jerhofer

I recently sold a '67 Porsche 912 with a 1983 911SC motor. With the money burning a hole in my pocket, I went on a search for my next car. I have been a PCA member since 1978 and have owned many Porsche's over the years. While I have had a number of 911's, my very first Porsche was a new 1977 1/2 924, guards red/black.





So I have always had a soft spot for water pumpers. We bought that car in September of 1977. The following spring we attended the Cavalcade of Wheels in South Bend, IN and came upon the local Porsche club booth. I blurted out that I owned a Porsche and then asked what the club did. When the said we autocross, rally, and do track events, I asked where I could sign up. Within a few months, we had both autocrossed and tracked the 924.



My wife drove the 924 to work every day for a couple years when we sold it and bought our first 911. Went through a couple of those and in the summer of 1982 we bought one of the very early '83 944's. Dark brown with tan cloth interior. I wanted to drive it so much that we loaded up our kids (13 and 11 at the time) and headed for Rocky Mountain National Park. If the kids tilted their heads back, they could watch for airplanes while my trusty Fuzz Buster was looking for cops. We passed many, many cars.





Didn't have that car long which is a common trait for me. After going through some other cars, we ended up with a 1984 944 that we autocrossed a lot and tracked once. It was a very good car.



By we, I mean my wife and I. At the same time I owned this red '84, I bought her a 1979 Sebring 924. Headers, a cam, Weltmeister sway bars, Koni's, lowered etc, made it a great autocross car. She did very, very well with this car.



Around this time (mid '80's), we decided to concentrate on doing track events. Our first dedicated track car was an E-Production 356. It was a very difficult car to drive and was also very high maintenance. But it was so much fun to drive and we both learned a lot about driving. This is my wife driving it at Grattan in Michigan.



After a couple years, we decided to go with a simpler track car, which turned out to be an '83 944. We tracked that car for five years and then turned it over to our son who owned it for another three years.



Which brings me to the car that inspired my recent purchase. We bought a new 1987 944 Turbo and had that car for five years, which ties the '83 track car as the cars I have owned the for the longest time. We loved that turbo and took a number of trips in it from Indiana to Florida, Charleston, SC, Quebec City, etc. I never tracked it as we had the '83 for that but I did autocross it and had the only FTD of my life in that car






Those fond memories led me to search for another 944 Turbo. I found the '88 Slate Gray/Burgundy turbo on Autotrader. It came with records dating back to 42 miles and was meticulously maintained. The second owner bought it in 1989 with 13K miles and owned it until this past summer. During the time they owned it, there are 38 documented oil changes for a 67,000 mile car. I bought it from the third owner who installed a new AC compressor, new front brakes, a full 3" Fabspeed exhaust, re-finished the phone dials, replaced the right front lower control arm, etc. The interior is in fantastic condition with no cracks in the dash and no fading of the carpet. It does have a few dings that I will someone take care of and I am going to have the nose painted to repair stone chips. It appears that nose might have been painted before, but the rest of the paint is original. It absolutely drives like new and everything works.











I enjoy fixing things almost as much as driving the cars. Like any old car, there are opportunities on the car. The first item I noticed was that the front speakers were buzzing. Looking through the grills, I could see that the flexible material around the cone had disintegrated. I found some Pioneer speakers on eBay that were shallow depth. While the original speakers were installed on top of the mounting plate, the new speakers thickness around the perimeter would not permit this. So I used my Dremel to make the mounting plate fit the new speakers. If you look at the original mounting plates and then look at the photo of the speaker, you can see the area I removed. Took a bit of time and made a big mess but the speakers not fit and sound much better.









Back in the day, one of the first things we did was replace the sealed beam headlights with H4 headlights. I found some Hella H4's that I installed today. These have a much better light pattern than the sealed beam units I removed.





Since one of my fog lights has a broken lens, I will also do another mod that I did to my '87 back then. I will replace the fog lights with the Euro lights with the driving lights. I am waiting for them to arrive.

black944 turbo

Very nice car you have and I love your history with these cars. Where in Nc are you? I am in Charlotte and there are a few other nice turbos in the area. I would love to meet another local enthusiast.

theporscheguy

Great story and very nice Porsche's. I hope your current Porsche brings you as much satisfaction as the one's in the past.

jerhofer

Thanks. I live in Rockwell, about 20 miles north of Concord.

jerhofer

Here is a little more history. In the summer of 1985 my wife, our son and I visited Germany. With our history with 924's and 944's, I wanted to visit the Audi plant in Neckarsulm where the 944's were built. They had just begun 951 production and we got see some of the very first ones. They were test driving them up and down the street outside the factory.

