First impressions: 944 vs 911

[Jamul74]

A friend is parking his 85 944 at my house for a couple of months and I drove it to work today for the first time, combination of twisties, highway and city. I was relly looking forward to comparing it to my 74 911. So based on my 30 mile commute here is my take:
1. ***** to get into and out of, tried it the fem way and the dude(think F150) way, still almost ripped my nads off.
2. comfortable inside, good vis
3. Had no impression I was in a Porsche if it had not been on the steering wheel and the 5 gauge cluster which only vaguely resembles the 911.
4. clutch felt good, short shift was nice
5. handles good and is easy to keep in the power band, unfortunately this is maxed pretty quickly.
6. could they not have put an in line 6 in it or a small v6? Would be awesome then I think.
7. Overall, nice car, I would buy one as a daily driver

------------------
Dan S.
1974 911 Targa

[bfranklin]

6 cylinder? try a turbo

Brad

[Early_S_Man]

Yeah, a nice 351 cu. in, V-6 from a '67-'69 GMC pickup truck ... the ones that used to be shown in print ads (Motor Trend, etc.) pumping hundreds of gallons of water all over the place ... one of the most torqy American sixes ever sold to the public!

------------------
Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

[Obin Robinson]

Originally posted by pcasd:
6. could they not have put an in line 6 in it or a small v6? Would be awesome then I think.
7. Overall, nice car, I would buy one as a daily driver

Porsche experimented with small block V6s in the 924 (and therefore the 944). their findings were that they could get just as much horsepower out of the big 2.5 litre harmonically balnced four cylinder as they could out of the V6 they were experimenting with. the big benefit of the big four was that it used less gas than the V6. and it used more common parts with the 928 at that time. the big four also put out less heat than the 6.

remember, porsche DID produce a V6 for customers. imagine putting that one in a 944! the last i heard, the V6 engines were sitting somewhere collecting dust, and were going to be converted into helicopter engines.

also, as a daily driver, the 944 is hard to beat for "smiles per dollar per mile".

good luck, and have fun!

obin

------------------
Wij doen niet mee aan de mode.

[Jamul74]

Guys,
The reason I mentioned the bigger engine is I recall the original 240Z had an inline 6 in it. The cars are similar in size with a long hood and I thought it might fit. It is less of a "chore" to drive around town so it gets kudos for that. Not that the 911 is a chore but..you get the point.

------------------
Dan S.
1974 911 Targa

[Obin Robinson]

pcasd,

if i'm not mistaken, the problems with fitting the inline 6 were that it would make too much of a bulge in the hood. i think the cross member and front sway bar is in the way... unless you want a hood bulge .

i know that an Audi inline 5 will fit, but that extra 6th cylinder takes up JUST enough space for it to have been a hassle. mostly what i remember reading about the 944 engine was that when they saw that they could get a lot of power (and better mileage) out of the big 4, they scrapped the 6 idea.

it would have been interesting as an engine option though. maybe also the V6 would have produced power that would have thrown the price/performance ratio off and made the 911 less of a lucrative buy? that's the reason they scrapped the 968.

obin

[Dantilla]

Hmmmmm..... What if Porsche were to bore the engine out to say, 3 litres or so. And maybe go with four valve technology? I wonder what it would be like to have the great handling of the 944 with another, say, sixty horsepower, without any turbo lag? I wonder.....


89 944S2
73 911

[Colby]

My first Porsche was an 1984 Porsche 944. I loved how it handled and felt, but it was seriously lacking in power. But the 944 Turbo resolves that problem. I also could not stand not having power steering. I don't mind it in my 911, but the engine isn't up front! They resolved that in what, 85, 86? The price difference is the main thing here. Next year I plan to build a Porsche race car, and will use a $7K 944 Turbo instead of a $25K 911 Turbo. They are very well balanced, and are all around good cars, but money no object I still prefer the 911.

Colby

[ffilips]

In my opinion the turbo is the only 944 to have. I drove several 944's before getting my 944 turbo, and they just didn't compare. As for bigger power plants some one from Chicago answered my for sale ad wanting to drop in a zr-1 engine. Bring on the shoehorns and vasoline.

[Kurt B]

Listen, if you can handle the body styling, consider a 928. No matter how you look at it, 944s were always second stringers in the Porsche world...same with 914, 924...never got all the attention they could have used.

What I'm wondering about is the 968. Love the look of that car...what's the word on them? I know they carry a few horsies, but what else should I know?

[Jamul74]

I agree with the looks of the 968..really good looking car. If I ever get rid of the 911 (heresy) I might seriously consider that 968 model. Final word on that 944 after driving home last night. Way too hard to get in and out, at least for a guy my size. Hit my head on the door jam about 10 times, couple of muttered F bombs later son looks up from gameboy and fines me 50 cents. Nice kid!

------------------
Dan S.
1974 911 Targa

[Z-man]

Originally posted by Dantilla:
Hmmmmm..... What if Porsche were to bore the engine out to say, 3 litres or so. And maybe go with four valve technology? I wonder what it would be like to have the great handling of the 944 with another, say, sixty horsepower, without any turbo lag? I wonder.....
89 944S2
73 911

Cute Dantilla. I just bought an '89 S2 a few weeks ago, and after test driving the 2.5 8v's and now the S2, the difference in performance is night and day. (Handling is pretty much the same) The 3.0l 16V engine is great. Some stats on it: 0-60 is anywhere from 6.2 to 6.8 secs. (different publications), and I've seen the 1/4 figure around 14.4 (forgot what speed).

pcasd: if you thought a 2.5 was a good commuter car, try an S2. (No offense to the 944 8V crowd!) I've had some friends of mine drive my car, (three who own V8's) and they all said, "WOW!" I am sure it would complement your stable just fine. I think the early 911's are just plain beautiful!

RE: 968: great car, more power than the 944S2, but is it really worth more than TWICE as much? Not sure....

Sorry for rambling...
-Z.

------------------
My toy: http://www.pelicanparts.com/gallery/Z-man

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Just some tidbits:

The Audi 5 Cylinder startet as a 6 Cyl and a guy named Piech cut one Cylinder off to make it shorter and more efficient.

There had been 5 Cyl 924 used as engine testbed. Also some 924 where used to test Diesel engines. You know the TDI´s today.

Now the politics on the 924 wher to use a turbo version as porsche was the technology leader and a good turbo setup in a small and light car is a very speedy thing. The 931 engine had a own head and some other stuff but the block could be build in row with the other engines. The turbo was very capable but Porsche would like to get more low end tourqe generaly.

The 2,0 could have be bored up but would need special tooling and cost to much.

Ther had been some V6 and other things around but then they dicided to go the full way by spliting the 928 engine as the tooling was in house and shared parts did lower general costs.

Engine startet life as a 2,3 150 HP to have a baseline but soon where uped to the 2,5 165 HP.

Now the specialthing on the 944 engines is that they are the largest 4 bangers and are the most efficient engines in there period plus hat the highest tourqe curve from all non turbo engines.

The S2 was a 3,0. And Porsche also made 3,0 968 turbos (8V).

Grüsse

[Obin Robinson]

herr Roland:

wo setzten sie die V6 TAG Turbomotoren? erhielten die Maschinen in Hubschrauber gehe?

danke!

obin