Rusty But Trusty

I’m not sure whether this car actually qualifies, given the name of this site and the fact these cars are galvanized, but: inspired by the same article in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car that inspired me to feature an RX-7, I wanted to feature a similar car from that article, the Porsche 944. Well, it turns out most of the 944s in our price range are automatic, scary-looking, or have funny stories behind them, so I took a look at some available 924s. Turns out you can get a whole lot of 924 for short money, similar to the Alfetta/GTV6 comparison, and probably others. And with the 924, you still get the same clean design and rear-mounted transaxle for great balance. What’s more is, the ’86 to ’88 924S models had various versions of the 2.5-liter 944 engine.

The two cars featured today are both 1987 924Ss. According to wikipedia, these were only available in black this year, but further on down we have one that seems to disprove that rule. In 1987, their 2.5 got an extra 10hp to bring them up to 160hp, roughly matching the 944 for power in a lighter, narrower car. So either of these should scoot along much better than the earlier 924s, and at not much of a price premium. They’re also not too far down on power compared to a 924 turbo, but with less complexity and no turbo lag.

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