Hey guys, been following and reading this forum for a little while now, trying to pick up on everything here at this forum. I've been a prominent member of a couple of BMW forums with my M3, but my father and I have just bought a 1984 944 and am looking forward to being part of this community.

I've always wanted a 944 ever since I was young, and when I was beginning to drive I wanted one in the worst way. I saw you could buy a Porsche cheap and I was all about it, until I found out about maintaining it! Anyway, back a few years ago my father and I bought one from a friend of his, that had been sitting for a while right next to the ocean here in coastal NJ. Well we thought we could save it, bought a parts car and proceeded to strip them down, but eventually gave up since the car we were looking to restore just needed too much work, and had too much rust for us to justify, or put the money into fixing, so we sold both chassis, and all the parts back a couple years ago.

Well, fast forward a couple years now, and I found a car one town over from me. From the ad I learned that it was black on black, all original, garage kept, and a one owner car. It was bought brand new by the original owner in 1984 at our local Porsche dealer which is less than a mile from the original owners house! He spared no expense on it, he was always up to date on its maintenance, and has a folder with every piece of paper and receipt for the car.

The car was in the garage it's whole life, has no rust on it, and has very low milage for an '84. Back a few years ago, the car was due for a new timing belt, so the owner parked it in the garage to get it fixed in the springtime, but it ended up sitting there in the garage for 5 years!

That's where I come in, we've now bought the car, and had it flatbedded down to my good buddy's shop to get it running for me again. Plan is to do the timing belt, go through the fuel system (sat with half a tank for those 5 years), fix the battery tray, and give it a full look over for any other surprises.

But enough of the story, here's the pictures!

Here's how I found it in his garage, covered in dust and perfect in all it's glory:




In good company at my buddy Tyler's shop (tyspeed performance) with a 75 targa he just restored and a 914 race car tucked in the back there:













I can't wait to get this thing on the road, hopefully I can get a couple drives in before the bad weather hits us here in NJ. It's been a dream of mine to own one of these cars, ever since I was little and I got to cruise around in the back of my friends' dad's 924 turbo, getting picked up from elementary school!

Now I have this perfect, all original, survivor car, and I promise to be a good keeper of this car and bring it back to it's former glory! The original owner, Jim, is an outstanding guy, and took great care of this car, I plan to pick up where he left off. When I'm done it will look just as good as it did the day it left the dealer, just like in this picture from 1984 that he took and gave to me:



Let me know what you guys think!

 

Looks like a nice find, and like you know what you're getting into.

Welcome to the forum, and enjoy the car!

 

Do you have a photo of the build code tag (white, under the rear carpet, on body by left rear tail light) and the black manufacturer tag on the left front fender area by the hood strut ?

Looks like a great find ! How many miles ?

I also own an original one owner car, purchased new by me and delivered on the 10th of July, 1984. I waited about 1.5 years on a list at three dealerships with money down.... they were a high demand car and usually always sold for more than MSRP. If you didn't pay the 'nick' to the dealer, they called the next guy on the list.

Thanks for sharing your car and story.

 

Thanks! Yea, been stalking these cars for years, and learned a great deal dismantling the last one with my father.

I do have a picture of the options tag, but I already decoded it last week and this is what my car has:

418- Side moldings
425- Rear window / wiper
431- 4 spoke leather 363mm steering wheel
454- Cruise Control
456- Front Sway Bar 23.5mm / rear 14mm - Front / Rear Sport Shocks
533- Alarm
650- Removable Sunroof
946- Seat Covers Front (leather / leatherette)



Of course I was going through the paperwork I have of the car and the original bill of sale from the dealer has all the options written on it. I haven't taken a picture of the other tag under the hood yet, what info is on that? I'll snap a picture of it next time I'm at the shop.

Car has approx 78k miles, the speedo and odo were replaced at 50999 by the dealership in 1992 and the new odo was put in with 00000 on it (not sure if they could have put the actual milage on it or not) so now it shows around 28k on the odo.

It's funny you mentioned the waiting list for these, the original owner of my car said the same thing! They had put him in a 924, which btw he said he hated, and he was on the wait list for the 944. Someone had canceled an order for this car up at Bayridge in Brooklyn and they called him to see if he would take it, he said he would but that he wouldn't pay anything over list, and after some negotiation they went for it! He traded in the 924 and got this car which I assume he liked since he kept it for 31 years

The final price of the car was $28k and change, and the payments he was making was over $500 a month !!!

The reason I like this car so much is because of the story behind it, it being a one owner, local car, and having every receipt for it going back to 1984!

Thanks for your interest and kind words! I plan on using this thread as my journal/ build thread and will be updating it as we go along!

 

I enjoy reading about automotive finds like these, and it makes me want another 944 again!