PorscheG96

Great post! Every Porsche looks stunning in your photos. Thanks for sharing.

black944 turbo

Hopefully I will see you at one of the local cars and coffee events that will start back after the beginning of the year.


Great post and thank you for sharing, I am very jealous of your trip. I would have loved to have seen these cars being built and ready for delivery. What an honor to have the memories of the facility where your car was produced.

mrgreenjeans

jerhofer:

Oh man, I LOVE those photos of our n/as and turbos outside, mixed in with 4000 and 5000s !

-Did you see any evidence of any cars heading on transport to Weissach for prep, before delivery to race teams ?
-Did you get to go on a factory tour and watch them build these cars or go thru either Werke 1 in Stuttgart or to the test facilities at Weissach ? Any photos of inside ? ( I already know that answer, as I went thru that gig at Stuttgart AND Weissach and had my film taken ),
-Did you get any rides there if so ? On the test track ?

Curious thing about the very first 951 turbos delivered to America, was this was right at the outset of the newly required third brake light laws in North America, and several friends within that first 500 delivered, got their cars without that rear brake light mounted in the hatch glass. Supplier problems at the factory apparently with the lamps. About two months later the parts came in, but one guy didn't want it mounted, so took his home in the box in an 'over the counter' transaction. We competed together at our local track, and he was adamant about the need to see out his mirror on the windshield posted rear view, so got his way...... the other friend just let the Porsche dealer do it to it.

GREAT posts and photos ! Thanks for the chronological documentation of our Neckarsulm built beauties...... again , I LOVE it !

odonnell

Thanks for sharing! and that's really nice 951, you're going to enjoy it.

jerhofer

We did not see any evidence of any cars being transported to Weissach.

One of the photos shows the entry gate with the date and day. We were there on a Saturday. We did not get a tour. We had been to Stuttgart earlier on the trip and did not get a tour there either due to construction going on at the plant. We did tour the old Porsche museum, which was small but very interesting.





















We did walk around the factory grounds and take some other photos. This first one is a photo of the special 928 wagon built for Ferry Porsche. I had a really difficult time getting all of those people to pose with the car. LOL













We did not get to ride around Weissach but, in 1999, we took a Fast Lane Travel organized trip to the plant, got a tour, drove a 996 and got a test ride around Weissach.

SamGrant951

Excellent pictures, thanks for sharing!

mrgreenjeans

What did you think about the test rides around Weissach ?
Which cars were they using , and did you get a chance to eat lunch in the 'Casino' or Porsche Lunchroom at Weissach ? Any opportunity to go thru the archival section to search thru any of the documents or Kardex on our cars ?

The factory keeps a dyno sheet, and all build data on every car they assemble. Numbers for engine , transmission, options, color, etc.

The day we spent at Weissach they were comparative testing the BMW 850 , a Mercedes, some Carrera 2 and 4 models, a 968, and various 911 Carreras. The test drivers were awesome and liked to show a bit of tail wagging maneuvers.
In the parking area near the track where we left our factory provided car was a whole group of special colored Carreras lined up in Mint, Raspberry, Blueberry, and Yellow. We didn't see any of them being driven. The cool thing on the track layout was it was of various track designs and elevations, and the serious right hander at the bottom of one sweeper came whistling right by the wall of windows on the Casino area. One could be seated and having a cup of java and watch the cars sweep ferociously past the building. It was beyond exhilarating....

reno808

pretty damn cool. thanks for sharing

Matt O.

Best post I've read on Rennlist in a long, long time -- maybe ever! Thanks for sharing jerhofer. The first pic of your son in the 924 with the wifeis awesome. How I wish there were an affordable entry Porsche today.

mrgreenjeans

I totally agree.....

But, the best affordable entry Porsche has always been a used one, maybe one without all the current anxiousness and exuberance over a financial gain.

Sometimes the best experiences are had learning to drive a 'slow car well', which then translates into driving a 'slow car fast'. Some of these slower cars are in the basement in trading dollars.

Also, remember that when I bought my '84 new at 28 and change, it was the same as spending today around 90. Finding a 21,000 dollar car at a dealership, already sold out on new allotments was hard, and THESE WERE the entry level pricings on a NEW car.
I had looked at a neighbors beautiful Zermatt and cloth interior '80- 924 for around the 5,700 dollar pricepoint and passed on it because it seemed so slow compared to the test drive I had in 4 year newer 4 cylinder Porsches.

But, point being: most ALL well kept, well preserved used Porsches may well cost at the upper spectrum of our achievement scale. One of the reasons that proper shopping and selectivity on our part can produce a good result if we take this to heart. Putting dollars into a cheap Porsche often times doesn't offer a good net result if a bargain is sought. Buying the best Porsche for the dollar and the moment in time we are searching WILL produce the best return.