The 1982 introduction of the Porsche 944 was Stuttgart's attempt to save itself. The 911 was scheduled to be phased out of production by the middle of the decade with the aircooled champion being replaced by the company's vision of the future-a model line limited to watercooled, front-engined, rear-transaxled, grand touring automobiles.
Yet its offering of 924s, the Porsche/VW/Audi crossbreed, and the luxurious 928 had not earned the devotion the 911 already enjoyed for nearly 20 years. This lack of showroom excitement in an automotive market being squeezed by Japanese competition, growing fuel prices and a weakening world economy resonated through the hallowed halls of Porsche corporate.
What the company needed was a car that could carry the 911 torch in both flair and performance. Unfortunately, while Porsche prided itself on being a small, independent manufacturer, this fact hindered its ability to create a new sports car in a short amount of time. Thus, as it had in the past, Stuttgart turned to its racing division for salvation.
Weissach's FISA Group 3 race car, the 924 Carrera GT, was a ready-made solution. Based on the 924 chassis, its aggressive, straight-cut fenders, wide tires and front and rear spoilers gave the racer an awe-inspiring silhouette. It was a shape Porsche hoped would rekindle the buyer's faith and renew the company's command of its market segment.
The 944, the new model's designation, was clearly a derivative of the civilian 924, a car that was not one of the factory's highlights. Because of its inescapable VW/Audi lineage, the 924 carried a "not-the-real-deal" stigma. For the 944 to succeed, let alone replace the venerable 911, Stuttgart had to dispel the potential criticism it was anything but a true Porsche.
Again, Porsche did what it does best, it went racing. For the 1981 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the factory quietly inserted a new motor under the hood of the Hugo Boss sponsored 924 GTS and placed it in the prototype class. The powerplant was a newly designed 2.5-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder watercooled engine that delivered an impressive 420 bhp. Unlike the Audi motor of the production 924, the 2.5-liter was a strictly in-house product.
In fact, to keep future production costs under control, the cylinder head, connecting rods, pistons and various other components were analogous to those of the 928's V8. The engine could also be assembled with the same tooling which gave rise to the notion that it was simply Porsche's big eight sliced in half.
The clandestine Le Mans entry managed to place third in class and an impressive seventh overall. It also garnered praise for having spent the least amount of time against the pit wall. A 56-min. slice of the 24-hour endurance race. While the racer was turbocharged-a similar accessory would not reach a production 944 until 1985-the company's marketing wizards proclaimed the new car's engine was race proven and worthy of its Porsche heritage.
The 944: 1982-1985Arriving on U.S. shores as a 1983 model, the 944's body and fenders, unlike those of the lightweight Carrera GT, were sculpted in zinc-coated steel. While the front fenders were nearly identical to the Group 3 racer, the rear arches flowed smoothly into the hindquarters. The four small inlets on the body panel forward the engine compartment were deleted along with the GT's somewhat boastful hood-mounted air scoop.
When finally in production, the 944 was powered by an all-aluminum, 2.5-liter four cylinder that was a technical leap beyond the 2.0-liter of the 924. The smaller engine had often been chided for running rough throughout its rpm range. This was a critical problem of straight fours and one Porsche set a priority on correcting.
To offset the inherent imbalance of in-line four-cylinder motors, Porsche incorporated a technique perfected by Mitsubishi of Japan. Two parallel shafts were positioned on each side of the block and driven by the crankshaft. Manufactured with the exact disparities to counteract the engine's internal oscillations; the dynamic twin shafts smoothed out unwanted irregularities.
The engine also took advantage of the research and development placed on the 928's V8 which had been designed entirely under Porsche's roof. A primary example was the strides made in cylinder head design and ignition timing that, together, offered better performance, fuel economy and lower emissions. The first generation 944s delivered 143 bhp at 5500 rpm with 137 lb-ft of torque at 3000 rpm.
Early on, a good deal of attention was paid to properly baffling the sump pan. In today's club racing circles, however, the number-two bearing is still vulnerable to oil starvation. The need to further improve the factory's baffling can be attributed to the modern tire technology. The current generation of competition and performance rubber is substantially better than the tires that had originally held the car to the tarmac. Thus, under these higher cornering forces, the oil is drawn from critical components.