The Hunt for the 944 Turbo Cup Cars
In 1987 specially optioned Porsche 944 Turbos were sent to the US to be used in SCCA showroom stock racing. After a few competitive years, these cars went into the used car market and were "lost", but RennList tracked them all down!
The SCCA Escort Endurance Championship Series
No name is more closely associated with endurance racing than Porsche; especially when it comes to winning endurance races. In 1982, the first year of production, a Porsche 944 won the 24 hour race at Nelson Ledges racetrack in Ohio. A 944 Turbo won the Longest Day at Nelson race again in 1984, with drivers Jim Busby, Rick Knoop and Freddy Baker 42 laps ahead of the next car, which was, incidentally, also a Porsche. In 1985 the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) recast their production car endurance racing series as a 6-race pro series, with Escort Radar Detectors taking sponsorship duties in 1986. A non-turbo 944 won the series that second year, and Porsche was back in earnest with eleven 944 Turbos for 1987; nine European Turbo Cup race cars and two 944S "Clubsport" cars.
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A Man and his 944
Which is where our saga begins. Escort sponsored the series, and Escort's vice president in charge of Product Development and Marketing at the time was Paul Allen. Escort president John O'Steen, who drove one of the cars in the series, had a proposal for VP Allen. As Paul tells it, “O’Steen came in one Monday after a race weekend, and said Porsche had brought in nine Turbo Cup cars for the Escort endurance series, and one still needed an owner. Ten minutes and one phone call later, I had bought the car.” Paul picked up his new street-legal race car at Holbert Racing in Pennsylvania and drove the car all the way back home to Cincinnati, Ohio, race suspension and all.
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The Search Begins
Now, many RennListers might know Paul Allen by his forum member name "Centerpunch" and in 2005 he began a thread to determine the whereabouts of all 11 cars. He knew where one of them was: still in his garage. From his first post: "I have one of the nine, and thought Rennlist would be the place to try to track down the owners of all nine 1987 Turbo Cup cars brought in for the SCCA "Escort" Showroom stock series." The car pictured on this page is his car. If you squint you might be able to make out the slight difference in paint color between the steel body and the fiberglass hood. Paul sold the car a few years back, but at the time it had never been raced, though it had turned a wheel in Brian Redman’s Targa 66 track club a few times.
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No Ordinary 944
Paul added Fabcar control arms and a Recaro passenger seat when he owned it, but as they stood the Turbo Cup Cars were no slouches in the special option department. The cars, as raced, made close to 300hp with a (US certified) larger turbo. Even with a full roll cage, this 944 was 400 lbs lighter than stock thanks to deletion of: power steering, fender liners, radio, speakers, headlight washers, air conditioning, power windows, rear wiper, engine shield, undercoating, sunroof, power seat, leather interior, rear trunk release, power mirrors, door storage pockets, cassette storage. Your leather hides are costing you precious seconds!
A full list of the mods is a part of the Search thread but here are a few choice details:
- Magnesium wheels, intake manifold and oil pan
- 928 S4 brakes
- Fiberglass hood with race locks
- Larger higher output turbo unit
- Larger sway bars, rear adjustable
- Special front struts
- Special rear shocks and springs
- Quick ratio steering
- ABS brakes (with off switch)
- Underbody drag reduction panels
>>Join the conversation about The Hunt for the 944 Turbo Cup Cars right here in the Renn List Forum!
Devil in the Details
Speaking of those magnesium wheels: a great thing about the RennList community is the community itself. A forum member wondered aloud how much weight those phone dial wheels really saved by being magnesium, instead of aluminum. You guessed it, another member just happened to have the relevant parts on hand for a comparison. The results? The four mags together, though wider than the stock aluminum units, save 9.24 lbs total. Read the details here.
>>Join the conversation about The Hunt for the 944 Turbo Cup Cars right here in the Renn List Forum!
Family Found
So how does our story end? It never really ends. A chapter did close though, 364 days after Paul opened it, when the eleventh SCCA racecar was located. That was back in 2006 and, racing cars being what they are, some of them have changed hands since then. Now, 13 years and 47 pages later, the thread is still going strong and has been referenced in nearly every article written about the cars. History may not be made at RennList, but RennList helps makes history accessible.
>>Join the conversation about The Hunt for the 944 Turbo Cup Cars right here in the Renn List Forum!
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