For some, “front-engined Porsche” is one of those terms that borders on oxymoronic, like “generous billionaire,” “vegan burger” or “beautiful SUV.” You can picture it in your mind’s eye, but somehow there is something very wrong about the whole notion. At least, as far as the Porsche is concerned, that was the case in the early ‘70s. But by the time the 944 rolled into view, things had evolved.
But there were (and indeed still are) a lot of folks for whom the 944 is not a Porsche. But what else could it be? “Oh, it’s an Audi made in Stuttgart” doesn’t really work in this instance. You could say that about the 924 and make a compelling case, but the 944 addressed, at least in part, a lot of the comments that were levelled at its somewhat lackluster predecessor.
First, in terms of looks, the 944 was a far more muscly and substantial design than the somewhat daintier 924, even though it was very similar. From this angle, for instance, there’s not much one can point to in telling the two cars apart. Hey, by the time the 944 was to be launched, i.e. late 1981, the 924 was only six years old. That’s barely run-in, in Porsche years.
The real difference was the profile, with those prominent hips and flares wheelarches. A lot of ‘80s cars go those, but few integrated these trendy elements so well.
Porsche’s in-house designers had worked smart rather than hard. Whereas widening the 911, to take a completely random example, turned it into a caricature of a sports car, the steroid injections gave the 944 gravitas, sensuousness and street cred.
The first cars’ front end still had a visible bumper, which kind of ruined the effect of the whole re-skin. Fortunately, this was soon rectified for the Turbo variant, whose smooth nose was its main external distinctive feature. Fortunately, this feature was extended to the S2 when that was launched in 1989, to end the model on a high note.
The main gripe many Porsche purists had about the 924 was its Audi-sourced engine. Not to worry, the solution was found: by using one cylinder bank hewn from the 928’s 4.7 litre V8 (plus a few modifications and a bit more displacement to 2.5 litres), the 944 gained, at least in the eyes of many, the right to wear the Porsche badge.
The base model 944 was more of a GT than a sports car. With 150hp to work with and an optional 3-speed auto, its ambitions were clear. But Porsche were not going to leave it at that. The 944 Turbo, with its 220hp (initially), also had enough power to keep up appearances. In 1987, a 190hp 944S appeared featuring a revamped engine, now with the same four valve per cylinder DOHC head the Porsche had adopted for the 928 S4, conveniently photographed here with our featured car.
The S2 version that debuted in 1989 took things up another notch: it was essentially a blend of the Turbo’s styling with a 2990cc version of the DOHC 4-cyl., now good for 211hp. The 2.5 litre Turbo had to get a boost to keep being relevant, so it went to 250hp. The only transmission available for either the S2 or the Turbo was the (Audi-sourced) 5-speed manual.
That was pretty much as much as could be done with the 944, save for a cabriolet version, which did join the range in 1989 but failed to garner much interest. There is the curious case of the 944 Cargo, though: seven of these aftermarket conversions were made by DP Motorsport in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Well, if Jaguars could be made into shooting brakes by a third party, why not the 944?
Not that the good folks at Zuffenhausen were quite done with their 4-cyl. “entry-level car” yet, but they figured that a new model name would be needed, given how extensive the planned facelift was going to be. So the 3-litre 968 came to be, picking up from where the 944 S2 left off, in 1992. This final avatar of the 924 lasted until 1995. Porsche managed to squeeze 20 years’ worth of car from the transaxle platform that VW turned down. Wizardry with leftovers, truly.
