Porsche was ready to kill off the 911 in the middle of the 1980s with an eye toward replacing it with the heavier and faster 928 grand tourer. Porsche couldn’t just let the 911 die on the vine and not replace it in the world of motorsport, so the company was looking to promote its entry-level 944 model to represent the Stuttgart crest on the race track. For 1987 the company built a limited run of 944 GTR race cars, including this one which ran in IMSA GTO competition. It looks as wild as it sounds, as you can see from this recent video of the car at Laguna Seca.
Porsche Motorsport head Al Holbert teamed with Fabcar Engineering to build this tube-frame monster, and Andial assembled an incredible 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder for the car with 575 horsepower and a side-exit exhaust dump. Yeah, that should be pretty good.
Only eight 944 GTR machines were built. Seven of them were used for SCCA Trans Am racing purposes, making this the only IMSA-spec unit. The 944 GTR featured coilover suspension, unlike the Volkswagen Rabbit-based front suspension and Beetle-based torsion bar rear. The 944 torque tube was replaced with a more robust 928 unit, mated to a Hewland race gearbox. The wheels and brakes were cribbed directly from Porsche’s all-conquering Le Mans prototype 962. Considering the 944’s somewhat humble beginnings, this machine is a beast.
I’m a sucker for 944s, I’ve owned half a dozen of them, and I’m always looking for my next one. The 944 GTR has been the pinnacle of 944-dom for decades, and it’s awesome to see this one on track. Check it out!
The car has been out and about on the vintage racing scene for a little while and recently traded hands for a mere $155,000 at Broad Arrow Auctions’ Porsche 75th Anniversary sale in June of last year. So it’s good to see that the new owner is still taking the car out for regular exercise on track. Crank up the volume and watch this monster eat.