ADDED 924 Turbo to stable!, New Restoration Project Options

[Gatornapper]

Dear 914 friends -

At 76, I think I've got one more project in me. My Porsche genius friend Rick found me this in Cleveland:

https://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/d/lake...7387301032.html

And I have a contract on it for less than asking price. Friends in Cleveland looked at it closely on Wed. nite, sent me 7 close-up videos of it and gave it a huge thumbs up. Engine did run for few seconds with starter fluid, started immediately and sounded like new. Almost no rust, interior immaculate.

This is a very rare Special Edition with custom interior, wheels and two-tone paint.

Looking for a great source of info on 924's but can't find much. Nothing like 914 world.

Any pointers for a resource like 914world would be appreciated - tho I'm sure there is none.

NO - not selling the 914! My garage has room for both cars.

TIA,

GN

[wonkipop]

@Gatornapper .

converting cars to RHD from LHD is something that used to be well established in aus since the 1950s.

even the major car manufacturers did it.
i believe the first batch of mustangs sent to aus in the 1960s were subcontracted out by ford to a local specialist in sydney. the cars were sold with full warranty by ford.

holden also did it with the big chevs. which were sourced from canada. the components were made by GM canada including a right hand drive dashboard. but the cars were assembled in final form down here.

there were specialist guys everywhere that converted other USA models on an import basis.

converting a 911 to RHD is not that hard apparently. very straightforward.

the difference in price for a second hand 911 sourced in the USA during the 1980s and 1990s justified the cost of conversion. it worked out cheaper than buying one here at that time, even second hand. 911s have generally held on to high values here.
stratospheric now.

914s are another story. more difficult conversion as it required extensive mods to front firewall/fuel tank and basically a hand made dash. there were moulds in fibreglass floating around.

a mate of mine has a speedster that was exported here some time in the late 1970s and is converted to RHD. people did that because there were not many speedsters here and they were hard to find. so you went to the USA and got one, because thats where most of them were. probably nearly the entire population of speedsters resided in one state, california.

a 924 would be entirely doable. as there were RHD parts to source including the dash etc.

if the conversion was done by a reputable shop it would be a good job.

i'll take a look at it if its still around when i get some time.


as to driving a 924. i used to go out with a chick who had one in WA.
it was an N A model. not much fun around town as the engine really is a bit lack lustre. but out on the open road and wound up it was a whole other thing. just as balanced as a 914, maybe even more. certainly it did not suffer from high speed nose lift like the 914. when i lived in WA back then you got plenty of opportunities to drive as fast as you wanted on wide open empty roads, no other traffic. i discovered the 914 started lifting the nose at around 95mph. 924 just stayed planted all the way well past a 100mph. think we might have pegged out at about 110 mph. it took a while to get there but once you got it up there it would have sat at that speed all day long.

it might be why you have got me interested again as i am remembering the car.

trouble is there really is nowhere in my state these days you can drive at that speed.
if you got caught they would burn your license, throw you in jail and crush the car.

the only thing i remember about 924s that is a negative is they developed a lot of rattles in the body work. especially the tailgates etc. owners complained a lot about it back in the day here. porsches were not supposed to rattle.

i also remember the steering wheel. it was a real crush to get you legs in under it.
and it spun concentrically, a sort of planetary motion. when you were parking the car the wheel would dig into your legs.

[Gatornapper]

Wonki -

Lotsa priceless info in your post. Thank you. Never had my 914 over 80 so I know nothing of its problems at speed - my love of the car is in the twisties that are predominant where I live below 55mph. For anything above 55, that's where my '11 Cayman S shines!

I can't wait to get my 931 on the road. Drove my friend RickB45's new-to-him 85 944 yesterday and loved its neutral handling, great ride, great shifting - everything. Not sure how an '80 931 will compare. I do know my 931 has the large 23mm front and 14mm rear sway bars - so I'm looking forward to that. I doubt the 944 has such large sway bars.

Got the car on my lift today and all looks great underneath. Owner had car undercoated in mid-80's. I am very pleased.

While the 944 yesterday handled great in the curves, it wasn't quite as flat as my 914 - which doesn't have sway bars! Yet!.... that is! That was one of my winter projects that will now wait on how well the 931 is doing.

GN

@Gatornapper .

converting cars to RHD from LHD is something that used to be well established in aus since the 1950s.

even the major car manufacturers did it.
i believe the first batch of mustangs sent to aus in the 1960s were subcontracted out by ford to a local specialist in sydney. the cars were sold with full warranty by ford.

holden also did it with the big chevs. which were sourced from canada. the components were made by GM canada including a right hand drive dashboard. but the cars were assembled in final form down here.

there were specialist guys everywhere that converted other USA models on an import basis.

converting a 911 to RHD is not that hard apparently. very straightforward.

the difference in price for a second hand 911 sourced in the USA during the 1980s and 1990s justified the cost of conversion. it worked out cheaper than buying one here at that time, even second hand. 911s have generally held on to high values here.
stratospheric now.

914s are another story. more difficult conversion as it required extensive mods to front firewall/fuel tank and basically a hand made dash. there were moulds in fibreglass floating around.

a mate of mine has a speedster that was exported here some time in the late 1970s and is converted to RHD. people did that because there were not many speedsters here and they were hard to find. so you went to the USA and got one, because thats where most of them were. probably nearly the entire population of speedsters resided in one state, california.

a 924 would be entirely doable. as there were RHD parts to source including the dash etc.

if the conversion was done by a reputable shop it would be a good job.

i'll take a look at it if its still around when i get some time.


as to driving a 924. i used to go out with a chick who had one in WA.
it was an N A model. not much fun around town as the engine really is a bit lack lustre. but out on the open road and wound up it was a whole other thing. just as balanced as a 914, maybe even more. certainly it did not suffer from high speed nose lift like the 914. when i lived in WA back then you got plenty of opportunities to drive as fast as you wanted on wide open empty roads, no other traffic. i discovered the 914 started lifting the nose at around 95mph. 924 just stayed planted all the way well past a 100mph. think we might have pegged out at about 110 mph. it took a while to get there but once you got it up there it would have sat at that speed all day long.

it might be why you have got me interested again as i am remembering the car.

trouble is there really is nowhere in my state these days you can drive at that speed.
if you got caught they would burn your license, throw you in jail and crush the car.

the only thing i remember about 924s that is a negative is they developed a lot of rattles in the body work. especially the tailgates etc. owners complained a lot about it back in the day here. porsches were not supposed to rattle.

i also remember the steering wheel. it was a real crush to get you legs in under it.
and it spun concentrically, a sort of planetary motion. when you were parking the car the wheel would dig into your legs.