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The resurgence of the front engine Porsche''s

infrasilver

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I know that some of you guys inspired me to get a front engine Porsche as a project and to me in the last 12 months there seems to be an up shift in the interest of these cars.

I have been looking for a project for quite a while and ideally I wanted it to be a Porsche that I could use on the track without too much worry of lunching the engine or damaging the body. I also was looking at non Porsche cars but nothing really floated my boat, the Boxster was a good option that I considered many times but knowing only too well the cost to repair the engines somewhat put me off. I kept coming back to the 944 as an easy to run, cheap car but I was wary that I may of got in too deep with rust and electrics being a worry.

It was when I was at the Goodwood charity event a couple of months ago that something really caught my eye and it was a scabby 924 with an S2 3.0 engine, this car looked like it was great fun and seemed a lot faster than many of the modern cars on track, I'm guessing driver skills was something to do with it but I'd decided this is what I wanted to do.

I weighted up what I would need and a reasonably decent 924 was in the region of £1500 plus the cost of an 3.0 S2 engine was close to the same money. The issue from fitting a different engine isn't something new to me but as my free time is short nowadays I didn't fancy getting into a full electrical swap and having to change ECU and various other components, I could see the car getting on for £4-5k and may cause me issues in the long run.

Along came the 944S a slightly less potent engine than and S2 but not that much heavier (no airbags or aircon fitted) than a 924, this to me seemed like the ideal compromise and after picking the one I have up for £2100 I think I have a bargain and a lot less hassle. I didn't find out about how rare they were until I was about to pull the trigger and it made me consider not using it as a track car although I now have 3 cars to myself and I can only drive one at a time, I don't want it to sit rotting away like so many do, so I think my plan will be to fully restore it back to where I would like it to be then strip all the good bits out and store them then convert it to something a little more track focussed, with coilovers, buckets and decent wheels and tyres (maybe cup wheels) and putting it on a diet, ie remove the interior.

The reason I started this thread.. as a newcomer to a front engined Porsche, I think I'm seeing resurgence in them, inspiring threads from jkeith, igaffz and kas750 to name a few recent rebuild threads made me get into one, what have you done? Although I say that, it's like stepping back in time working on some of the cars of that era, nostalgia kicks in.

RichyD mentioned to me that the OPC networks are running a competition similar to what they ran for the 50th anniversary of the 911, this time they are restoring the front engined water cooled cars (924, 944, 968 and 928) and this may focus once again how great these cars are and got me wondering if there was a resurgence for these cars or is it just me noticing as I now have one. I think the OPC cars will be unveiled in 2016 on the 40th anniversary of the front engine Porsche coming into production.
See below, some good stories.

http://restoration.porsche.co.uk/

Am I going mad?
 
Chris this is truly inspirational stuff. Great story and no doubt an interesting and challenging journey ahead.
Hooked on the instalments to come. :worship:
 
I think you have covered the salient points regarding the front engined Porsche models very well Chris. What I would add is that these cars are no less of a true sports car than the more glamorous 911 models and provide enormous satisfaction to work on and drive as well as being well supported for parts back up by Porsche.
 
Man, I need a bigger drive :sad:
 
I'm looking for another Porsche as we speak.Jeez some of these are so cheap it's criminal!!..I'll worry about where to put it later! :bye:
 
I am of course speaking from a biased point of view but I must agree that these are significantly under-rated cars.

Having had a 1990 968 Club Sport, I expected the 944 turbo to be a lesser cousin. Not a bit of it, the 1986 944 seems to be a better balanced chassis and the addition of a turbo transforms the power delivery beyond recognition.

Every drive is a further lesson in experiencing the benefit of the 944. It is already a longer term ownership car than I had previously anticipated.

I've clearly got a severe case of this disease, limited only by the lack of further storage space!

I'm facinated to see what Porsche will organise to celebrate the 924 anniversary. I may need to choose which car to drive purely on a 'turns each' basis.

Cheers, Keith.
 
They make great cheap projects and retro cars are very cool now 8)
 
The cynic in me looks to the 4-cyl turbo Boxster and Cayman launches off the back of fanfare of the older 4-cyl models.

Now that the Boxster is the entry-level "cheap" Porsche (apart from Kaz's) the 924/44/68/28 cars are falling into the hands of enthusiasts and being recognised for what they are.
 

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