javier romagosa
Last Saturday May 14 Coys put up for auction a Porsche 924 GTR at the Monaco Historical Grand Prix. As a general rule, one tends to think that the 924 is a worn-out Porsche, but in the face of this beast, few would probably dare to maintain their opinion ... Let's see what it consists of.
As you know, the Porsche 924 it was the first porsche transaxle to get to the production line. Launched in 1976, a year before the 928, it was originally a joint project between Volkswagen and the Stuttgart brand; the first finally withdrew - he opted to dedicate his efforts to Scirocco - and the second was then left with a project that he soon took advantage of.
At that time it was believed that the commercial life of the 911 was ending and that its successors should be cars of front engine cooled by water and with an equally sporty mood although, yes, somewhat more comfortable. The 924, that came to replace the 914 and was below the 928 -and after the 944- was the entry model to the range of the German manufacturer and retained the mechanical 4-cylinder VW / Audi of 2 liters for which it had been designed when even Volkswagen I was in garlic.
And precisely for that reason this model is accused of not being 'so Porsche ', so to speak, like his brothers. The same happens with its predecessor, although in that case the car's mid-engine design takes some iron out of the matter. The main problem was the power of the VW / Audi propeller, of only 125 CV in its European version.
In search of performance: Porsche 924 Carrera GTR
Apart from the mechanics, and as far as we know, the rest of the Porsche 924 It was as well done as its brothers and it maintained the hallmarks of the new Porsche models, including the gearbox in place. transaxle for a better distribution of weights. Also in Stuttgart they were aware of the problem and thus, soon the fearsome Turbo variants and Carrera GT / S, the latter with a view to the world of competition. At the height of 1984 VW stopped supplying engines and Porsche decided to fit the mechanics of the 944 into what from 1986 to 1988 would be the 924S.
The top of the food chain with a VW / Audi engine - the leading version GTP already carried what would be the engine of the 944 - was the version GTR race. They were only made 17 copies, This figure is even smaller when compared to the around 120.000 924 basics sold or the approximately 12.000 Turbos that left the factory. Somewhat closer was the production of the Carrera GT / S from which it derives and from which about 450 were made.
Of those 17 GTRs, 9 raced or were classified in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and even won their class in 1982. While the remaining units, if we look at the photos of the auctioned unit, it seems that they had no problem doing so. Porsche supplied them with a roll cage, fully adjustable suspension, a racing brake system and, above all, a Turbo Incercooler mechanics with 375 hp.
With only 930 kilos of weight, the figures are interesting: 290 km / h of top speed and a 0 to 100 in 4.7 seconds ... Whoops 924! 😉
Coys has not yet made public whether or not he has sold this Porsche 924 Carrera GTR. The truth is that it looks very good ... It is not for less since its owner, a Japanese collector, has barely traveled 109 kilometers in 33 years. Of course, the estimated price was also for the fat, nothing more and nothing less than between 600 and 750.000 euros.
