aventari

I'm looking to buy a Turbo S to supplement my VW and I've been searching for the past 3 months. I came across this in the local autotrader..
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...81&cardist=121

I'm interested but I don't like the wheels, are they stock?


Since I do all of my own work on my cars, and the only Porsche I've ever worked on was my friends '80 924, how hard is a 951 to wrench on? I'm used to early h2o VWs and I love how mechanic-friendly they are. Whats the deal with 951's? I'd like to keep it fairly stock with only reliability upgrades and power upgrades when something breaks/wears out.

951Porschiste

Those wheels appear to have been chromed. Their original for a turbo S but they were not chromed originally.

As far as wrenching, you will find the engine bay quite crowded. Once you get the hang of it, they are fun cars to work on, but the learning curve might be a little steeper than other cars.

The car you are looking at seems to be missing the side door trim. Was it in an accident? repainted?

get a Carfax and a PPI before jumping in.

Evan70

No, stock wheels are the ones on my car.

They can be fairly reliable, but they do need a lot of maintenance, espcially given how old they are now. My advice, unless it's just a really, really great deal, don't buy one that's not in top shape and been kept up to date on all maintenance. Even then you should probably budget at least a couple grand a year for maintenance/repair costs.

aventari

Yeah I'm looking for a Turbo S in perfect condition, that's why I'm will to pay around $14,000 for it. It's just hard for me to seperate the wheat from the chaff. I see a couple that look really nice in the rennlist classifieds, I'm just saving up money at this point and will be ready to buy in a month or so I think.

Hopefully I don't find a perfect old Datsun 510, 240z, RX-7 or Scirocco or something that that will sidetrack my 951 purchase

testarossa_td

The 951(944 NA series a lot easier) are not especially hard to work on. Fun with balance shafts and all the easy ways to make oil leak are about your only annoyance.(timing belt the most common worry) I won't say bullet proof but darn near it. Treat it right and it will treat you the same way. Just remember these cars did not just come off the assembly line.
(you want hard to work on, go 928-bloody knuckle city)

Those wheels look polished dish style. Which means you can keep that shine with a little mothers. I had those on my 85 928S and loved them. NEVER buy the chromed. They require too much maintenance and on a 951 you are probably going to get some pretty good heat going braking

That is my two cents.

tconn

Also check the engine code to make sure it 's really a TS.
If I'm not mistaken the engine code should be M44/52.

Chris White

Those are chromed 928 'sewer lid' wheels....

Evan70

First off, I hate to tell you this, but a perfect (or close to perfect) Turbo S can easily go for $15-$20K. Not saying you can't find them in great condition for that $14K price, but just be prepared.

As for the engine code, yes it is M44/52. Check this site out for full info on the Turbo S and what it should have:
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/4786/
Also, keep in mind that while they did make a few Turbo S cars in other colors than the "Silver Rose" color, they were much more rare. For instance, there were only 110 Guard Red 88 Turbo S car, and that was by far the second most common color of the Turbo S 944s besides Silver Rose. Obviously they are out ther, but the wheels would start ringing warning bells for me that that may not be a real Turbo S.

Matt H

Chris is right on the wheels and you should be able to find any number of excellent condition TSs in the 14-16K dollar range. For more than that it had better be EXTREMELY low mileage with recent belt/WP jobs and the exterior should be flawless. It shouldnt need ANYTHING for more than 15K (and to be honest at 15K it better not need much).

As to the color, you dont see that many Silberossa cars any more. Get the VIN number call 1800 PORSCHE and talk to them, they can tell you almost anything.

That car appears to be missing not only the door trim but the bat wing, the paint doesnt look very good, it has a rebuilt motor (not something I would be looking for in a stock Turbo S as motors dont generally fail in these cars), and it "appears" to be overpriced. I say appears because there are no interior shots and the one exterior shot is not very becoming.

BTW, the forged wheels that are on it are not correct for the car but they were an incredibly expensive option. They are very lightweight and strong, make great track wheels!
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951Porschiste

The guys are right, these are not the original wheels. I concur with all the comments, this car is not top-notch exterior-wise. However, we don't know whta the inside looks loke

Jerad

According to an autocheck report this car has 199k miles and from the pic it shows. With that many miles this car is way overpriced. As others have said, the wheels are not original but they good forged lightweight wheels although they might not be the most asthetically pleasing.

HY M8NC

One of the gentlemen looking at my car just bought a Turbo S from Atlanta. All original with good records, 119k miles, in very good condition for $9,500 from a guy just looking to dump it. Silver Rose, with the plaid interior. Lucky bastard. I wonder if he used a mask when he robbed the guy...

shmark

aventari, that's a really nice looking Scirrocco you have, any details on it? (sorry, don't mean to sidetrack the thread). I had a friend in high school who had one of those with a crazy engine installed but the words "all motor" were invented for this car. Fugly bad, interior trash, body in sad shape, but boy could it run! He replaced the rear badge with one that said "Sh*trocket"

jim944s2

I've had a mk2 scirocco and 951 at the same time, I found them quite compatible! Some things are easier to work on, and some are harder. The 951 is not as zippy of a street car as your Mk1, but at higher speeds it's much more competent. Is that a drag strip in your photo?, don't expect the 951 to be a good drag car, lots of stuff will break, they're better for lapping or autocross.
Those wheels are also sometimes called pie-plates, and you see quite a few vws running them with spacers. They're one of the less popular P wheels. -I wonder what happened to the stock wheels?

aventari

Thanks, Rabbits and Sciroccos are great, fun cars Mine is an 81 with a 1.8 8v. I rebuilt the motor and fabbed up a turbo kit for it with a 50 trim T3 turbo and Volvo 240 Turbo CIS fuel injection. It's not set up as a drag car, but I used to drag race and street race a lot (I'm over that now--track days are my new drug of choice).
It's a really fun car when it's running but the turbo is finicky. Until recently I also had an 83 Rabbit GTI I would take to track days.



My main purpose for the 951 is a car I can daily drive to work and have fun on the street in, but also that I can drive 300 miles up to California Speedway or Buttonwillow, race the whole day and drive back.