Long Live Pop-Up Headlights!
I have watched too many hours of Top Gear (Hammond, May, Clarkson) to sit in a car and not mentally review my experience in it. To a fault, I get lost in the details and my television voice starts yapping about horsepower, the heritage or whatever else I know about the vehicle. It’s pretty embarrassing. Maybe I can swindle some poor folks to pay me do just that in the future, but unfortunately Porsche and Ferrari have declined letting a young kid like myself sit behind the wheel of their newest models.
That being said, I have a very kind neighbor who owns his own Porsche that he let me drive (*gasp*). While I would love to give it the ol’ nitty-gritty and detail each part of his car, I think that’s a little unfair. After all, it’s a 200,000-mile red Porsche 944 that was daily driven, though loved and handled with care. He refers to it with a shrug and toss over the shoulder attitude, but 944’s are a little guilty pleasure of mine. Their unique development history and raw ingredients for driver feel make them dark horse smiles-per-mile thrills.
I say ‘dark horse’ but the truth is, until the Boxster and 997 Carrera took the spotlight, the 944 was Porsche’s most popular model. More than 160,000 were sold during their lifespan between 1982 and 1991. The front-engined, rear-wheel drive layout certainly made some Porsche purists snuff their snouts, but Porsche’s goal was to bridge the gap between the more modest 924 (from which the 944 is based off of) and the sporty 911 SC. To make those noses extra snuffy, the 944 hit the nail on the head; the modern design and Porsche-built 2.5 liter four-cylinder caught the eye of drivers everywhere and many (like this one) can still be found zipping up and down highways today.
It doesn’t take much to notice that the general shape of Porsche’s since the 356 in the late 1940’s hasn’t changed very much. To many, this a good thing; the 911’s of yesteryear are just as striking and gawk-able as the newest GT race cars for the road. To others, the repetitive shapes lazily hail back to Porsche’s not-so-distant cousin: the Volkswagen Beetle.
The 944’s design is anything but lazy. For me, pop-up headlights are the cheapest way into my heart and the 944 has a whole two of them. The leather seats hug you and the acres of trunk space in the back make for good visibility and hint at fastback styling. For a luxury sports car, it’s easy to split it 70 luxury, 30 sporty. Unless there is a fresh blanket of snow and you’ve got studded winter tires. Then it’s about a billion out of 10 on the sporty scale.
Porsche’s focus is revealed through the motor. The 944’s first road test was actually during the 24 Hours of LeMans and was named the 924 GTP LeMans after Porsche failed to meet homologation standards for the 924’s platform. The 924 GTP had ditched the 2-liter Audi motor for Porsche’s own power plant, which was much more fuel efficient and produced a brutal 410 horsepower (out of four [4!] cylinders). The 924 GTP placed an impressive 7th overall, tackling opponents with twice the cylinders.
The GTP was retired to a museum, but proved that Porsche’s front engine sports car theory could actually work. Most importantly, the 2.5 inline four could play with the big boys. They may not be the most expensive or exotic Porsches (or even most exotic front-engine Porsches) but to me the 944 is an excellent bargain for German fun. A sporty look, throaty four-banger and (be still, my heart) pop-up headlights is the perfect melting pot for old-school fun. Maybe I can car-sit this red rocket some other time, eh?