PORSCHE 944

EVOLUTION OF THE PARTS-BIN 924 BECAME A FINANCIAL LIFELINE FOR THE STUTTGART BRAND, AND ONE OF THE BEST-HANDLING CARS OF ITS ERA

- NATHAN PONCHARD

IF YOU COULD paint a picture of the perfect ’80s ‘Yuppie’ – a fashionable Young Urban Professional obsessed with material possessions and financial success – then the ideal car to complete that stereotype would be a Porsche 944.

Unencumbered by the snobbery that dictated that real Porsches should be rear-engined, yet somehow discerning enough to know the 944 was more than just an image statement, this youthful exuberance for Porsche’s new mainstay model made it the definitive front-engined, rear-drive European sports car of its time.

Yet as the 944 approached the ’90s, something dramatic happened at Porsche. The Stuttgart firm revitalised its 25-year-old 911 with the 964 generation – giving it a substantial boost in modernity, ability, and popularity – and followed that up four years later with the even more revered 993 generation, the final air-cooled 911.

As interest in rear-engined Porsches gathered momentum – bolstered by the new mid-engined Boxster (1996) – the four-cylinder 944 slowly slipped into the background, no longer the darling of its era, nor a flat-six. But still every inch a Porsche, as it turns out.

No conversation about the 944 is complete without referencing its origins – that being Porsche’s ‘transaxle era’, starting with its first frontengined, water-cooled car, the 924.

It’s no secret that the 924 was developed in conjunction with Volkswagen, as a replacement for the VW-Porsche 914 but intended to be a sports car for Audi, in conjunction with a Porsche-made version. Developed alongside Porsche’s forthcoming gran turismo, the V8-engined 928, the 924 shared not only that car’s transaxle layout with the gearbox mounted on the rear axle to improve weight distribution as well as traction, but also its proportion.