Porsche re-invented their front-engined models as saloons and SUVs, a shrewd and magnanimous move that appeased the hard-core purists, while building on the 924/928 experience and fully branching out into the lucrative luxury market in one fell swoop. Designed by Porsche, produced by Porsche, engine by Porsche and sold – to the highly respectable tune of over 160k units in 11 years – by Porsche, logic dictates that the 944 is very much a Porsche. Some will never see it that way, but VW content was always part of any Porsche, and vice-versa. That’s just genetics.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo – VW’s Loss Is Porsche’s Gain, by Tom Klockau
Curbside Classic: 1985.5 Porsche 944 – The Unconventional Daily Driver, by Brendan Saur
Junkyard Outtake: Porsche 944 – Jake Ryan Has Moved On, by Geraldo Solis
Vintage R&T Review: Porsche 944 – “Worthy of the Marque”, by PN
Porsche 944 Wearing Christmas Lights – The Rolling CC Christmas Car(d), by PN
The 944 has always been a remarkable improvement on the 924 styling-wise, managing to neatly integrate the wild bodywork of the 924 Carrera GT into a sublime, smoothly flowing design that makes one wonder how it was not always so, this thing was simply made to wear and display the fenders the way they are here.
Your first shot is perhaps the perfect angle of the car with the only criticism my coming of real automotive age in the ’80s eyes can throw at it is that the rear track could do with another half inch or so of width, although the “Design90” wheels seen here do much to even make me ignore that. Rolling around to the front, I still can’t find much if anything to fault there, a huge improvement that didn’t seem needed until it was first shown to the public on the 951, then generating an “Ah, of course!” reaction along with the rear undertray.
That metallic gray is perhaps the perfect color for this car as well, especially as presented here. Red is fine but more appropriate for the earlier models, perhaps a maroon interior would ice the cake for me even more, but no matter, I’ll happily take this exactly as presented.
Keep the ’80s (and ’90s) goodness going, and kudos to the perhaps owner of Seven and i Holdings for keeping their car so pristine.
Of course it’s a Porsche! I hold no grudge against front engine liquid cooled Porsches, I’d be pleased and proud to drive a 944.
Many years ago I took my son and a nephew to Mosport for a vintage racing weekend. During a break on Sunday there’s a slow lap around the track for spectator’s sports cars. Not having a sports car I gave the boys a cardboard sign that said “Ride Please” and send them walking down the lineup of staged cars. They did not think this would work, but very quickly a couple in a 944 took them in and they got their ride around the Mosport track.
I do have a bit more of a philosophical challenge with Porsche SUVs, but if other people buy them why not?
Me too… and I was thinking about that as I was reading this. Though I was pretty young when the 924/944s were introduced, I do recall some purists dismissing them as “not real Porsches.” I thought that was ridiculous. But then decades later, I thought the same thing about Porsche SUVs. I guess I’ve become the grumpy old guy I used to roll my eyes at.
The 944 is a rare example of a car which went from dull (924) to pretty much perfect (944) in one refresh. Though at the time, the idea of a 2.5 four seemed pretty agricultural, coming as it did in a time of Iron Dukes; little did we know that before the end of the model run we’d have a 3.0. I’ve driven both a 924 and 928 and got a very brief but memorably brisk ride in a 944 Turbo.
Fortunately, that large 2.5L (and eventual 3.0L) four gained considerable refinement by the use of balance shafts, which Porsche had to license from Mitsubishi, who in turn had acquired the technology from Lanchester and then revised their application enough to re-patent it and license their patent to other mfrs.
I haven’t driven any Porsches with their balance-shafted large four, but I can vouch the 2.6L Astron engine in my Dodge Ram 50 (a rebadged Mitsubishi) is impressively smooth, almost turbine-like.
Mitsubishi did not acquire the technology from Lanchester. The Lanchester balance shaft patents were much older (the U.S. patent was filed in 1912 and issued in 1915) and had long since expired by the time Mitsubishi got into it. Mitsubishi advanced the state of the art on four-cylinder balance shafts considerably, by arranging the shafts so they would counter the secondary moments as well as the secondary forces. The USPTO eventually threw out a bunch of their patent claims, but Mitsubishi still deserves a lot of the credit for making big fours tolerable.
944 Turbo is the only Porsche I have really driven. I had a Boss with a 70’s 911 (updated and restomodded to look like a 1991) I drove around the parking lot and down the street a couple times, but never drove over 30 mph. But my wife has an uncle with a restored 944 Turbo and he did give me a chance to drive it and take it on the turnpike for a bit and it was a great car, honestly.
