bigred1001

For not being an extremely large state, Michigan seems to have a good population of them. When I first bought one in 1996, Two friends also had one, an '86 and an '89. We would see another 2 or 3 driving around town(Lansing and East Lansing). I sold mine to a guy north of here. Since I bought another last year, there is a guy a mile or so from me that has one and I will see them on I-96 every once and awhile on the way to work.

Guns951

In houston I see one every now and again...I almost break my neck to get a look as usually a red one goes flying by like its coming striaght from the pit of hell itself.

Van

I'd say there're more operational out there... These cars don't rust out, so right away they have an edge over most cars of that vintage. They're also robust enough that they can easily go 100k miles -- again, unlike many other kinds of cars from that time period.

So, the major detractor would be accidents that total the car. And I'd have to think that's no more than 20%. Perhaps another 5% had severe enough mechanical problems to warrent scrapping -- but that would still leave 75% of the cars about.

FWIW, you may not see many driving around on the street, but I see LOTS at the track.

Josh B

Hmm - very interesting topic. There are 67 for sale in the country right now on Autotrader. There are 24 on cars.com. 11 on ebay. 13 on PCA.org. 23 on rennlist classifieds. 12 or 13 on Pelican within the last year. 36 on lycos classifieds....

I am sure that there is some overlap but that is a total of 186 up for sale. If that represents 5% of the total that would put us at 3720 total. 4% 4650. 3% 6200. 2% 9300.

Van

Cool statistics.

I remember that Jeff LaCombe had a 951 S registry at one time... I wonder how many of those cars he managed to capture -- and how many are still around.

Ahh, here's the link: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/P...6/951SReg.html

I don't have the time to count the entries right now... but that might give us an idea of a ratio of deceased vs living cars.

KLR

They are very hard cars to kill. I would imagine that the only real sources of mortality are accidents, fire (fuel line or electrical -- neither are uncommon), and spun rod bearings. Almost anything else (e.g., timing belt, tranny, bum turbo, etc.) can be repaired fairly economically by a DIYer or professional mechanic with the intent of flipping it. Presumably this prevents cars from being parted in many cases where the current owner is ready to give up. This is less true for an N/A, where the cost of a running car in rough condition is probably just low enough that a snapped timing belt is typically the end of the line for a car in mediocre condition.

According to Wikipedia, the survival rate for DeLoreans is about 2/3 (6000 are believed to exist vs. ~9200 produced -- but there's no source on their estimate). This is lower than I would have guessed given that this car was something of an instant collectible. My guess would have been that at least 2/3 of 951s (10,000) are still around, but if that DeLorean figure is right, then I suppose it must be less. Perhaps 50%?

Jake951

Based on what I see in greater Boston, I would say the large majority of 951's produced are no longer on the road for one reason or another. Maybe they have become track-only cars or maybe they've gone to the crusher. I don't know which.

Back in the 1980's when they were relatively new, I would see a few 951's on the roads every week and many 944 NA's. Now I see only a few every year. I see more Ferrari's than 951's. They are so rare now that many non-enthusiasts don't even know what they are.

tjbreen

Worst thing about people not knowing what they are is the "nice car - is that a Mazda" comments.

That is usually followed up by some comment indicating they think it is a new car, which takes some of the sting off the Mazda thing.

bloodraven

I usually hear "Nice RX7 man!!!" so the mazda comment goes for me too...

Around here, I see a lot of N/A's, most in bad condition. Everytime I think I see a 951 it turns out to be an S2...not very common around here either...

BKiller

I came to the reality of how many 951s there were recently when I was shopping for wheels. I like the Cup wheels but kept telling myself, I don't want those, everyone runs those... Oh wait, I haven't seen aother 951 since I bought mine. I guess it doesn't matter what wheels I run...

LFA951

I got that comment too from some idiot who saw my car parked from a distance of about 30 yards

M758

My Turbo S is on that list.

Truthfully the lack of the 951's even at Porsche club stuff (non racing of course where we will have 10 944 na's to a race) is nice thing. Why have a car everyone else has.

BTW... I believe there are a total of 1635 1988 944 Turbo S cars ever built. 718 sent to the US in 1988. Mine is 1 of the 110 Guards Red cars. Not surprizingly silver rose is the most common 88 Turbo S color in the US with 339 cars in that color.
Reportly there is 1, just 1, ocean blue car and whopping 2 Almond cars.


Numbers like this are one reason I just don't want to ever sell this car. Hey what chance do I have of every rolling down the street only to see another red 88 Turbo S?

SIR_STEVENS

I know of a few in the West palm area, i have seen an 86 turbo(white) , and a red turbo(not sure what year) in Wellington.

Van

In the Albany, NY, area I have a friend with a red '88 turbo S. Including my car, I know of 3 silver roses in the area, and I know of 3 other silver roses in Maine, CT and Ontario. I know of a slate gray '88 turbo S in Saratoga.

I've had two '88 turbo S parts cars - one silver (from Maryland) and one silver rose (from Florida).

I also know of probably half a dozen '89 turbos in the area, too.

M758

All that means is fewer Turbo S cars in Arizona.