Some misinformation about hp numbers above.

Here's the low down

Early US spec 924 up to 77 1/2 95hp
Late US spec 924 115hp
ROW Spec 924 125hp (The very early ones being only 2300lbs, gave this early Euro car decent performance)

924 Turbo S1 US Spec 143hp
924 Turbo S2 US Spec 156hp @6.5psi

924 Turbo S1 Euro Spec 170hp
924 Turbo S2 Euro Spec 177hp @10psi

924 Carrera GT 210hp @8.5bar (top mount intercooler)
924 Carrera GTS 245hp @1 bar (nose mount intercooler this configuration was carried over to the 944 turbo)
924 Carrera GTS CS 275hp @1.1 bar (This cars power to weight exceeded the 930 of the same vintage)

924 GTR from 320hp to 375hp

People on 924.org have had very different experiences regarding reliability with regard to the 924 n/a... most after having been made to run well stay running well. Never heard of needing to buy a new relay panel as SOP when buying a 924, most are on their original panels. All 924s were galvanized and only the most abuse have serious rust issues. The battery tray is an exception, due to battery acid sometimes dissolving this protection and leading to rust. My car lived its life in the Northeast and is rust-free. Many have similar experiences.

 

But indeed they could have. With the addition of an intercooler, manual boost controller, and the switch of wastegate springs, guys on 924.org are able to produce killer HP numbers in under $500. What would have cost porsche then, to put in an intercooler on their lowest priced model? A lot, and not even in terms of money, because those pop up headlights would EASILY compete against a 911, their flagship model. Power to weight my friend. And 931GT's post covers this too.

 

If this refers to cost of ownership during the first years of the 924, then it can make some sense. The Porsche dealerships where probably far from the cheapest garages so owning a new 924 and servicing it was probably not cheap back then.

But today the Porsche 924 NA (2.0 liter) is by far the cheapest Porsche to buy, restore and maintain, regardless of if you do your own wrenching or not. The 924S, 944 and 968 that share engines based on the aluminum 2.5 liter are another story.

Some of us don't care how many HP the 924 have or don't have, and we would NEVER even consider looking at a wrx. It's about the passion for a car that Porsche spent 5 years to design and develop in the early 70's. It simply was a great car of it's time, but it's getting bashed because it was the entry level model in the Porsche range. If the 924 had ended up as a VW or Audi sports coupe it would probably have been much more appreciated today.

Keep in mind that Porsche sold twice as many 924's as they did 911's (each year) and many of the solutions where probably new to the local mechanics. So seeing more 924's at the shops and that they spent more time on them seem quite obvious. A bit of "eliteism" among Porsche mechanics is nothing new either.

Most people don't understand the 924 and people love to hate what they can't understand. As I said before, if it had been an Audi....

 

A lot could have been done with the 930 at the time also but emissions standards held back many models. But Porsche did what they did for many reasons . Compare a n/a 924 with the n/a 911 of the time and the 911 was the clear winner. It is easy to boost Hp out of a turbocharged car that isn't running to full potential. Take my 964 turbo with a few simple bolt on mods my car went from 360 bhp to its current level of 450 reliable bhp and is as fast as any of the newer TT's minus the 997 by a smidgen. (Signature won't let me change it without deleting some of the lines so I leave it) Like any of these engines we can all make large HP claims show me these numbers with reliability, durability and driving comfort. Peak HP is only a small part of the equation for a street car.

FYI a 71 911E had 193 hp and weighed 2350 pounds n/a the 79 930 was at 300bhp and weighed 2800 pounds. Again adding a spring and improved turbo proves these too can be improved on. It is all hearsay since what happened, happened.

Like I said I went head to head with the beloved 924 GTS and my RS clone proved faster and most 930's were faster than both of us. So it's all talk. I am not saying the 924GTS was not a spectacular car. It just was what it was and very few could gain more HP out of these cars back then. It took a long time to figure out how to break the 350 reliable Hp mark now it is a piece of cake. All things in perspective.

I will be honest I had nothing but bad experiences with the 924 when I dealt with them years ago. I can assure you my euro 928 was not reliable either but it was more about nagging electrical gremlins that were annoying vs being left stranded as the 924 did back then along with the Audi 100Ls's which had similar issues to the 924. It sounds like the problems have been resolved, which is great for owners but the cars were what they were back in the day. Just for the record my 911 kept on throwing fuel injector belts, It was just part of Porsche ownership, each had one issue or another.


I agree there was an elitist attitude from mechanics back then but these cars had inherent problems the 911's did not back then, same with the D jetronic 914's It was what it was. I am glad to here the problems have been sorted, this is good for the future market of these cars and those enthusiastic enough to find parts and keep these cars alive will see their rewards one day. I really enjoyed my 944S2 I understand the differences in the cars but the concept is similar and that cannot be taken away from them . Porsche might be about only 911's to some but not to me. I see value in them all even the Cayenne and Panamera, each serves a different purpose.

 

i'll always have a special spot in my heart for 924's, from growing up with them and other porsche models in the household, to owning a few myself. my n/a and turbo were both bulletproof. The main problem was usually me! A blown headgasket in the former only cost NZ$500 (about US$350) to fix. Scarcity of parts in NZ for the latter made me move on to my currently '86 944 and yes, the turbo was a much faster car to drive!

A friend competed in Targa NZ in 2005 having bought an n/a 924 with 300,000km's he stripped it out, installed safety equipment, had a simple shakedown and did 5 days straight of closed public road racing. Sure it had some issues, as does any racecar but he had massive fun and it turned out when he rebuilt the engine afterwards he had raced the whole time with a blown HG! His budget for the whole event including buying the car was NZD$10,000.

Like most porsches they're only as their previous owners, but that aside I'd take a good RoW 924 with their inherent drawbacks vs other porsches of the same period with theirs.

Re: the internal power struggle, Porsche did a good job on the 924 n/a engine but the head Porsche developed for the 924 turbo could have been used on the n/a if they wanted to. The same again, the turbo could have been intercooled if porsche wanted to. Why didn't they? It already had a 930 wastegate. One can only speculate.

At introduction the 924 turbo was 170hp and the 911SC was 180hp. The n/a D prod 924 racecars (internally 933 and did use the turbo head) were approx 193hp while the RoW 924 n/a was 125hp from 1976 - 1985 and started at 1150kgs and got heavier as the model got older.

The 924 was always the entry level porsche and in a lot of ways it was made to stay that way.

 

My son and daugher-in-law were chasing (as fast as they possibly could) a craiglsist ad for an 89 928 5 speed a couple months ago. Spoke to the lady owner, raised the $ 5000 asking price and stuffed it in their pockets, and drove like mad through North Dakota. Partway there the lady called all upset, in gathering the paperwork she looked at the registration and apologized for making a mistake, as it was really an 87. A little disappointed, but not much, the kids drove on. They finally found the lady and the car about 10 at night up by the Canadian border.

As the big lights came on in the outbuilding (big farm operation) they saw a set of phone dials staring at them. It was an 87 924 5speed. Looked good, but they didn't even bother starting it, exhanged apologies and just trekked home to Minot.