Postpone mid life crisis until you can get a pre 89 911?

And some skidpan time in it!

Get to know your local indy Porsche garage well. In fact DD your salary there.

2.5 Porsche engines are ridiculously overbuilt (blocks been known to run 1000+ bhp when tuned to the hilt), but… VERY expensive should you need to fix anything.

The 2 litre VW engined cars are much more basic, but much cheaper to run. It’s essentially the same 2 litre 8 valve as was fitted to Audi 80’s and VW Passats of the time (essentially it’s a sightly longer stroke version of the 8v Mk2 GTi engine iirc), but you can buy all your spare parts from anywhere that sells VW bits and pieces.

IMO, an Auto completely defeats the point of a car like that (lightweight and RWD with engine up front), so I’d not bother myself. But that said, if it’s immaculate and dirt cheap, it could be luxury motoring in style (sort of) on a budget.

Have a look at a late 90s Boxters. A friend bought one that had one owner with full service history that had been sitting in it’s garage for the last few years. 80000 miles. Paint a bit flat, but no mechanical issues. Price haggled down to £5k.

A weekend with some T cut and a DIY valet of the interior and it looks great.

The bodies are galvanised so no body rot to worry about and 2.7 engine is unstressed.

There are significantly more fun cars than a 924 on a budget. I have a 993 (second one, sold firt then had sellers remorse !) which is to make up for my small pe…

I’ll tell you what I know.

They’re crap, they were an apology for a car in their day, the original hairdressers vehicle, if you happened to be female and didn’t want to drive too fast. They lost the back end at just the hint of a greasy road, too much weight in the ends. No idea if and when they ever had a proper Porsche Engine, my memory of it was a VW Audi lump, bested speed and handling wise by a Golf Gti of the period.

Nicer looking was the 944, but it’s handling wasn’t much better and was a bitter disappointment to me when I bought one having traded a perfectly decent Toyota Supra, snobbishly a victim to badge marketing as I was.

If I were looking for some genuine mid life crisis classic Porsche thing, try and find a 356 or even build one of those kit versions there are about..

There’s a great thread on Pistonheads by a young lad who has one.

They now seem to be very highly rated indeed by those in the know.
I’d ignore most of the total arse gravy posted above and go and have a search on there.

At that age, years’ MOT will probably double its value…

http://vimeo.com/57909173

Warning Porsche related content enclosed!

Great link, very jealous…

We had a Porsche once.
Never again.

I hated it like i’ve never hated any other car.

I’ve had Renaults that were better, and more fun!

Not much help!!!

Soz!

SB

944’s a better car, but depends on what you’re willing to spend – a couple of grand will get you an okay(ish) 944 or a really good 924. The problem will be finding a good 924, they weren’t well regarded back in the day, and changed hands for so little money that properly looked after ones are less common than 944s.

Don’t buy an automatic though !!

For a bit more dough, and stupid servicing costs, and crippling fuel consumption, the pick of the cheap old front engined Porsches has to be the 928. £5 – 8 K gets you on the road with a proper big V8 and serious big grins.

Owned one then hora?

If your not bothered about what you look like in it and MX5 will be infinitely more fun and a whole lot more reliable. I know its got a hair dressers image but underneath that is a fully competent chassis more than capable of bringing a smile to your face.

928 was one of my fav’s

Didn’t make that many 968s though did they? 13K made, against 120K 924s and 163K 944s, so 968 parts are always going to be harder to find / more expensive. Although the 968 was sort of based on the 944, there’s not that much on them that’s common (hence the re-designated model number).

Best front engined Porsche is the 928 btw.

I’ve owned a 944 S2 for the last ten years. If you get a good one they are excellent cars and more practical than you think. Ours gets used everyday. We’ve driven it to Austria and back and even managed to get a mountain bike, a crate of beer, my cricket bag and my wife’s luggage in it.

You’ll need to get it serviced every 12 months and you can expect to pay on average £750 each time. Our car has been serviced by Strasse in Leeds since day one and I couldn’t recommend them enough.

If you look carefully there are a few 944 Turbo’s kicking about.

There is a good ownership network, there’s plenty of advice online and parts don’t seem to be an issue.

Go for it.

924 = Poor man’s Porsche or rich man’s Capri.
At least the 2.5 is a proper Porsche engine but an auto! Don’t do it.
As suggested above get yourself over to Pistonheads for some more serious advice.