PORSCHE 924 CARRERA GT

FOR SO LONG THE UNLOVED PORSCHE, THE 924 CAME VERY GOOD WITH THE CARRERA GT. RESPECT IS MOST DEFINITELY DUE

- ANDY ENRIGHT

Model Porsche 924 Carrera GT

Engine 1984cc 4cyl, sohc, 8v, turbo

Max power 154kW @ 6000rpm

Max torque 275Nm @ 3500rpm

Transmission 5-speed manual

Weight 1180kg

0-100km/h 6.9sec

Economy 9.1L/100km

Price $185,000 (estimated)

THERE’S A received wisdom that has long enveloped the Porsche 924. It was the rejected Audi project with a van engine, championed by Ernst Fuhrmann, the misguided Porsche CEO who tried to obliterate the 911. The 924 was the unloved Porsche; the vehicle that traded on, rather than embellished the badge and which put the engine at the wrong end of the car, cooled by the wrong medium. The truth? Well, there’s a lot wrong with that lazy summation.

In fact, Professor Fuhrmann was a pragmatist, and a very clever one at that. His 928 project was a canny hedge. A front-engined, rear-drive V8 GT car was a form factor that its largest market, the USA, would never be able to outlaw. Likewise, he was able to tease the 911 into a new and more profitable sector with the 930 Turbo flagship. And Fuhrmann knew better than most that the histories, as well as the familial DNA, of Volkswagen and Porsche were inextricably linked.