porschehead

I found a 944Turbo (951) last July. It had been sitting under a tarp in a guys back yard 10 years. After much research I found it was an Escort Endurance car and I know about the 944 Turbo cup cars, both built for racing.

On a few occasions I've heard people refer to a 944 turbo " Club Sport"
Is that a special order street version of an Escort/ or Turbo Cup Car???

Could someone clear up the confussion for me? Thanks

Porscheheads Escort Endurace car/Porsche Motorsport car with Al Holbert and Bill Adam at the wheel @ Mosport 24 hour race in 1986.

APKhaos

Been down this trail recently, while buying a 951.

Turbo Cup cars are just that - factory racers, with identifiable VIN numbers. Most [maybe all] NA deliveries were in Canada, for the Canadian Rothmans series.

SCCA had a class that was called "Showroom Stock" this SS class was a "run what you brung" class and in the mid to late 80s, Porsche had started to dominate this class. In 1980 the 924 won the championship and then in 1985, SCCA in combo with Escort (the radar people) had a separate series. To compete with this series IMSA started the Firehawk series. SCCA let Corvettes in with NA 944s and the Corvettes kicked butt, but in IMSA, 944s went on to dominate.

Then, in 1986, the rules were changed to cover the 944Turbo.
There is no evidence or history that Porsche made a specific race car for either series. Racers ordered a stripped version of the 951 with special race type options [Delete AC, undercoat, sunroof, electric windows, cruise, etc]. The cars were then prepared by specific shops to race a specific series. The cars were prepared by various racers, including names like Al Holbert and Bob Akins.

So, what we have here are cars that were ordered as option delete models that were then prepared for SCCA racing in Escort or Firehawk series. They have been dedicated track cars since day one, so every mile is a track mile. According to Jim Newman, who has really helped with a lot of this info, they are not considered a collectable factory racer like the Rothmans cars. Values should be more in line with comparable cars of the period, based on condition etc.

As for the 944 Turbo Club Sport - there may have been a CS model, but I dont have anything certain on that. There certainly are 968 CS models which were delivered in Europe & ROW only, and are potentially great track cars.

Props to Jim Newman for the detailed info on the Escort/Firehawk series '86 951 cars.

porschehead

Thanks for the info. Tony.

According to documents I have gotten from Tom Seabolt 1986 Team Manager for Porsche Motorsport North America,Porsche AG built run of 6
Escort endurance cars specificly for the Canadian Escort series in 1986.

My Car was Porsche AG's Development / Test car for run of 6, brought in later in the season at Holberts request - Holbert was then not only a Factory driver but also Director of Porsche Motorsport North america.,( So it is #7, but since its the test Development car it is really the first produced) It was owned and campained by P.M.N.A,Your rite the others were owned by privateers.

I have several intersting documents If you or Jim has an interst in seeing them let me know.

Geo

Just a little correction here....

First of all, Showroom Stock is alive and well and is still a national SCCA class. SSA and SSGT (where the 944T ran) have gone by the wayside, but it's still around.

Second, Showroom Stock is anything but "run whatcha brung." The cars must be literally showroom stock with a few exceptions (not counting the idiotic "trunk kits" they allowed in response to the Neon ACR). The exceptions are safety equipment and little else. One guy with a early 90s 300ZX got tossed from impound at The Runoffs for grinding down the alignment nubs on the headlights so his tape would sit better. Another guy got tossed for having a factory remanufactured ECU because it wasn't the correct ECU from the factory. It can get intense.

To go off on an interesting tangent, the other deviation of winning SS cars is the engines are balanced and blueprinted w/o machine work. How do you do that you ask? Parts bin engineering. Totally stock, off-the-shelf parts are measured and weighed in large quantities and balanced, matching parts are selected for use. Petty wild. They are legal because they are build with unmolested stock parts. Those parts are just very carefully selected.

porschehead

Though my car has "SS" on the side its far from stock, Factory balanced/ blueprinted, I'm told it may have had 3 chips 250, 275 & 300H.P. depending on track conditions and length of race???
That may be rumor or just non official as I understand that cheeting
on boost may have gone on, but I hear cheeting is only illegal if you get caught.

also came equiped with 8"& 9" X16" Fuchs, huge adj. sway bars, Koni adj. struts with coil overs and adj. spring plates, Fiberglass hood, manual windows and mirrors, no A/C.... etc.

APKhaos

The 951 Cup cars came with three sets of chips from the factory, to do just what you say - set the car's HP/Torque parameters to best suit a given track. Can't see any reason why these chip sets [DME/KLR pairs] would not work in a stock 951 of the same vintage, although not legal for PCA & other stock classes.

George,
Yep, my bad on the 'run what you brung' statement. Copied it from an old post, and its clearly wrong. Getting out the flagellating whip right now!

Brian Morris

I was under the impression that the 86 cars were basically stock engine 86s - that is they don't have the bigger K26/8 turbos that the later Turbo Cup cars and S street cars have. So they were 220 hp.

I'm basing this on the asarus.com site and an 86 car that was recently for sale. It was in the low 20K's and I thought it was a great deal for a Turbo Cup car until I read closer to see that it was closer to the standard street car than the later cars were.

I could be wrong so I'd be curious if anyone knows for sure.

--Brian Morris
89 951

dime1622

there is no 944 club sport. read my reply to your post in the 944T forum

APKhaos

Brian,
You are right. They were run-of-production 86 model year 951s with lots of deletions. Given that they were race prepped for the series, its reasonable to assume that there was plenty of work done after delivery. But, as George points out, the SCCA rules were very strict about stock components. Anyone's guess what has been done to these cars since they raced. I know there was one for sale on Long Island back in January. I was very interested in that car, which is why I got into the weeds with this little bit of Porsche history.