Porsche 944S 1987

Porsche 944S 1987.

Engine:
• 2,5 litres
• 4 cylinders
• ca 190 hp
• 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) at ca 8 seconds (even ca 7 seconds according to some sources)
• top speed ca 230 kph (ca 140 mph)

The car is a joy to drive. Probable reasons:
• well balanced chassis (weight distribution ca 50% front and 50% back, with engine in front and gearbox in back)
• direct and exact steering (like a gocart)
• lovely and responsive engine (with 4 valves/cylinder and double overhead camshaft)

I didn't have high expectations when I bought the car in the spring of 2010 from a friend that was moving abroad. (Who would have, with a 4 cylinder Porsche?) But the car turned out to be possibly the only car ever that has made me do a big smile while driving it. The car feels particularly well at high speeds on the highway. It is in fact a true racecar made for the race track. It may not go that fast, but it feels fast and is a lot of fun.

At low speeds the car may feel a bit "tired", and it is not always very smooth to drive in the city or for parallell parking.

The video clip was filmed in the Stockholm area in Sweden during the summer of 2011, and today (in May 2012) the car is almost 25 years old and has run more than 280 000 kilometres (170 000 miles).

It was sold new in Germany in August 1987 and was owned there and in Switzerland by an older lady (the car's first owner) for the first 17 years of the car's life (from when the lady was ca 50 to ca 65 years old). She was one of the better female amateur golfers in Europe and drove the car sometimes around the continent to different golf tournaments. She didn't want to switch to another car because she thought it was so easy to put her golf bag in the back of this car. However in the end the gearbox failed and she couldn't for example switch into reverse gear, so she decided then finally to change car to a BMW convertible instead.

After that this Porsche 944S was sold and imported to Sweden (by a temporary owner?) during the summer of 2004. The gearbox seemed to have been fixed, because (after having been registered in Sweden) the car was sold to an 18 year old man who owned the car for ca 1 year.

Then, it was sold again in 2005 to a 36 year old man who owned it for ca 0,5 years.

And in the beginning of 2006 it was sold once again (a bad sign?), this time to an older man in his 60's who owned it for 4-5 years. He bought the car for nearly 60 000 Swedish kronor and spent nearly another 60 000 Swedish kronor on repairs for the car.

Among other things he:
• changed the clutch
• fixed the air conditioning
• changed to a new timing belt
• switched the outer part of the exhaust pipe (because the older one had rusted)

When a new timing belt is installed, it must be tightened after a while. But he didn't have time and was going to do it later. And then one day, the untightened timing belt made the whole engine break down and a lot of it had to be renovated and changed into functioning parts (for example the head of the engine). The engine repair cost ca 20 000 Swedish kronor.

In 2010 the man decided to move abroad and wanted to sell the car. Then I bought it for nearly 50 000 Swedish kronor in the spring of that year.

And to date (until May 2012) I have spent nearly 60 000 Swedish kronor on repairs of the car.

The most important repairs were fixing an oil leak from the gearbox in the back of the car, and fixing an oil leak from the engine in the front of the car.

To fix the gearbox, the Porsche garage recommended switching to a renovated gearbox for 70 000 Swedish kronor. They said that the gearbox is so complex and detailed, so that when there is an error somewhere it is no use trying to fix it. Another garage (Speed & Autoteknik in the Stockholm area) said they could fix the existing gearbox, and I decided to let them have a try. Speed & Autoteknik seem to be very skillful at what they do, and are for example cooperating with the well known Porsche 944 garage Sandéns Bilteknik in Sweden. But is there a risk that the gearbox will cause problems in the future?

Now, there are some signs that the head gasket of the engine must be changed. That would cost 30 000 Swedish kronor (according to the Porsche garage). The signs are a possible leak of coolant, possible oil in the coolant container and white exhaust. But these are mere signs and doesn't mean for sure that the head gasket must be changed. After all, the previous owner let the whole engine be renovated (including changing the head) at Sandéns Bilteknik, so it would be surprising if the head gasket would need to be changed again now. One key question is if the car is actually leaking coolant. I will check the level of coolant in the coolant container after a while.

(Footnote: Above, some amounts are mentioned in the currency Swedish kronor. At the time of writing (2 May, 2012) the currency rate is 6.7209 Swedish kronor per US dollar.)