Porsche 944 Turbo for Sale

Engine at the front and gearbox at the rear give almost even weight distribution, 50.7 per cent front and 49.3 per cent rear. Two counter-rotating balance shafts turning at twice engine speed cancel the secondary vibration of a four-cylinder; Porsche could not better the arrangement Mitsubishi had patented and paid the licence instead, about seven to eight dollars a car. The Turbo takes its brakes from the 911, with four-piston Brembo calipers and twelve-inch discs, and its headers, crossover pipe and downpipe are Inconel. The integrated front bumper carries the widest indicators ever fitted to a production car. From the 1987 model year the North American 944 Turbo was the first production car with driver and passenger airbags as standard equipment, and anti-lock brakes became standard on the Turbo while staying optional elsewhere in the range.

The 944 grew out of the 924 GTP that ran at Le Mans in 1981, which already used the 2.5-litre engine and its balance shafts. Porsche built the car at Neckarsulm, where a four-cylinder was chosen partly because the engine had to be fitted from below on that line; Harm Lagaay drew it, the Turbo is internally the 951, and the 968 replaced the family in 1992.