Rare Rides: The Very Rare 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GTR
TTAC’s own Sajeev Mehta gets the credit for discovering today’s Rare Ride. It’s the most special version of the Porsche 924, and it’s for sale in his hometown in the tiny republic of Texas.
Rare Rides featured one of Porsche’s 924s a couple of years ago, with the Martini Championship Edition (a steal at $7,000). This 924 is much more obscure — and much more expensive. Is this one-of-17 car worth the cool $925,000 asking price?
Porsche’s new 924 model entered production in 1976 as replacement for the outgoing (and unappreciated) entry-level 914. Produced through 1988, standard cars used 2.0- and 2.5-liter versions of Volkswagen’s inline-four engines, sourced from vehicles like the Vanagon. Four- and five-speed manual transmissions were available depending on trim — the 924 never offered an automatic. Keeping things simple with engines and equipment meant the 924 sported a low curb weight of around 2,400 pounds, which was suitable given the limited power on offer. But Porsche had some more lofty aspirations for its entry-level car. The first performance step was the Turbo version that debuted at dealers in 1979.
That same year, Porsche also debuted a 924 “concept” Turbo with hallowed Carrera badges at the Frankfurt Auto Show. A year later the 924 Carrera GT arrived, as Porsche let the world know it planned to race its entry level liftback. The new Carrera GT 924 boasted increased compression over the regular Turbo and added an intercooler. The revised internals produced a whopping 210 horsepower. 406 were built in order to meet homologation requirements for Group 4 racing. A followup GTS model was more limited in scope, and only 59 were built. The GTS was lighter and more powerful; they shed 130 pounds from the GT and upped horsepower to 245. Porsche wanted more.
Enter the Carrera GTR. The final development of the racing versions of the 924, the GTR pushed the limits of the 2.0-liter turbocharged VW engine. 375 horsepower and 299 lb-ft of torque were on offer in what was the lightest 924 version (2,050 pounds). GTRs benefitted from an integrated roll cage, adjustable suspension, and four-piston brake calipers. The GTR’s production was limited to 17 units, nine of which raced or qualified at Le Mans. Porsche placed 6th, 12th, and 13th overall with its Carrera GTRs. The 924 had evolved quite a long way from its original form in just five years.
Today’s Rare Ride was one of the few GTRs exempt from racing. It was one of two delivered from the factory to Japan, where it was imported by an eager dealer. Said dealer sat on it until 1983 before it was sold to a private collector in Japan. Since then it’s traveled just 109 kilometers, making it static art today. Yours if you’ve got $925,000 handy.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Raise your hand if you've never spent a million dollars on a single vehicle. All of you? Okay. Now keep your hand raised if you haven't spent a grand total of a million dollars on ALL of the cars you've purchased in your entire life. Still all of you? I thought so. One thing I've learned in my years is that folks like you and me don't at all think like the folks who can spend a million dollars on a car and not blink an eye. People who can do that often buy things like this just because they CAN.
I'm not aware of any 924 that's worth $900K. Maybe Jerry Seinfeld might want to fill out his collection, but even he probably has more sense than to buy it.