I really want a Porsche 944.

I dunno.  Ever since a kid I have had a fascination with Stuttgart's finest...

911's decorated my walls and "Risky Business" and it's 928 played many a role in boyhood daydreams (the car wasn't the only thing from the movie I was dreaming about!).

So I've always really wanted one.  The styling and engineering just reverberates in me.

The prospect of owning one has always been tempting, but all the options are not so appealing:

911 - the queen of them all.  Pure sex.  All of them still have mondo resale value, and as usual parts are a million bucks, and I'm just not ready for the investment.  Even 25 year old cars in alright shape still fetch 20G.

928 - My father's business partner had a gaurds red/tan leather 928S back in 88.  Loved that car.  Went with to GLD in the car, with many a 100+ MPH jaunt on the way. Car even had nitrous on it...  Hell of a car.  Still demands 10+G on the used market, and while the V8 in her is a marvel, rebuilding/modifying one will cost a king's ransom, and it just wouldn't be right to swap it out to anything else.

924/944/968 - Perfect.  Still has the look, dig the front/rear engine layout, excellent dynamics with its rear mounted transaxle...   The all aluminum 4 cylinder engine they offered (2.0, 2.5, 2.7, even a 3.0!!) were way ahead of their time.  But alas, rebulding one of those lumps would again be stupid money, and even though the later motors were DOHC 4 valvers, they are a tad behind the times.  Enter - Ford Duratec swap.  2.3.  Turbo.  Motors are cheap, plentiful, a hair lighter than the Deutsche unit they would replace, and even somewhat related as Porsche did some early developmental work with Ford/Cosworth on the early V6 Duratec motors.  Ratty versions of these cars are in the $500 range, nice ones in the $5000 range.  The 968 is still fairly recent, and it still goes for good coin, so I think the 944 '85.5+ is the right car with it's updated bodywork.

There ARE LS1/SBC conversion setups already out there for these fine whips, but the V8's heft would ruin the balance...

Check out some of these guys:

http://www.renegadehybrids.com/

Tell me that shit is not BAD ASS.

A few pix of my lastest automotive illness:

Make mine gaurds red with some turbo twists I think...