Description:

An original factory-built lightweight Porsche Rothmans 944 Turbo Cup car, one of approximately 197 globally and one of 38 raced in the Rothmans Turbo Cup series in Canada from 1988 through 1990. This particular 944 Turbo Cup was featured in the October 1990 Porsche Panorama magazine.

It is unique in that it is a survivor that has not been cosmetically restored or repainted, so it retains its originality. This car features its original livery, interior, and mechanical components while benefiting from a documented $60,000 mechanical refurbishment to its drivetrain, brakes, fuel systems, lines, electrical systems, and safety features for road use. The car retains its original factory German fire extinguisher and plumbing into the engine compartment along with its original battery kill switches, ABS switches, Matter safety cage decals throughout the car, and more. Included in the sale are a rare spare set of powder coated 16” magnesium Porsche Turbo Cup wheels ($10,000 value), two full Porsche exhaust systems (street exhaust to pass emissions testing, and race exhaust) and Bill Adam’s Porsche racing jacket from the Rothmans series (priceless).

• The car comes with a receipt file containing 30 years of service receipts.
• Original CASC race logbooks.
• Ownership history is fully documented since 1988; copies of Bills of Sale and buyer correspondence will be provided to prove chain of ownership.
• Interview transcript with Canadian Pragmatics former crew chief Terry Cleland who details the race history of car during Rothmans series including a commitment by Jacques Villeneuve to drive the car in the 1989 season, before Jacques received a Corvette GTP drive in IMSA -- thus, paving the way for Bill Adam to drive the car in 1989 and 1990.

We are a 25-year PCA family that has displayed this car at PCA Cars & Coffee events in Austin as well as DE events at The Circuit of the Americas. This 944 Turbo Cup has a clean Texas title, Texas (PCA) personalized license plates, inspection through 2025, and comes with complete documentation and CASC logbooks.

This car also qualifies for HSR and other historic racing series for factory-built race cars. 

More photos and a 3-ring binder of documentation is available for serious buyers to review.

Race History

This car is 1 of the 38 cars that raced in the Rothman’s Canadian series sold to and raced by Canadian Pragmatics.

• 1988 season: #4 driven by Cam Champion (sponsor: Leaseline International)
  • 14th in the overall championship (3 top 10 finishes)
    
• 1989 season: #3 driven by Bill Adam (sponsor: Toshiba ISG)
  • 3rd in the overall championship (5 podiums, including 1 race win at Mont Tremblant)
    
• 1990 season: #3 driven by Bill Adam (sponsor: Toshiba ISG)
  • 3rd in overall championship (5 podiums, including 1 race win at Mosport)
    

A Quick Overview of the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup

Developed by Porsche’s Weissach racing department, these special 944 Turbo Cup cars were lightweight, sunroof-delete coupes with reinforced tubs, a front strut brace, full Matter light-alloy roll cage, and a long list of factory performance advantages including: stronger rear torsion arms, racing struts, shocks, and springs; plus larger anti-roll bars with the rear unit adjustable; harder suspension mounts, quicker-ratio steering, a racing clutch, strengthened transmission gears in the rear-mounted transaxle, strengthened axles and a higher-percentage, stronger limited-slip differential, a transmission oil cooler, 928 S4 brakes with 12-inch rotors and driver-controlled ABS, a brake-cooling kit and racing pads, a single engine radiator, lightweight battery, a Recaro racing seat with Sabelt harness, interior and exterior kill switches, and a fiberglass hood.

The 1988 versions featured a larger KKK K26-8 turbocharger and revised engine mapping, which allowed maintaining maximum boost until 5,800 rpm. Further weight savings was achieved with a magnesium intake manifold and oil pan. 

The interior was stripped down for weight savings and deleted items include:  outside power mirrors (replaced with lightweight mirrors), air-conditioning, power seats, leather upholstery, sun visors, power windows and steering, rear wiper, headlight washers, fender liners, engine shield, undercoat, storage pockets, and the rear trunk release. The standard 16-inch aluminum wheels were replaced with magnesium “telephone-dial” rims, eight inches wide in front and nine inches in the rear. The net weight savings was variously estimated as between 400–600 pounds and helped the Turbo Cup sprint to 100 kph (62 mph) in 5.3 seconds and deliver a top speed of nearly 170 mph.

 

Attached Images

944 Turbo Cup repairs (Toshiba) - Sheet1.pdf (57.7 KB, 13 views)