[tifosiman]

I have an 85.5 944, and it is basically the exact same car as the 1986 models, it just does not have a third brake light. The 85.5 and 86 944 cars are what I call the "betweeners". They have the late-style dash, larger fuel tank, alu suspension parts of the late (87-onward) cars, but still retain the early offset (23.3mm) of the "early" cars.

85.5 (in the states) was the intro year for the new dash. The 85 cars had the old dash and the steel a-arms, etc. The 85.5 models also came off the line as the Turbo models, so they used a universal chassis that shared the same mounts in common as the turbo cars. This means that the turbo rear underspoilers, side skirts, etc, are all direct bolt-ons on 85.5 and later 944 cars. They are not on 85 and older cars.

IMHO, the 85.5 and 86 944's are my favorites of the 944 8V cars. They are fairly light (pre-airbags and pre-ABS, generally less-optioned), have early offset (can run the Fuchs and early offset phonedials), and have the niceties of the dash and other components of the lighter cars. If they had the 2.7 litre motor of the 89 cars in them, they would be just about perfect, IMHO.