and the main star in the shop today is... Options

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

and he really loves his car!!!

[Johny Blackstain]

As I recall, the 924 had it's own NARP reputation back in the day... "more Audi than Porsche". Through factory research and development it evolved into the 944. However, they brought the 924 back in 86 with the 924S, essentially a narrow fenders 944 in disguise & a pretty good car- best of the 924s' that came to the US.

[ClayPerrine]

As I recall, the 924 had it's own NARP reputation back in the day... "more Audi than Porsche". Through factory research and development, it evolved into the 944. However they brought the 924 back in 86 with the 924S which essentially was a narrow fenders 944 in disguise & a pretty good car- best of the 924s' that came to the US.

If you look at the history of the 924, it was never designed as a Porsche. Audi asked Porsche to design a sportscar for them. When Audi decided not to build it, Porsche then took it and made the 924. Because it was designed for Audi originally, it used lots of VW/Audi parts. The front suspension was from the super beetle, the rear suspension was from the super beetle, the engine was from the Audi fox, the transmission was from the Audi fox, and lots of the interior bits were from the VW parts bin as well. That's why the interior door handles and the turn signal and wiper switches fit both a 914 and a 924. The guts of the steering column all use Beetle parts. The ignition lock from a 924 will fit in a 914, but the key is different.

There are way more VW/Audi parts in a 924 than VW/Audi parts in a 914. But Porsche put a hood badge on the 924, so it doesn't get labeled a NARP.

The 944 was Porsche improving the original 924. The put flares on it, changed out the engine for a Porsche designed 2.5 water cooled 4 cylinder, and improved the brakes. Later models got the Audi sourced gauge cluster replaced with a Porsche designed one. The 924s was created to make a lower cost car, but it was just the older 944 model without the flares.

Vehicle manufacturers are cheap. They will reuse and repurpose parts and designs to cut costs on new cars any way they can. The 924 is a perfect example of parts bin engineering.

[bbrock]

There are way more VW/Audi parts in a 924 than VW/Audi parts in a 914. But Porsche put a hood badge on the 924, so it doesn't get labeled a NARP.

One of the most fascinating things about the "50 Years Porsche 914" book to me was how apparent it is that Porsche and VW were just figuring out their partnership on the 914 as they went along. The 914 development team voted on, and passed an official decision to hood badge the 914 but by that time, cars in Europe had already started being sold as VW-Porsche so the hood badges never happened.

Another interesting part is that Porsche was busy designing improvements to the 914 when VW decided to pull the plug on their end. That left Porsche scrambling to fill that market niche which, of course, was filled temporarily with the 912E but the 924 design came up for grabs at the perfect time for Porsche to slap a badge on as the successor to the 914. Of course that's all well known but it was interesting to learn that Porsche seemed committed to carrying the 914 forward at the time its production was suddenly halted.