The first Porsche I owned was an 85K mile 1983 944 (Guards Red/black).
I liked it so much I bought a 1984 944 with 31K miles, simply because of how fresh and "new" the car was.
The '84 was Copenhagen Blau (very dark blue) with black interior (looked identical to yours).
It was a sunroof delete car, but otherwise very standard options.
I sold it to buy a '90 944S2 cab (Velvet Red) with 39K miles.

Anyways, tell us more about your car as you find out interesting tidbits. It looks like the seats could use a little leather rejuvenating?

 

Thanks! Yes, the driver's seat needs some attention, and the dash does have a couple cracks, but otherwise the interior is in great shape! I have a good upholstery guy very local to me, when I get it up and running I'm going to swing over there and get a quote from him on the driver's seat, I'm not sure if he'll be able to just replace the ripped sections, or if I'll have to get an whole new seat cover.

 

My car, by that serial number you posted, was made about 1340 cars later than yours and was built in February of 1984, but there was a German metalworkers strike on at the time and these sat idle at Neckarsulm factory ( Audi facility ) for some time. Some say up to 8 weeks----that there was a hold up in production. AND, they still had the highest volume year of production for these cars of all 944s built. I think they include the number of '85.1 cars as part of that grouping, but am not totally sure. The '85.2 cars had a significantly lower production than the '84 cars.

My car had a few more options added, as well as those listed on yours including headlight washers, LSD, M456 Sport Shocks, Sport Springs, H.D. Front and Rear Sway bars. These were bundled into what Porsche labeled as an H52 Group ( shown on the same white tag as code H52 ) and discounted a bit, so even with all of these additions it still came in at around that 28,000 mark. There was an identically prepared white one with white Fuchs wheels and sheepskins, 2 leather Porsche jackets, and a special stereo system which ran the price up to 31,000 for it. It was for the Dealership's Owner and came off the same truck as mine was shipped on. They sat next to each other on the show floor till I got out there a couple of days later to pick it up. (200 miles away from my home). Wish I had taken the camera with to record that moment, but I had forgotten to bring it with as I had to leave work late and drive it back after dark thru deer and antelope country.......NERVE wracking. I remember seeing at least a half dozen deer that night on the roadside waiting to leap out at my new car )-;

My dash and seat leather still show as new, mainly because I treated it with Lexol on the seats and Vinylex for the dash since day one. Kept it out of the sun and garaged when not in use. It was never a daily driver, but I ran it at our local track on D.E. road course events with our PCA region. The car still looks and drives like new with a few thousand miles less than yours. These are still VERY low mileage 944s. Most have gone around at least once on the odo.

This car was a dealer arranged Weissach Prepped Special with Porsche, as well as his white car. The engines were hand assembled and balanced and lightened, some say 'fettled' with a bit more power ( and I believe it after driving other like cars without the Weissach prep pkg. ) They both came with about 50 miles of track sorting and setup at the test track in Weissach and came with a yellow hang tag on the mirror or radio ****.... I forget which, and a full check off report from the test driver as to how the car was set up. I still retain all this documentation and it will go with the car when I die to the next ( hopefully appreciative ) owner.

I ordered mine with Guards Red paint and Grey Beige leather interior. I wanted a performance car and Porsche delivered in spades. But that check was a hard one to write.

It was a lot of money in 1984 and made a serious dent in my bank account ~

 

Nice find and welcome to the group, great bunch of folks here. I love the black on black, mine's common as weeds "Arrest Me Red". You're 9,471 units before my 84 that I got in 2010. My car's one and only PO had only put 22,000 miles on it but all with the original timing belt!!!!!!!!! I don't know if 26 years is the record for a timing belt but must be close Sounds like the dealer still gouged your PO a bit, the window sticker for my car equipped like yours but with leather sports seats ($1194.00 option) and without your side moldings and alarm was $24,649 before an additional $365 destination charge for total of $25,014.00. I'm sure the dealer added something for dealer prep too. Did you happen to find the hangtag for the care of your leather seats among the paper work? MGJ do have one with any of your cars?

 

Very cool!!! I haven't heard of the Weissach package except for most recently on the 918, I wish mine came with it and/or the LSD (option 220? iirc). I've been on this forum a few weeks now and have already learned so much, actually I read a lot of your interesting posts over in that '83 garage find thread, awesome stuff!

 

Yes Joe, I do have several cars that do still have those hangtags for the leather care, that originally ordered by me, '84 M456 car being one of them. Along with the little foil bag in the glove box that contained the wipe cloth for the antenna.

There was also an instructional tag for the stereo as well that hung on the ****. I still remember the salesman unlocking the car door for me the first time, and me sitting inside and looking about the interior of that car I waited so long to attain. It is a memory I will never forget......

After about 6 or so years, after watching a few of these same cars compete in the various race series at Brainerd, Road America, and at Daytona, I decided to begin a pursuit of others like this special ordered out normally aspirated M456.

