My Porsche story: the 944 poster car

The last 944 of my childhood belonged to a schoolteacher. It was crystal green metallic and looked a real class act in the school carpark amongst Austin Rovers and Ford Sierras. The shell suit and stiletto-shod ‘PE teacher’ that drove it a little less so… 

Fast forward to my mid-thirties and an unexpected but significant inheritance came my way. Having benefited previously from a passed loved one, my typical actions have been to invest in home improvements and stuff for the good of my young family. 

Whilst a local builder did quite well from the death of my grandmother, and our house now sports a lovely extension, my wife did agree that I should treat myself to a Porsche!

This, as it happened, coincided quite nicely with the start of our expansion into Porsche parts at Heritage Parts Centre and meant that in my role attending events and meeting owners, I’d be part of the club too, not leaving my Mk3 Golf GTI around the corner and arriving on foot!

With £10k allocated I set out to buy myself a decent, un-messed with S2 (the run out 3.0-litre 16v model). As you do though, you get itchy feet waiting for the right car, in the right spec, in the right part of the country to throw your cash at. 

It doesn’t take a detective to work out the car in these photos wasn’t the concours classic I’d been searching for. However, it was only 5 miles away so I looked past the 2.5-litre 8v engine and modifications (including a respray in a Mitsubishi metallic blue paint) and got in touch with the seller via a friend and fellow 944 owner, if only to get a few minutes behind the wheel. 

The seller, as luck would have it, was also a Heritage customer and agreed to bring it by the office one day after work for me to take a closer look and have a go for myself. 

It presented well through my rose-tinted glasses, and at just over half my allocated budget, I was starting to see the potential. He chucked me the keys and we headed out of Shoreham for some local twisties; my first real time behind the wheel of a 944.

The car drove great. The driving position was fantastic. I felt like I was wearing the car, and the gear change was so positive. The stainless Dansk exhaust complemented my cautious acceleration at first, and then started to sing as confidence built and the pedal got heavier.

Lowered on Gaz coilovers, the transaxle Porsche’s legendary 50/50 weight distribution saw us navigate a number of roundabouts with ease, before we were back at Heritage HQ to talk about a deal.

It was not what I had set out for, but it was good fun. I bit the bullet, knocked £500 off the price and shook the seller’s hand. We’d sort collection out at the beginning of the following month to give him time to rectify the heater being stuck on full, and save me buying 5 days tax.

The day came, I got dropped at the seller’s house in nearby Hove and readied the money for transfer. We waited, and waited… I called HSBC, and still waited. I eventually drove the car home without paying, on the strength of him knowing where I worked and who I was. 

The journey home was complicated… within a few miles I discovered the indicators didn’t work. A further few minutes and it started to rain… low and behold the wipers didn’t work either. 

I got as far as I could and pulled into a pub car park to call up the seller. Apparently, these issues had never happened before. I remain doubtful, but the money cleared that night, and I owned my first Porsche!

It was a moment of elation and disappointment at the same time. £5k in and I had a car that wouldn’t go out in the wet or display my intentions at junctions. I had the stalks apart several times, eventually narrowing the indicator issue down to the hazard light switch. If they stopped working, I would simply flick that switch on and off, and they would work again! Remarkably for someone who works at a Porsche parts supplier, I lived with this ‘fix’ for a number of years before replacing the hazard light switch and solving the issue for good!

Within a matter of weeks, I’d booked my first Track Day at Goodwood, and had a local mobile Porsche mechanic tackle the timing belts and some replacement shock absorber bushes. The track day was a blast, and despite a pirouette in the wet (with my brother behind the wheel) we avoided anything solid and kept smiles on our faces. It’s quite addictive, and a second excursion was promptly booked for the spring with a hope that it would be dry… It wasn’t!

The 944 acted as my daily driver for almost a year before I backed it up with a sensible, everyday steed – it’s not the cheapest thing to run in stop-start traffic, even if my commute is only 6 miles each way. 

During lockdowns I started a Porsche group called Stuttgart South, and my 944 has been responsible for many new friendships and transporting me to my own and other events around the Southeast. I have days, typically at the more formal shows, when I wish I’d held out for the ‘perfect’ car. Largely though, I’m glad I bought something that had been used and modified. The mileage is 191k and the paintwork a little tired, but it gets used in all seasons and I get a real joy from letting others have a go, especially if they’ve never driven a transaxle car before, and I can leave it at Tesco without having a panic attack.

I get compliments on the car all the time, it photographs miraculously well and hides a multitude of sins when viewed on a smartphone screen. Future plans include more track time, some interior work and some remedial bodywork to sort a few rust bubbles.