So Good Porsche Were Forced To Sabotage It - 944 Turbo

For English natives....
It is NOT a Porsch , it is a PorschE.....
E spoken as in the majority of Porsche --> PorscheS, only without s...

Lucky enough to have had a 24 bought in the early 90's when no one wanted it for £900 given a good service and a tidy up and used daily, traded against a red 44 which I had stolen and never recovered. Great cars and the 44 was a tail sliding dream, neither car cost a great amount at that time and they were most useful for going to high end dealers and getting 'test drives' in some proper quick motors including a TVR Cerberus. I always hated the whole 911 brigade but these little cars were a treat to drive and own.

The Porsche begging for a Straight-6 pot motor...

My father used to be a salesman at Maltin Porsche in Henley-on-Thames in that era. He always used to say (in terms of driving dynamics) the 944 Turbo was by far the most advanced car in the range, it could literally run rings around a 911, the 944 was just a much better car thanks to the chassis, although without the same "image" as a 911 or 928.

Please, please, pronounce the word Porsche correctly Paw Shuh, always, not Poorsh. When you keep saying Poorsh, you sound woefully nescient. GET IT RIGHT!!

On 924 turbo Porsche made the same "cut", 911 (2.700 cc.) was not faster at all...

These were really limited. Mine did 332 PS (so guessing ~327 bhp?) on a stock engine and (rebuilt) stock turbo, only breathing, wastegate and ECU changes. If it's set up right it should pull fine until 6K, then shift and you stay in the powerband with almost no lag.

Use to have the pre facelift 944s I loved the round dials on the instrument cluster compared to this one

I thought they had done that with the 911 years ago 😊

I always lived the 928 S4 GTS

Pronounced PorschER not Porsch.

I know back in the 80s, at the club race meetings the car which dominated everything was the 924 GTS, a forerunner to the 944T, but at the time a hard core legend, it in standard trim they were around 210bhp, but again easily tweaked for more boost.

I don't dispute for a moment that they aren't lighter and easier to get power out of, but for a person that can drive a 911t, (older Gen turbos) they can make it dance. The 944 is like a Volkswagen scirocco body pan as that was the basis of the 924. They were a good car, but comparing it to a widow maker is kinda silly. Even from a buyers side, what are the resale values like? 😂

I had a 944 turbo and fitted a thing that made the Westgate hold pressure for longer

Makes the 911 sound like the Lawn Mower it always was

I dailyed a 944 turbo and 968, both to big mileages, the 968 always felt the easier car to drive quickly, but I’d love another turbo with a properly tuned motor

AGREED: 944 series great styling, seating, visibility, shifting yet the 4 cylinder is not charming. Were a fab condition 944 whatever avail, groovy, but a Boxster is often same price and mechanics prefer em too.

I bought an '89 model 944 Turbo back in 1990. At that time, Porsche had it in 2 different shades of white -- Alpine White vs Glacier White... I think mine was the latter, but after this many years, I don't remember... It had the S2 series engine in it which was supposed to put out 247 hp, IIRC... I managed to get it up to 164 one night... The same night I got a ticket for 154 in a 55 mph zone (I was slowing down for a curve and caught just a single blip on my radar detector... The cops were waiting for me in the next town I drove through (at the speed limit)... 30 minutes later, the original officer showed up who had supposedly clocked me and he was PISSED... It was my understanding at the time that you could change out the chip and the turbo boost would increase along with a bit of the RPM restriction and you could get 170 mph out of it... Great driving (and looking) car and even today it would look modern... The 2 "back seats" were a joke though... We used to call it a "2 + 2" car -- 2 people and 2 bags of groceries... They really should have just make it a 2-seater with a larger hatchback area like Mazda did with the RX-7 at that time... I would routinely get 25 mpg in it and I did not baby it trying to get great gas mileage... I lost it when a 3/4 ton pickup ran a red light and we met at our quarter panels... :(

Miles an aaah?
It’s miles per hour.

There is no aaah about it.

I remember as a pre-teen in the late 70s this car was touted as the best handling Porsche with the best drag coefficient for the era. Then, there was the Trans Am Turbo with the blacked trick tail lights. Both beautiful cars of the time.

Same situation with Fords XR3 and XR2, they felt they 'couldn't' have the XR2 outperform it's bigger brother!

944 are among my all time favourites.

It was a brute in Turbo form, the 968 was better but the 944 was great!

A kid I knew paid £4K for one back in 1992 and it was clean as whistle, solid, low mileage, well serviced, white with a B&W check interior, it drove like new, at the time I just bought a 1.1 Fiesta paying almost as much, these were great looking cars and nice to be in, the interior was really neat and tidy IMO. . .

