After reading all this I will continue working on BENZ's obviously. Money is tight, I love thier sparse design and rugged efficiency. You have to be a little goofy to enjoy driving a diesel.I can rebuild this one in hopes of turning it over to my daughter.
However, if I do find myself idle rich, a .0001% probability, I will buy a '85 911 Porsche to see what 400BHP is like in a car that light.

I don't know why some of you are so hard on the Porsches. I truly loved my 944 Turbo that I owned for 9 glorious years.
I had one recall during that period to install heat shielding around the exhaust and change the fuel lines. Other than that it was completely trouble free.

The sports car I owned before the 944T was a 1969 Jaguar XKE. Talk about a maintenance nightmare! Drive it a week...work on it 3 weeks. Beauty is on skin deep with this cat!

I don't think there are many cars out there that can be hot-rodded more than a 944 Turbo. It came stock with 217 HP but, with a minimal effort you could get 400 HP out of one. They are excellent handling cars with near perfect balance.

Would I want to drive a Porsche every day? NO! That's what the Benz is for! I look at Porsches as weekend or special occasion cars.

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Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

Does it make sense to be hard on something you really love? I think it's silly. I really love my car, deep down inside I think if I lost my three pointed star I'd be devasted! But I still say bad things about it. Maybe I'm too picky.

I love the air-cooled engines. I never drove my own but I worked for a guy who restored them so I got to wash a lot of parts and paint a lot of engine tin, and yes, test drive a lot of them. During that whole time I never stopped complaining about Porsche owners and their stupid cars. I drove a '69 VW bus parts hauler that was more reliable than some of these cars. One guy calls me up on his cel phone, sticks it out the window and asks me "hear that noise? What's that noise?" Yep these cars are a PITA but when you hear that telltale whistling sound of that (rebuilt) turbo spoolin' up you'll be hooked!

Kuan

I have a 944T upgrade article from a Street Power magazine if you are interested?

The shop strokes the engine and with various other upgrades gets 400Hp at the fly wheel (330 at rear wheels) for about 10k.

Ross

What is arguably the most desired rebuilt vehicle of modern times: Porsche Speedster

Yes it's arguable Technically, the 356 Speedster was introduced in '57. The next Speedster came in 1989. There are more Speedster look 356's out there than original Speedsters. A lot of people mess up on the side marker lights. I don't think the 89's have reached true collectible status yet. So... I want to say that the original 356 Speedster is (here we go again) arguably the most collectible Porsche, but I'm not quite sure it's the most desirable.

Kuan

I have to step in and put a word in for BMW. I have a 1984 e30 325e, and the car has never had a single problem since my dad bought it brand new in 1984. The car has 199,000 miles on it and every original part is still in the car, except for the usual culprets such as fan clutch, radiator, etc. The engine has never been opened and burns next to nil oil. I see almost no movement on the dipstick in between oil changes and have observed that the car must burn oil at a rate no more than 1 quart every 6-8 thousand miles. The car even has the original clutch in it and it is still not slipping. Granted, the clear coat is coming off the car and it does need a repaint, there is no body rust anywhere on the car. It has never left anyone stranded and has never even broken down once in 16 1/2 years. It also gets 30 MPG on the highway and even more if you are going under 60-65 MPH. I love this car and think it is unbelievble as far as reliability, build quality, etc.

The Speedster came out in 1955. Went from 55 to 57, after which it was replaced by the plusher "Convertible D."
Was revived in '89 (nice, nice car!), and again in '94.

Yep you're right, my mistake. 1955 is the right year.

What about an Audi Turbo Quattro???
There's something about that inline 5 on cam with the turbo spooled......and the exhuast note has that burble.....

And cheap!!! (relatively speaking)

If you love gravel roads in the country, this is the car!!!

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1989 300CE - 269,000 km
1994 SL600 - 59,000 km