RI951

After much deliberation, I think I'm going to sell my baby.

The particulars:

1986 944 Turbo. Black with tan interior. Always garaged. Non-smoker. Non-LSD. Interior in great shape. No split seats. No cracked dash (I use a sunshade). Perfect cargo cover. Sunroof with no leaks. No worn leather shift ****. Good dash lighting. Working odometer. Clock even works. Perfect phone dial wheels with no rash. Pulls strong. No stumbling. No vacuum leaks that I can hear. No oil leaks anywhere. Tight gearbox. Unused spare. Working tire inflator. Factory tool kit. Sunroof panel storage bag. The car is just like Ferry Porsche intended.

I've had it since September 2003. She had about 23,300 miles when I bought her. She's just turned over 28K a few weeks ago. Pretty much all original. Never been chipped or modified or dyno'd. I had the timing, balance belts, water pump, and front seals changed by the European car shop down in Watch Hill, RI, shortly after I bought the car. They know their stuff, and were Porsche-trained; 80's vintage Porsches are their forte. They also replaced the brake master cylinder. I had them tension the belts again after 1500 miles...

For the most part, the car is untouched, with a few exceptions:

2 days after I trailered the car home, I cracked the windshield while replacing the hood struts. I hadn't even driven the car yet! Anyway, I got the windshield replaced by Executive Auto Glass in eastern Mass, based on a recommendation from another respected Turbo owner. I had the OEM Sekurit glass installed. Most expensive hood struts in history...

I have also replaced the Blaupunkt Monterey tape deck, which sounded bad, with a new old stock Blaupunkt Madison CD player, that looks correct, with no flashing lights and whistles that today's radios have. Sounds good through the stock speakers. And just last month, after 3 years, I aquired and installed the little console switch plug that covers where the fader rheostat used to be (which I still have). That was a major victory...

I have upgraded the steering wheel to a 930S type wheel. I love it. I still have the old wheel.

And just two weeks ago, I replaced the original tires (Pirelli Cintarautos) with a correct-sized set of Yokohama AV-ES100's. Haven't driven the car since she came back from the tire shop. Her first new set of shoes in 20 years!

Parts that I have accumulated for the car for future installation include:
- a complete IceShark headlight upgrade kit, including e-code lenses and all cables.
- a complete IceShark battery cable upgrade kit. If you haven't seen this guy's work (Dan Wray), his craftsmanship was exceptional. He built the kits in limited numbers, and sometimes the waiting list was six months, as he built them in small batches. The price went up with every batch. And after Dan's passing, the kits were, and are, almost unobtainium. This is probably the best upgrade that can be purchased for this car.
- a set of Rennbay ball joints. The ones on the car are fine, but someday...
- a set of Pauerman braided fuel lines. The lines on the car are the ones replaced in the recall, but I still wanted the safety of braided lines. Alot of 944's have been lost due to fuel line fires.
- a Griffin all-aluminum radiator, purchased during the first Rennlist group buy. The radiator in the car is fine, but the opportunity to purchase a one-time, limited run, drop-in radiator was too good to pass up. Could sell it right now for 100 over what I paid for it, or mount it on the wall as artwork.
- A set of clear front turn signal lenses from a recent group buy.
- A complete set of exhaust studs and copper nuts from another recent group buy.

I tend to stockpile parts for the future. It's a habit of mine.

Other stuff to go with the car include:
- two factory tow hooks for the front bumper. I already installed KLA Industries rear tow hooks so that I could trailer the car home.
- a spare DME. Has Autothority chips in it, though, from what I understand.
- a spare KLR too.
- 2 spare cam housings and cams. I bought it used to play around to practice painting the cam cover from my car while my belts were being replaced. I painted the one on the car a black krinkle-coat with brushed raised lettering. Very classic for that time. I got some grief from people who said I was damaging a possible concours candidate, but I liked the look. And it adds 10 horsepower...
- a bunch of factory publications:
- the big sales brochure from 1986. It's like 30 pages or so.
- factory DME troubleshooting guide
- factory information bulletin on the 944 for 1986
- factory information bulletin on the 944 Turbo for 1986. Some of these "Technik" pubs I have got damaged when we had a pipe leak in the basement awhile back. I've picked most of these of eBay, when they occasionally show up.
- the factory pocket guide on torque specs for every fastener in the car, as well as stuff like caster, camber, toe-in, etc.
- and of course, a set of factory service manuals. I don't have the Turbo supplement yet, though.
- a factory poster, in excellent shape, still in shipping tube.
- the factory service manuals on one CD. You could print out the Turbo supplement from this.
_ a handful of the 4 ring binders that fit factory Porsche literature and manuals
-the Haynes manual for 944's
- a 944 jack pad that fits in the holes under the chassis at various jack points
-some extra Mahle oil filters and fuel filters
- a K&N air filter. I bought it, but after reading about them, I took it out after a week.
- and finally, a no-kidding P9201 belt tensioner tool, with calibration bar.

Some cons with the car:
- the A/C just recently stopped blowing cold air the other day. Haven't got a chance to track this one down yet. Worked great last summer. I would just recharge it, but was considering a conversion compressor.
-The paint is very good, but there is a few nicks in the nose, as expected. The black shows off swirl marks, of course. I have long wanted to spend a weekend doing nothing but polishing the car, but that kind of time is hard to come by, it seems.
- One of the seat back release ***** broke the other day.
- The passenger window does not roll up from the driver's side switch. It does roll down.