When I was reading sbout and then looking at the picture of the 944 Avant, or Cargo, I fot a moment that I was looking at a cool Audi I didn’t know of.. I can’t unsee a rear drive 4 cyl sport car version of the aero 5000, though I know better.
Like many statements at petrol regulars’ tables, the phrase ‘Oh, it’s an Audi made in Stuttgart’ is not true. The 924 was produced in Neckarsulm, in the former NSU works.
Before the 944, there was also the 924 S. This already had a “real” Porsche engine, a halved 8-cylinder engine from the 928.
The 924 was initially developed for VW/Audi, which is why the 924 had an Audi engine. When Porsche bought back the development contract from VW to produce the vehicle under its own name, it signed a supply contract with Audi for 100,000 engines. They thought that would be enough for the planned life of this model – in other words, forever.
However, the 924 sold “like hotcakes”, so a replacement engine was needed long before the actually planned date (for the successor) in order to be able to continue building the 924.
As they had the 8-cylinder engine of the 928, they came up with the idea of halving it in order to have a 4-cylinder engine for the 924. In principle a clever idea, but then the “German engineering” got out of hand. Several months later, they had a finished engine that only had the cylinder spacing in common with the 8-cylinder. The differences were so great that the 4-cylinder could not be produced on the same production line as the 8-cylinder.
Around this time, my father happened to be having lunch with the head of engine development in the canteen.
My father: “A nice engine.”
“Yes, isn’t it.”
My father: “Yes, a pity it doesn’t fit in the car.”
“What?”
My father: “Well, it’ll fit. But we either have to leave out the exhaust or the injection system. There’s not enough space for both.”
The entire front end had to be modified for the 924 S, and all crash tests had to be redone in order to obtain approval.
That’s why the S only had a short life and was quickly replaced by the 944.
As the 944 adopted the look of the (924) GTS, it was possible to demand a substantial price premium. Which was necessary, because the 944 was a completely new car from the A-pillar to the front.
I’ve driven them all. From the simple 924 to the 944 turbo. The latter clearly falls into the “best car of all time” category. Anyone who has the opportunity to acquire a well-preserved example should do so. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Fred, there’s some significant issues with your story. You wrote: Before the 944, there was also the 924 S. This already had a “real” Porsche engine, a halved 8-cylinder engine from the 928…That’s why the S only had a short life and was quickly replaced by the 944. This is not correct. The 944 was developed well before the 924S; the 944 went into production in 1982; the 924S not until 1984.
The 924S was created because VW stopped building the 2.0L blocks in 1984, which forced Porsche to use the 944’s 2.5L engine in the 924, along with upgrading the brakes and suspension. They wanted to keep a lower-priced car in the lineup. The 924 was built until 1989, when exchange rates made it essentially redundant.
As to the rest of your from your father, I wasn’t there, but the whole time frame makes it seem questionable. It’s a story about fitting the 2.5 into the 924, but that already happened two years earlier with the 944. So there’s a very major discrepancy there.
Paul, you’re right about the timeline.
My father had this conversation with this engine man, obviously during the development phase of the 944 – he was involved in the conversion of the front end.
Your explanation for the existence of the S sounds more conclusive.
The 944 was one of those great designs that could be described as almost perfect. The styling of the turbo model was the icing on the cake. I used to check out used 944s at the local consignment car lot, but they just never fit me comfortably. The steering wheel hit the top of my legs. The factory improved that problem over the years by raising the steering column and changing the steering wheel design, but by then my interest had moved. The only Porsche I’ve ever driven is my Son’s Boxster and I found it to be quite comfortable. Now that Boxters are quite affordable as used cars I suppose that there isn’t much point in looking for a 944, though I much prefer the appearance of the later 944s.
It was sold as a Porsche, thats good enough for me the DNA is from VW group who own Porsche, parts bin games go on within every car building company, and often between various companies.