To me it is a shame the 944 and 928 did receive the development that the 911 did, because they are at a fundamentall level better than a 911 can ever be with its inherently flawed balance.

The logic is that the brand limited this car's performance to reduce its competition with the 911 Turbo. However, could some fractional numbers really count, considering that the real difference was elsewhere: (1) the 944 had vastly better, safer, more predictable handling; (2) the 911 had vastly better image, prestige, overall ownership satisfaction. It seems that boiled down to which values you preferred, not to a fraction of a second in acceleration.

A similar situation with the Acura Vigor. It was a straight 5 "rated" at 176hp. Through some skunk working, the throttle body was limited in travel. Once you got it open to 100%, it was estimated at over 200hp and would outrun the flagship Legend. It was pretty quick for a mid-lux sedan. Kept up pace for pace with the Taurus SHO of the same era.

Porsche seems fixated on the promotion of their worst design (911) over every better platform. What a psychopathic mindset.

Why do Brits not understand a company is a singular entity, not a plural one?

93’ 968 owner here. LOVE IT. used to own an 83’ 944 and an 86 944 Turbo. The funnest was the turbo . But over all the 968 is the better car

Retired Porsche dealer here - had a "special" approved by my dads personal friend Dr Porsche ..
Decided to top it out 1 night on I-80 from Truckee to Auburn theres a good stretch about 20miles long with a 4% downgrade & its 5 lanes wide No guard rail 1000 foot drop.
Speedo goes to 170 it kept going & going it pegged back on the 0, 230 mph & kept going
I slowly back out of the throttle got home & in the morning my dad asks Did you take the 944 out last night?
Yes
Come here look at the tires....TOILET BRUSHES!
the Z - Rated Pirelle tires good for 220mph had MELTED THE SIDE WALLS & the steel belt wires were all sticking out like TOILET BRUSHES.
Pops asked me how fast i told him well it pegged on the 0 so thats 230 & i went maybe 10 15 mph more.
The Turbo compensated for the Altitude & the 4% downgrade allowed a gravity push.
Got lucky I'm actually amazed I'm alive.

I absolutely loved the 944 Turbo S. But it's not a car you want the turbo to kick in a sharp bend 😅 loads of fun and very quick !

Drive a MkIV or MkV R32 at the limit, then you will get it! You just give it more gas!

35 years later and it still looks awesome.

Porsche would be smart to bring back the 944. Updated of course, but simple. Basic with a lower price….

I had 1 for a weekend. Pulling away in 1st was like getting a tuned 2 stroke motorbike off the line. Nearly stacked it in 2nd on a roundabout on A1 when the turbo cut in. Would not want to drive 1 in the snow. Fast car back in the day though.

I had 2 there were maintenance nightmares

Interesting to see the white stuff on the ground over there;

I had a 70k miles 944 but didn't like it only 2 owners

You mentioned the square dash cars, this one is newer I assume, what year model is this specific example you are driving?

4 PSI? That is effectively deleting the turbo almost all together for psi is like a high-pressure day in the weather.

An extra what?

Need to compare the drive with my 951. Have modified the wastegate and the management system, achieved 400bhp with no lag.

What do you prefer, the 928 GTS or the 944 Turbo? Thanks

I had a an Alfa Guiletta 1.8 in the late 80's with upgraded torsion bar suspension and Custom tuned Bilstein shock absorbers and Yokohama A008 tyresvand the only car that cornered better was the 944 Turbo that dad was considering buying. Just a lovely, light car with that Germanic feel.

The 944's exterior styling was so far ahead of its time it still looks modern to this day.

I had one of these. A 1991 Turbo 250 with 300BHP on KWv3 coilovers. Brillaint car. I missed it for years

The car in question there will have the 'cycling' valve (boost solenoid) with a 'boost enhancer' which tricks the boost signal. They are quite a different animal.

Early 220s had the same dash, but had the earlier wheel offset, which led to them having very desirable 16" Fuchs wheels in the Porsche circles. It also means they can now have cheaper low arm/balljoint replacements :). Porsche changed it so as to make the chassis feel more modern to drive, by increasing the scrub radius.

The M030s are very firm ; Koni made them for Porsche. These cars are lovely on KWv3s, albeit they are pricey and I suppose originality asks a premium

As always, like your videos :).

I had a turbo se with 167,000 miles on it and still was perfect

My first car. I miss it. I gave it away to charity when I became a father.