1987 Porsche 944 Turbo. Members Only.

Yesterday was a good day.  After the friend's mom flaked on me over the Miata, I looked once again at Marketplace last week.  Looking at MR2's and 944's, I almost missed this one.  Even though I set my radius to 180 miles, this one in Cincinnati 45 miles away showed up at the end "Results outside your area".

About a dozen photos, huge listing of maintenance and assorted modifications, and looked really clean.  1987 Porsche 944 Turbo, 140k miles, working AC and heat.  Newer radio with "Classic Communication Module" with GPS and maps SD card.  Two different electric sunroof panels.  Club Sport Turbo S wheels, adjustable Koni yellows.  Everything works like new.

Rennline pedal set with red heel-toe extension.  Rennline fire extinguisher.  Assorted solid state relays & new hatch struts, all maintenance kept up.

What sold me was the 1" 3 ring binder full of recieipts and doc's going back to 1987.  Import paperwork, plane tickets to Germany for the tourist experience to see it fresh off the line.  Photos of the car in Germany and his view from behind the wheel on the Autobahn...

I couldn't pass this up, even if at $19k it was a little more than I had been looking for.  But this level of goodness and documentation is exactly what I wanted, and will likely be the car I keep for quite awhile now.

He met me nearby on Saturday to see it, spent about an hour looking, driving and talking.  Turns out he's selling to pay for a Jaguar XJS V12 he's lusting after so I couldn't get the price down.  He came back Sunday afternoon, I had my Star Wars friend that's a notary come over, and one big PayPal charge later I have a title and one key.

Need to get insurance today and decide when to hit the BMV.  Weather should be decent until Thursday or Friday, good days for driving. 

Beautiful. Looks like it was very well cared-for and should be a lot of fun :)

Never seen the louvered rear windows before. Nice time period touch! Beautiful car!  

Hard to find clean ones like this sir!  And bonus points for not guards red!

Wow, that's really nice!  Can you explain how the louvred windows operate? Never seen them before. 

In reply to eastpark :

They exist.  ;)  Seriously though, I forgot he mentioned them in the listing and told me about them Saturday.  He included the originals in a big Ikea bag along with the original Alpine stereo.  He also gave me a short shifter he bought before he even got the car but decided he liked the throw of the OEM.  I will likely install that.

Love it! I have a 944 Turbo S that is awaiting attention. I wish it looked half as good as yours!

I'm excited to follow along!

 Looked at these a couple of years ago (but at .10 the price because cheap). If you're going to spend for a keeper, this would be the car to do that. Congratulations!

Looks like you got a good one!  Look thru the receipts for recent timing belt, motor mounts, clutch, oil pan gasket jobs.  Then check the rear hatch glass for delamination.  My first 944 turbo was solid there, the second one was so bad the rear hatch would rattle around in frame

That's the kind of guy that you want to buy a car from!
 

Well bought. Enjoy your Porsche!

wow, that's a peach.  I've only driven one 951 and i thought "i should get one of these".  

A word of caution on the short shifter. It might tighten things up and make the shifter feel a bit better which is good. But our experience was that basically the transmission shifts how it shifts, and shortening the shifter throw more than a small amount mostly just made it easier to shift too fast and grind/miss gears.

$19K was NOT too much to pay for a well cared for car like this, you'll have years of fun with that!

Nice. I'm drooling over here.

Oh man, that is so so so nice!! Well bought!

Score!

Get some peanut butter, because I'm jelly.

How's that go again? 
 

"Always buy the nicest one you can find."

Good work!

Beautiful car! Cars with history, paperwork, and in immaculate condition are always worth a lot. I know that isn't the "GRM" way, but I am a big fan.  Well done. 

Meh, spend the money now on a good one and save money and pain in the long run. "There's no such thing as a cheap Porsche"

Sounds smart and economical to me ;)

"Always buy the nicest one you can find."   "There's no such thing as a cheap Porsche"

Both of these have been in my mind while shopping, I skipped a local cheaper 944 for these very reasons.  Got the insurance yesterday, just got back from the BMV (ouch).  Reused the Miata plate because I hate the newest Ohio plate.

SWMBO was asking about seat comfort, she didn't like the Miata, she's 50/50 on the BRZ, loved the Abarth.  Told her we could go for a drive tonight. 

Love these cars, drove  friend's NA a few years ago, imagine a turbo would be perfect. Well bought, definitely a nice example.

We ended up not wanting to play car Tetris last night so no drive, but drove it to work this morning.  Some obsevations:

Realized on the highway I did not see how to turn the headlights on.  Temp control I'm used to blue and red markings, saw some white dashes I assumed were temp selector but not sure how to change vent/floor selection.  Passenger mirror control, is it manual?

I felt like I got a lot of looks though.  This should be a fun car.

Vintage Porsche dashboard controls can only be correctly operated through the use of an Enigma machine. 

The 944 controls are a little wonky but practically modern compared to the 911s of the same era.

Climate control has a fan speed knob and a temperature knob (probably in Celsius). The sliders are the vent control.

Headlights are a knob to the left of the steering column like most modern cars, just not as well labeled.

There should be a switch on the center console to select the mirror for adjustment.

And if you're parking it outside at work you're going to want a sun shade or else the dashboard is going to crack to a million pieces from sun exposure.