924Board.org

[Khal]

1975:
"The 924 owes its existence to development order (EA) 425 to create a successor to the 914, which VW issued to Porsche in 1970."
"The Porsche 924 broke with many of the traditions of the company. It had a front mounted, water-cooled engine, coil springs on the front axle and was based on the trans-axle construction method."
"The trans-axle construction method... provided a good weight distribution and permitted a more spacious bodywork in comparison to the mid-engine arrangement. ”In the 914 you can’t even put your coat down”, complained one of the sales managers for the VW-Porsche marketing company. This problem was now solved."
"...its huge glass rear hatch was a striking design feature which other car manufacturers soon adopted."

1976:
"The American magazine Autoweek noted of the shape of the new Porsche: ”Wherever you take it, people stop in their tracks.”"
"The Austrian Auto Revue, which had named the 924 the “Puzzle Porsche” because of the many VW and Audi parts, noted: ”It is worth considering that, with the example of the 924, Porsche has recognised how the sports car of the future will look.”"

1977:
"A vote carried out by auto motor und sport proved how popular the 924 was. An overwhelming majority of 40.7 % of readers chose the little Porsche as the best sports car in 1977 in the two-litre class. And the Austrians Gerhard Plattner and Rudi Lins showed what qualities lay concealed within the 924. The year previously they had travelled around the world in this type of car in 28 days. This year they had undertaken a tour from the North Cape to Cape Horn. ”The conditions during the journey from the northernmost to the southernmost towns in the world would definitely comply with the definition ”extreme test”” said Plattner. His colleague Lins described the single serious accident on the 32,136 km journey: ”Plattner had not seen a bump in the road, the car flew about four meters through the air and landed extremely loudly.” A single bumper was damaged."

1978:
"By the end of 1977 the 924 had become one of the most purchased sports cars in the world and in April 1978 the 50,000th example rolled off the production line."
"In the year that Gerhard Plattner and Rudi Lins proved Porsche’s reliability in another long distance journey from New York to Vienna in the Porsche 924, the magazine Gute Fahrt underlined the fact by publishing the results of an endurance test. ”The little car from Porsche reached a good 200 km/h without complaint. It covered 50,000 kilometres in one year and was found to be unusually economical”, read the report. The summary read: ”People drive this sports car because it radiates exclusivity without being over-sensitive, because it exudes driving enjoyment rather than misunderstood concepts of sportiness.”"

1979:
"According to a contemporary press release the model range was enhanced by one of ”the most powerful sports cars in the world.” It was referring to the 924 turbo whose engine could produce 170 HP at 5,500 rpm with the aid of a turbocharger."
"”The turbo engine nevertheless helps the two-litre car to achieve performances which would only otherwise be expected from a far greater capacity sports car”, attested auto motor und sport to the turbo, which according to the magazine’s calculations achieved almost 230km/h."

1980:
"”The five speed gearbox must be a top priority for the ambitious driver who must have maximum performance,” according to the Gute Fahrt newspaper in the previous year in a comparison of transmission options available for the 924. At that time the five speed version came as an optional extra. From model year 1980 a new VW-built gearbox with five gears was fitted as standard."
"”The 924 turbo is a two litre car which puts most so-called super cars in the shade at a fraction of their price” wrote the veteran British journalist John Bolster in Autosport."

1981:
"The name Carrera adorned the new top model in the 924 series. It was presented as ”a high-performance car with excellent driving characteristics and extremely low fuel consumption for a limited number of buyers.” ...only 406 were to be built..."
"The drive train had been completely overhauled and the turbo engine gave out 210 HP thanks not least to an intercooler – enormous output for a two-litre..."
"A special event was held to give potential Porsche customers the chance to test the 240 km/h Carrera on the Hockenheimring.
Four drivers from the German Red Cross even completed the Porsche safety training on this track to enable them to optimally manoeuvre the soon-to-be-available 924 turbo. The turbo entered the new model year with an engine with improved performance characteristic and seven more horsepower. A fully standard production version of this car achieved a world record at the start of 1981: it covered 5,111 km in 24 hours on the course at Nardo/Italy, which is an average speed of 212.98 km/h. At around the same time the 100,000th Porsche 924 rolled off the production line."

1982:
"”The limit range has risen so high that you can only exceed it on normal roads if you seriously underestimate a bend in the road”, decided the Stuttgart journal."
"The engine modifications carried out for the previous year had proved highly successful. A small turbocharger enabled the turbo to respond to accelerator pedal actions more immediately..."
"One of the most famous buyers of a 924 Turbo in 1982 was the racing driver and Le Mans winner for Porsche, Derek Bell."

1983:
"The 944, which had been added to the range the previous year, increasingly overshadowed the 924. The 924 turbo was available only in Italy from this model year and production stopped in the summer of 1984. The 924 was dropped from the markets in the USA, Canada, Japan and Puerto Rico, for the rest of the markets it was upgraded in various details."
"As before, the 924 series fulfilled its role as the entry-level Porsche. ”The Porsche 924 is a good choice in the low-end sports car class.” It is reliable, economical and gives impressive performance”, was the judgement of the specialist magazine auto motor und sport in the test of the 1983 model..."
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'80 924 Turbo

[Gram]

Good stuff Khal. Very interesting.
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'82 924 NA Euro (hers)
'98 Audi A4 TDI (ours)

[Lorenzo Booker]

That was very interesting. I enjoyed reading every bit of it.

[Roger]

Thanks for putting it together
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1981 924 NA

Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you
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