I remembered asking a few teams at the tracks what they were doing with their old cars after watching one particular team moving stuff from a really pranged and well used normal, and rebuild a new track car in their garage area. They had just taken delivery of an identical car to mine back in '85 at R/A. The showroom stock series they were competing in had a number of teams using these normals. So a few years after this memory had happened, I went on a search for similar cars and found out what few cars had really survived. ( the team had said they repaired them, repainted them and sold them off for either parts, sold as used cars, or turned them back to the dealership they were associated with in obtaining their new car from ). I may assume some or maybe most went back to Porsche for teardowns and scrapping ? Or cheaply sold to some new hobbyist/ racer who wished to compete as well.


I was able to gather a few up before they became non existent or parted out, altho none of mine are ex race cars. One is an old track car. One is a very early build '83 model in Guards Red with FUCHS, LSD, Sport suspension and Recaro full leather seats. A low mile car that was first delivered into Colorado around the Denver/ Colorado Springs vicinity, and built in July of '82. It is very different from the others I later found, in many small and interesting ways showing the changes as they evolved from carryover 924 thinking to 944 process. This one never saw any track use and has only covered around 50,000 miles. It may well have been used for some promo work by the Dealer or by Porsche as it is one of the first to have arrived in America. I have talked to the second owner, but not the very first. He indicated some of those thoughts..... and I would like to know more.

The Ruby Red Sunroof Delete car is another story !

It was ordered by a PCA instructor as his personal track car and came with a whole host of deleted items from the factory, including sunroof, sound deadener, insulation, stereo fitment, console, cigar lighter, rear privacy shade over the rear hatch carpeting, non power mirrors, fog lights, gas cap lock, etc. He wanted the car to be as light as possible for driver's instruction in his PCA region. ( Chicago ) It had around 40,000 miles of track time on it. But a fresh paint job and the re-installed leather seats he had taken out immediately after getting it, and stored in his garage attic. ( he liked Recaro race seats ). Today they still appear as new...... a very neat car.

He parted with the 944 and it sold into NM for two months where I found it during a divorce proceeding/selloff. This car has 3 sets of wheels, two of those sets are FUCHS, one pair of cookies. It had a very deep rear spoiler which the original owner still has, along with Perspex windows, rear hatch, plastic hood and fenders. I want these badly even tho some pieces are vibration cracked..... they are a part of it's story and I want them to complete it.

There are a few more I could talk about, but this story is about your car...... so tell us more of it's heritage you have been able to uncover.

 

Well, the stereo isn't original. What is that device on the right side of the console? Looks like a great car to enter the community with. Welcome!


Just curious as to what spurred your interest in the 944 and why you HAD to have one. How does it compare to the Bimmer?

 

MGJ just curious, did the antenna wipe also bear a ZVW number? Thanx

 

I will check it some time when I am closer to my cars; am some distance away at the moment....

As to the comments by stoogemoe about the stereo:

It appears it may be a BLAUPUNKT Bremen or Berlin. Maybe another model made by them.

The item on the side of the console may be a phone receiver holder ?

I also own a Jubilee/ CELEBRATION, an '88- 944, CODE 757 and it came with a Motorola handset that was attached there. (As well as a 10 disc CD player option in the l.r. wheel well.) The phone equipment went in the right rear wheel well on the one's I have seen optioned with one.

Phones were uncommon, but near larger cities not an unheard of option.

 

It does have an original stereo as far as I can tell, it's a Blaupunkt, and the thing to the right is a car phone hook up, as mrgreenjeans said. The owner had it installed way back when! It's actually kind of cool, I might put the phone back on it just for that cool 80's nostalgia look! Haven't really decided yet.



I haven't actually driven this car before, but I know that speed and handling wise it won't come close to my m3. The reason I had to have a 944 is because when I was little my friends dad had a 924 turbo, and I thought it was the coolest thing. Then when I was in high school and learning to drive, I saw that 944's were affordable (to buy, not maintain lol) and wanted one in the worst way.

I know these aren't fast cars by any means, but I'm just looking forward to cruising around in it! Seems like they're a lot of fun, and it's also a great first "classic car".

There's also something to be said for being able to really ring these cars out around town on the back windy roads, with the m3 it's a fast car and I can't really open it up a lot, this car I'm sure you could get on it all the time and not be doubling the speed limit every time I look down!


Thanks for all the interest guys! Getting the car on the lift tomorrow and giving it a full look over to put a parts list together.

 

My option sticker shows option 158, the Blaupunkt Reno. The window sticker shows the Monterey I have though. My option 464 is of great interest..."Without compressor and tire gauge" yet the electric tire pump (which it has) is listed as standard equipment. I still have the options for my previous 84 "Goldie" and the 464 option isn't listed and the compressor was long gone when I got the car. What goes MGJ, can you shed any light on this?