1986 and 1989 Porsche 944’s: Balanced Budget
That’s right- two Porsche 944’s, and for $15k!
Sometimes a car (or cars in this case) is cool for two reasons. It’s different, and it’s cheap. The rest you can make work/fudge. And this is certainly the case here. As I think may I have just found one of the best bargains for those pining to plant their butts in one of Stuttgart’s finest. It’s a pair (yes a pair) of Porsche 944’s for $15k. Yes, two, for 15k. A good runner (red) and another donor vehicle (blue, which also runs). And one has Fuchs (whether they’re real/genuine is up for debate).
An old car coming with a donor car is obviously quite common place. But when the cars in question are a duo of Porsche 944’s, one stands up and takes notice. One particularly stands up and takes notice when the donor is low kilometre, running vehicle- that probably still has a few good years left in it.
Sure, there may be some questions to be asked regarding the ability to register the Blue 944, as it is LHD/import. And yes it’s an auto. But worst case, you could fiddle with the running gear, track it (hello, LS conversion), and keep the red car as your weekend toy.
The 944 originally stemmed from the bastard child that was the Porsche 924. The 924 was co-developed by VW and Porsche, and was always living in the shadow of the 911– mainly due to its Audi sourced 4 cylinder. Rather than scrap the failing 924, Porsche decided to take the car and continue to refine it- much like it had developed the 911. Slowly revising it each iteration, rather than starting from scratch.
The resulting 944 was unveiled in 1982 and featured a Porsche developed 2.5l inline 4 cylinder, mounted at a 45 degree angle and featuring unique counter rotating balanced dual camshafts (which were originally developed by Mitsubishi and licensed to Porsche). The car had excellent weight distribution (50.7% front/49.3% rear) which was mainly due to the rear mounted transaxle. It outperformed its predecessor in almost every manner- handling, speed, braking, comfort and looks.
The bottom line is that these are cool cars. Whilst a whiff of VW may still lurk, Porsche had basically redesigned the whole car by this stage. They are severely under appreciated for what they are, and prices reflect that. There a handful or 944’s for sale for less than $15k most days of the week. The same cannot be said for even the worst 911.
Whatever you would choose to do- build one good car, restore both, track one and drive the other- its going to be fun. Maybe a tiny expensive (wheres that Audi motor now). But still fun.
They are for sale on Carsales for $15k here and will most likely sell quick!