It breaks my heart to sell this car, as I have wanted one for 20 years. I was 16 when the 944 series was introduced, and have wanted one ever since. I bought this one literally from a little old lady. She was the wife of a coworker, who had bought her the car as a 40th birthday present, back in 1987. I waited 8 years for them to sell it after I found out that they had the car. But, with a family now, and precious little free time, I have chosen to limit my vices, and my chosen vice is my boat.

I want the car to go to an enthusiast, not some punk who's gonna load up the trunk with 2000 dollars worth of speakers, then complain about the cost of routine maintenance. There are very few unmolested cars like this one out there, and they deserve to go to the right people, somebody who remembers these cars when they were new, and now has the werewithal to go back in time. To be honest, if you're under 30, I probably won't want to sell it to you.

I will only sell the whole thing as a package. It took me a lot of time, and a few bucks, to acquire the goodies, and it's all stuff that any new 944 Turbo owner would want to acquire anyway.

Selling price for the entire package is $16,000, firm.

Car is located in southeast Connecticut, and can be seen by serious buyers. I'll email some pix to anyone interested when I take her out of the garage and wash her sometime in the next couple of days.

In closing, Rennlist has been a very good resource for me. I never posted much, partly because many people knew more than me, but also because my dad told me it was better to listen more often than not.

PM me if interested.

Regards, Pat

billthe3

Ok, with a car that sounds this good, I think you're required to post up pictures. It sounds like an awesome buy!

If you start selling some of the other items seperate from the car, I'm interested in the ice shark stuff and the griffin radiator.

Oh, where were you able to find the fader dial cover piece?

Andial951

Sounds like a sweet car. Pics are a must.

944Fest (aka Dan P)

A Package indeed!! Congrats on setting out one of the most complete and in depth disclosures on a used vehicle I've ever seen! It is true, all those accessories would take me years to acquire. What a great KIT! Nice color combo too.

TRWright

Dude-- what the HELL were you doing driving on 20 year old tires?!?!

Sounds like a great example, though. Not too many around with that type of mileage. . .

RKD in OKC

But...after the 4inch exhaust upgrade I'll need the rear hatch full of speakers to get my groove on.

Just kidding...Sounds like a nice one. Ya gotta do pics, especially with the doberman color scheme.

BKiller

Smokin deal if the car looks 1/2 as good as it sounds. 28K miles???

Ski

ugh...."this thread is worthless without pics". Seriously, I'm telling a friend about it, who I'm tired of telling about nice cars, but hopefully he'll get off the pot. I like black and tan myself.

RI951

Yeah, I knew I'd get comments about the tires. Truth is, the tires looked in pretty good shape, with NO cracking anywhere. (I know, I know, they were still 20 years old. I never really pushed the car with those old tires, and haven't exercised the car with the new tires yet, either. The car has had a pretty easy life...) My plan was to aquire a set of Fuchs and new rubber, and keep the phone dials and Pirellis for concours events. But, time precluded me from ever finding the Fuchs, much less getting the car ready for a concours event. And my wife was leaning on me to get the tires replaced. I finally did a few weeks ago...

I'll post some pictures later, but it's just a stock 951. I'm gonna wash her today...

One thing that I always found curious was the interior: On mine, the dash is all black, including the lower half. On most other "doberman" combos I've seen, the lower half was tan to match the door panels.

Bill, the fader dial cover is from a 1987 console panel. In later cars, the cover, which is different from the others in the row, was used to plug the hole. I bought a few plugs off eBay, hoping to get the right one. I finally had to buy a used console panel to get the correct plug. That hole just drove me bananas.

Thanks for the comments Dan. I always wanted to make it to the Fest, but my work schedule just never jived with the dates.

Thanks for the interest. Pat

RI951

Yeah Ski, black and tan was always my favorite. Years ago, I was talking to my coworker about cars I'd like to own someday when I mentioned the 951. That's when he told me his wife had one. When I asked the color combo, and he replied black and tan, my knees got weak. I committed to buying that car someday.

My coworker's garage was like one of those old barns your fantasize about. Besides the Porsche, there was a Datsun 280Z, not the ZX, under a cover. All original, 40K miles, with four flat tires. A little dusty, but in fantastic shape, and all there. I wanted that one bad, too. And then there was the mint Boston Whaler 13, garaged for most of it's life. A buddy picked that up for a steal. When my coworker and his wife finally moved, they had no room for all these treasures.

Alright, I'll get some pix up later today.

judd944

sounds great. Pics are needed for sure!

RI951

Just got done washing her. Will do the interior tomorrow, as I was losing the daylight...

She does clean up nice. Will put the cover back on. And as I was going through some stuff, I found even more goodies.

For all that have asked for pictures, here's a few. Pat

2bridges

NICE CAR!!!!

would really come alive with some polished fuchers
- I'm kinda biased though

RI951

Stop it Jeremy!! This is hard enough without you flashing them wheels again. That is exactly what I wanted to do...

That car is unbelieveable! Pat

2bridges

could not help it hahahaha
Man your car is a total cream puff. I would love to get a hold of that car.
All I can say is you really must love that boat!