a thesaurus sideways, those released by Porsche tend towards a Germano-English frankness that we've always found refreshing. The one announcing a new exhibition at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart pretty much told the whole story in its first sentence: "On one hand, they are ideal sports cars, and on the other an aberration in Porsche history: the transaxle models."

It's 40 years since the 924 made its debut and Porsche has decided to celebrate with a special display in Stuttgart of 23 of the most significant variations on the front-engined, rear-mounted gearbox theme. There's even going to be a special 'Transaxle Day' on May 22, with free admission the museum and a series of guided tours and talks on the subject of the 924, 928, 944 and 968, plus an invitation to owners to bring their cars along.

Although very much in the "other Porsches" category, especially when it comes to values versus most contemporary 911s, the company is rightly proud of the contribution that building nearly 400,000 transaxle cars made to keeping the company afloat. And able to carry on making the glorified Beetles the purists preferred. Exhibits include a 924 Turbo Targa prototype, 928 S4 Cabrio, 944 Cabrio concept and the proposed 968 Roadster that was apparently canned in favour of creating the first Boxster. There's also a 944 that covered 384,000km in just 258 days back in 1987.

The Porsche museum is well worth a visit, even if you have to pay to get in. The exhibition will run from April 27 to October 16. A taste of what's on display in our gallery below.

[fivetenben]

This is definitely something to celebrate - they're all utterly awesome, underrated cars. Still miss my 944...

[fivetenben]

Fishy Dave said:

nsa said:

I bought your book about driving that car to Cape Town and enjoyed it a lot.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Quickest-Across-...

I don't know Ben but am happy to recommend his book.

Yup, I bought it too, brilliant read, my wife enjoyed the read too. When's the V8nam one coming out Ben?

Haha, I'm getting there. I'm aiming to have it out in about a year, when I head off on the next trip...

Thanks to everyone who's said they enjoyed it - much appreciated.