924Board.org

[Noahs944]

I have owned 2 Porsches.
The one in my Garage (aka "Wilson" the semi-race daily driver- a stripped and somewhat modded '88 944). The other is a brand new 1978 924 basic model, 4 speed.

Tell it to me straight, am I going to like this car?

"Gramps" is 95% original. My plan is to keep him original. And drive the living-you-know-what outta him. Daily driving, Auto cross on the weekends, long trips, winter driving lessons, you name it.

But am I going to like him?

I need to know because I'm about to sell my dear "Wilson" who is crisp & firm... shifting, steering, throttle response, brakes. He is a superb beast. BUT there are problems with his body from a collision (so the hatch doesn't sit square & when I was removing excess weight I trimmed off some gas filler material & now the fill cap area will never look stock-and that bugs me.

The 924 has always appealed to me because there's too much fancy stuff going on with the 944 late model. namely the sunroof, balance shafts, power steering, electrical seats, electrical hatch, electrical doors and mirrors. I don't need & I don't want that stuff.


Please let me know if I can get the following with a *stock* 1977 924 with 4 speed:

-firm brakes
-excellent clutch pedal

I already know theres a huge compromise in the heater. That isn't something that sits well with me. But how are the brakes & the clutch compared to a late model 944 n/a?

Thanks for your honesty. I haven't driven the car more that 20 -40 minutes and then the clutch or something self destructed. It wasn't a fair comparison, because the car wasn't in proper condition for road travel.

Cheers,

Noah

[Cedric]

I think just for fun an early lightweight 924 na is probably the best choice. A friend of mine have a track/street 924 76 that is just hilarious in autocross. So nimble , responsive and adjustable. Brakes can take loads of track beating, even endurance racing with the right pads on it. But i never got brake feel to be that good in my na, it was always a bit spongy, never as sharp as in my 931. Even with rebuilt master, calipers etc. Clutch will be very different since its not an hydraulic set up, more stroke and more force, and maybe a bit more feedback in the pedal.

What you should do, is swap to a 5 speed gearbox, the cheapest performance gain you can buy. Then you can change all the bushings in the linkage at the same time, which will make wonders for the shifting feel.

How will you do with seats and steering, to get that really nice driving position lower firmer seats and moving the steering wheel rearwards is key components.


What suspension setup will you use?
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1980 924 Turbo
www.instagram.com/garagecedric/

[fiat22turbo]

the drum brake equipped cars are known for spongy brakes because the drums do not automatically adjust. Regular adjustment helps, but a 5-lug, 4-wheel disc conversion isn't terribly difficult to do using 944 parts. Check the How-To section for more info on brake upgrades.

Clutch (at least mine) is pretty light and very direct feeling. Luckily you don't need to mess with except between shifts. Again, regular adjustments on the cable helps. The plastic cable ends fail. The cable themselves is still available new (they do wear out as well) but they don't come with the cable ends :/ There's a How-To to replace the plastic cable ends with metal versions.

With wider tires and a smaller aftermarket wheel, the steering effort tends to be a bit high at slow speeds. Also the ratio is a little slow for my taste, so try to keep the wheel diameter similar to stock and practice your shuffle steering

The 924 came to the US with the rear end set a bit high to help meet bumper height requirements. Dropping it via the adjustment cam or re-indexing the torsion bars (944 torsion bars are cheap upgrades, so are CIP1.com Super Beetle off-road torsion bars).

The 4-speed on your car was an early version of the 5-speed on your 88 944. So you should be used to the way it works, including the typical shift linkage issues. A 5-speed version was available on later 924's which can be hard to find, the shift linkage needs to be changed at the same time. The 944 version of the 5-speed used a larger input spline so you could use one of those if you swapped the torque tube and clutch disc to match the spline change.

The US 924 can feel a bit anemic since it was mostly available with 95-110hp instead of the 125hp offered on the earliest US models and the cars sold in the rest of the world. If you have to break open the engine, a compression ratio increase and distributor recurve will help perk up the engine quite a bit. Otherwise, the low compression motor lends itself quite nicely to supercharging or turbocharging
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[morghen]

I loved my NA with the rear drum brakes, felt that for how fast it was and how fast i could and wanted to go they were more than enough.
I'm looking to buy another NA in the future as i own two turbos now and for some reason i miss the NA
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Supercharger and EFI kits
https://www.the924.com

[Kenodog]

Jeez Louise, 95 whole horse-power !? That's almost, wait, shit, I was trying to find something to compare that to but even the crappiest POS car sold today has almost half as many MORE HP than that yet weighs the same.

OK, I got nuthin'. Buy a Turbo, you won't regret it.




Leigh
_________________
1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[kcoyle]

[fiat22turbo]

[KDJones2000]

I raced one of the '78 NA's in Chumpcar for several years.

You floor the gas pedal, the engine makes some more noise, but you don't really go any faster.

The 2.0 is going to be a lot slower than your '88. If you are good with that, then you should be fine.

Handling is fun as it is a lighter car.
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1987 924S SPEC car
Team Toofah Racing
1988 944 Turbo S

[Grenadiers]

+1 on what Keith said, as I was a co-driver on one of those Chumpcar events with that car. Even my '88 924S lacks in the straight-up speed, as faster cars, even little Hondas whiz by. However, with Hawk Blues up front, and above average cornering, doesn't take much to catch up to some of the faster cars in the corners. Point is, that ugly girl at last night's party, isn't going to satisfy you in the long run. Can't believe I said that, but, if you aren't interested in speed, then the 924 will work great. Albeit, with upgrades in brakes, suspension, etc., that you will want to do!
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'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

[Harm]

[Kenodog]

Two sylables ....TURBO

Get yours today before I crush the S**T out of them.








Leigh
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1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[Power Tryp]

[Kenodog]

C'mon you guys are like 9 hours away form me, come and buy Sabine. She's a beauty, you wouldn't regret it. I have a spare suite that's empty, stay the night and chitty chat about cars. Then drive home and spend your hard earned dollars on something that will ,eventually, be worth what you put into it...




Leigh
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1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[ideola]

[Power Tryp]

I would love to, like you wouldn't believe. I have the space to store it sadly it is the cash that I am not flush with...
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Melanie - 1980 931
NoName - 1980 931 (seeking rebuild)

Green tartan interior, you don't see that on a Civic.