AkechiMotors

"Ask any elitist car fan which members of the Porsche lineage aren’t deserving of the badge and they’ll probably give you two examples: the VW-derived 914 and the 924 along with its successors, the 944 and 968\. They wrongly turn their noses up at the thought of a non-911 Porsche.

Porsche Club of America member Steve Bastian has more than one air-cooled, rear-engined Porsche in his collection. But he also has a 944, one that’s barely recognizable from the Porsche 944 Turbo that left the factory in 1989\. After more than $200,000 spent modifying it, he’s created the ultimate 944 ‘RS’.

‘A RennSport tag on a 944? You must be joking!’ would scream our aforementioned narrow-minded friend. But the amount of modification, not just in financial value but the sheer quality of craftsmanship, is genuinely incredible.

Despite packing an inline-four motor, Porsche’s turbocharged variant of the 944 engine was already putting out 220 bhp when rolling out of the factory, an impressive figure for the time and also given its 2.5-liter displacement.

Before passing into Bastian’s ownership, the previous owner had the engine rebored to 2.7-liters. Out went the stock turbocharger too, replaced with a Lindsey Racing Series 61 turbo that, combined with the rebored cylinders, now means this 944 ‘RS’ cranks out over 400bhp.

Not satisfied with simply tinkering with the engine, the owner prior to Bastian had bolted in a nitrous oxide system. After the car’s second pass at restoration, the first in Bastian’s ownership, it’s now been relocated to the back, located under the glass-topped trunk for all to see – ‘a great conversation starter’, he points out, even though it’s currently empty.

That extra power needs better-specced parts elsewhere to get it down on the road and usable. New 993-generation 911 Turbo-spec brakes were equipped, as well as a transmission from its 968 successor, plus a racing suspension with the torsion bars chucked out and full coil-overs in their place. Those changes have provided much more responsive feedback – but it's still a compliant and comfortable enough ride to use as a daily driver.

Said restoration also included a bare-metal rebuild of the panels, with color-coded Porsche stripes on the doors and a black ‘Turbo’ logo on the rear part of its new paintwork rather than decaled-on retroactively.

Throw in a full reupholstering too and no wonder its lifetime aftermarket spend has hit the $200,000 mark. That spend doesn’t faze Bastian though, who couldn’t care less about the 944’s potential resale value.

‘Money’s money. But the great thing about it is I know I won’t get the money out of it. I don’t ever plan on selling it. It’ll be something I give to one of my sons.’

That’s one more classic car fan who knows Porsche doesn’t start and end with 911, then. And all the better for it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/restomod-...203549724.html

There's also a video attached to the article. Nice car, but I don't see where that $200k went - you'd have to get pretty creative to spend $200k on a 944, unless you throw in a nut-and-bolt restoration along with all those mods.

MAGK944

AkechiMotors

I honestly can't think of how to spend $200k on a 944. I suppose if you bought an absolute basket case car for $25k, had all work done at a shop that charged $150/hour, and used every possible hop-up part you could, you might get to $200k, but that wasn't the case here. That being said, I don't have a problem spending that much on a 944; the hot rod world is full of $15,000 Camaros/Mustangs/Cudas/Novas that get resto-modded deep into six figures, and some are works of thoughtful design and expert execution. No one considers hot rods investments; not a single one - even rare examples like Singers, Emorys, Eagles, Alphaholics, Roadster Shops, etc. - will ever come close to recouping the build cost. The point of the exercise isn't to get a return on capital, but to build something unique and to your personal taste. I fully expect to have around $100k in my 944 when it's all said and done, but $200k? I don't see how that's possible.

Otto Mechanic

Quite a bit of hate on that Yahoo! site, but then, who would have guessed?

If you were to honestly pile up receipts on a 30 year old car you might be surprised at what you've spent, but then we don't do that do we? "Never look at the bills" is sort of an axiom. It really depends a lot on what you consider expenses. I can imagine spending close to that kind of money if I had all the work done by a shop and I was building a high performance version of my '85 928. It wouldn't be way out of bounds I don't think. Heck, less than six months after I bought the 928 in 1985, I'd spend $4000 on a new front a-arm, tires, 4 wheel alignment, re-sealing the cam covers, and re-paint on the right side front quarter panel (an unfortunate off-road excursion and subsequent unplanned engagement with a roadside bush at a fairly high speed).

You might be able to spend that kind of money. You'd have to try pretty hard I think and it would help if you were a bit accident prone.

Dan Martinic

odurandina

$200K sounds like a top-notch budget for keeping a 944T on the road in top form

looking top dog inside and out with some wiggle room left over, incl a key to Lart's war chest.

about $150~175K can render a very proper Porsche 968 with an all-or-nothing V8

and leave virtually nothing wanting (inside or out)

Perhaps $75~100K to do the same with a 944.

*variance for custom anti-lock system & carbon brakes.

Expensive hobby, considering you can probably tune a Caymen, Boxster or 911 w/ turbos

have it run good and look good--for significantly less.

elgy

In the video he explains that he bought it with $110K in receipts... so he added around $90K to do a total rebuild. I never find money hard to spend??

jhowell371

No hate, just not my cup of tea.

harveyf

The current owner took his car to Road Scholars in Durham, NC. Run by the Ingram family, they have produced best in class winners at Pebble Beach. I can easily see how one could run up a significant tab with them. How the original guy spent over $100K does defy my imagination but if you were to send me a car and a blank check, I promise I would do my best to match that number

Otto Mechanic

Gage

Is there a new category at Pebble Beach for most "stick on" accessories?

SeaCay

His major malfunction?

NEVER TALLY UP THE RECEIPTS!!!!!!

Absolutely Gawddamned right!

Unless you're going all the way.

jhowell371

If I had all the money I've wasted over 50 years on cars, guns, motorcycles and airplanes I would just waste it on cars, guns, motorcycles and airplanes