You’ve seen the pics of the trim on that 944 I bought - grim in the extreme. I was obviously going to need to replace the lot and, once again, eBay came to the rescue.  A few days after I got the ‘44 back to base, I spotted an ‘85 924 Lux with full black pascha on a very cheap Buy It Now, so I snapped it up.

The Porsche was a non runner thanks to a failed starter motor, but had been in regular use up until a few weeks previously so, with fingers tightly crossed, I set off for Essex on the morning of the dyno day to pick it up.  The sun was shining and the drive down was great as I had fixed the bumper, exhaust and prop U/J on the truck.

I arrived an hour early and got Simon (the owner) up out of bed - well it was 7am. We loaded the car, I gave him some cash and then headed back towards Jack’s Cafe in Towcester, where some of the lads were meeting up despite the cancellation of the dyno runs. I got there dead on time to have breakfast and enjoy the craic; this was turning out to be a good day. Some of the guys came back to mine for tea and cake, in exchange for helping me to push the car into the back garden.

Next day, I got mass out of the way and set to work on this starter. The 924 board on Pelican reckoned that connections were usually at fault rather than starter motors and they were right. I dropped off the motor, cleaned out the solenoid and the connections, reinstalled and it fired straight up. There was a bit of a tap which I ascribed to a cracked manifold but could have been a sticky lifter. I threw some injector cleaner into the system, along with some Wynns oil improver. The injector cleaner did make a difference to the idle speed but the oil additive did not change the tapping noise.

Anyway, I ran the car about for the next few days and it’s not hard to see where their reputation for good handling comes from. Slow though, ponderously boring, and dull behind the wheel; there is just no feedback from it at all compared to a 911. I want to love it because it looks so pretty, but really the Audi 80 of the same era was a better driver’s car.

Today I decided the time had come to get that lovely pascha out and get the car ready for sale this weekend (eBay), but the more I look at it, the better I think it would be to break it. It has quite a few good bits on it - lots of new parts - so it might break well. I guess the thing to do is to scrub it up, then stick it on as a running shell with a healthy reserve and see how it goes. Watch this space.  

I picked up my latest bargain last weekend. Have to say that the eBay description was short, sweet and very accurate.

I have owned this car for 15 years.  It has not run for 10 years.  It has been garaged for 8 years.  It needs a total new interior, new tyres, new brakes.  We were told by a mechanic that the engine turns over but it needs a new E.C.U. unit.  The body is in good condition for the year.  It has all original service pack etc. and an excellent number plate:  A911 DRY, which I am told is valuable.  The car is white. The car will need to be transported by the successful bidder.

I collected the trailer from Rob on Saturday evening and left home, destination Pagham, at 5am on Sunday morning. The M40 and A34 were clear, so 90 minutes later, I stopped for a coffee at Tot Hill services, just south of the M4. Tyre pressures checked and lights cleaned we were back on the road, but I immediately noticed a vibration from the truck that I couldn’t pin down to a corner, and the fuel started to burn faster.

The end of the road was 65 miles away, so I kept going, stopping a couple of times to check my tyres weren’t overheating and/or delaminating. I reached Pagham at 8am and found the house. Passing the car on the way to the front door, I could see the trim was absolutely destroyed. Not a disaster but not too attractive either. The 911 DRY plate looked even better in real life, so there was no doubt that I was taking the car. 

Steve (the seller) opened the door and we settled down for one of those conversations that quickly turns into two guys who could have known each other for years - the parallels were amazing. The car was his son’s, but Steve was handling the sale as the owner was abroad most of the time. They had bought the car back in the early ’90s from from Nick Faure, who was a friend of the family. The plate came later.

Steve was a very famous guitar player back in the day, before moving into the motor trade, so we had lots to talk about, and we did. After our tea, we went outside and loaded up. Once A911 DRY was on the trailer, we did the paperwork and I was gone, promising to return when the car was back on the road.

The drive home was laboured. The truck was shaking quite obviously at certain revs and the car was a little far back, so I stopped at Sutton Scotney services, rechecked the tyre pressures on all three units and slid the car up a touch - was much better over 60 after that. A quick look up the skirts of the 4runner revealed that the vibration was the prop UJ failing, causing the prop to bind slightly, dragging the engine down and pushing the fuel consumption up. Another job on the list. As we are stuck for space at home, I dropped the car at the farm, handed the trailer back and came home to finish the deal on a paraffin heater I had sold on eBay.

I hadn’t spent any time looking at the car before I picked it up and, though the inside is beyond distraught, the body looks good. Though it has been parked for 10 years, the car has only done 88K miles from new and there is plenty of service history (the book pack is mint). The brakes are completely seized, but off; not on. The exhaust, tyres and clutch etc are likely to be well past it, but I will buy a good runner with a test and a knackered body and swap what I need over, fitting power steering at the same time.

I am looking forward to getting this on the road, looks great and deserves to be in use - early 944s have to be worth keeping when in this sort of condition. I am tempted to Megasquirt it and see how that works out - could be very interesting!

I have always loved the look of the 944 - that Coke-bottle shape gets me every time. Around the time of my birthday, I’d been swapping a few emails with a chap on the south coast about his 944 for sale, for reasons which will become obvious. The deal never happened and I sort of forgot about it. Anyway, lo and behold, today I see the car for sale still and the timing this end is much better. So I bought it.

 What’s the big deal over an ancient 944, that has not run for over 10 years and apparently needs a LOT of work to get through the test? Watch carefully: