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| 1987 Porsche 944S: The Search |
I spent some time shopping for the successor to my departed '85 944. This was made more difficult by working in Manhattan during the week, while my garage, tools, and mechanic were all in Massachusetts, and that's where the vehicle would be registered and live most of the time.
For a few weeks the listings were pretty sparse. It seemed like the middle of winter was not the ideal time to be shopping for a new Porsche, even an unusually warm winter. With the difficulty of performing this kind of search on the weekends only, when returning from an out-of-town job each weekend, I eventually got pretty frustrated and out of that made a decision to buy a car that was a lot rougher than I would have liked. I was in withdrawl, and I needed a fix...
What did I buy? Well, the above image is from a tri-fold sales brochure that I found in the glove box when I inspected the car. This is basically it: an '87 944S, black exterior, black leather interior. Pretty slick item. But I got bit by several surprises. Expensive surprises...
My advice to any prospective new buyers would be, don't rush under any circumstances. The best way to buy a Porsche is when you don't have to; that is, when you have the leisure to be fussy, pick over each candidate at length, and wait as long as you have to for the right car to come along. For the 944 family this is a very viable approach, as there are many specimens out there for a patient buyer.
So what was wrong with this car? Let's see, when I first saw it at a dealer's lot the car looked okay. I went over it and found no obvious body rot or corrosion, and the only worrisome thing I noticed in the engine compartment was a very dep buildup of leaf mold and organic material around the battery. (Of course, I'm not much of a mechanic...) Battery tray leaks are not that uncommon in older 944s, so this was cause for a little concern. There were some water tracks indicating that something had dripped in at the back of the sunroof, but this happens when driving with the roof tilted up in the rain.
The previous owner had kept fairly detailed service records, and it looked like the car had been well cared for but not used a lot in the past two years. My biggest concern so far was the fact that the leather seats were pretty well beat up and probably ought to be refinished. In fact, I had already started talking numbers with the salescritter assuming that the car would pass inspection by my mechanic. That, it turns out, was a bit premature.
When we got into the car and turned it over, it sounded good. Once again I had something with a throat around me, as opposed to random American compact cars I'd been renting. The salesman took a turn around the neighborhood, and then invited me to do the same. When I got into the driver's seat and went to adjust the rear view mirror it came off in my hand. A large divot of glass had remained with the mounting button, so there was about a ¼ inch deep hole on the inside of the windshield! The salesman did gloss it over, but wasn't slimy about it. Maybe because he knew what was to come...
I took it around the neighborhood (Brookline/Chestnut Hill?) and it felt good, it felt real good. At this point I'd been without my 944 for about six weeks, and this was only the second listing where I'd been able to see a car. So I was very happy, thinking about how soon I could take delivery and trying to get used to the redesigned '85½ and later interior, when I noticed one of the indicator lights come on while waiting at a stop sign. The car had overheated.
When we got back to the lot the saleman got me out of the car and into the office in short order. He said he'd have someone take a look at it and give me a call. I was pretty shaken between the mirror and the overheating, took my money off the table and walked away. In the coming two weeks the salesman did not return my calls.
I saw one or two other cars, but March was not the right time to be looking. Pickings were very thin, and I was getting more and more frustrated. Eventually I was directed to someone who had a dealer/wholesaler license who had a line on a 944S, and yes, it was the same dealer I had visited earlier. I told him what I knew about the car, and was asked if I wanted him to bring the car out for an inspection by my mechanic. I agreed; it was the best feeling car I'd seen so far, and maybe Bill could tell me what was going on with it.
Well, Bill took a look and thought he knew what we were dealing with. The radiator was shot, the plastic was badly cracked around the thermostat. Because of this the cooling system wouldn't hold pressure (or fluid!), and that was why it had overheated. It was risky, and I was being encouraged to pass on this car - and most likely I should have listened. But the listings were really sparse, and I was really anxious to try to have something ready for the first Driver's Ed events in April/May...
So I picked the car up at a discount via the wholesaler. The thinking was, I'd take the balance I would have paid a retail dealer and give it to my mechanic. The end price might be the same, but I'd have a much higher comfort level since my mechanic would have been all over the car. Unfortunately, when he replaced the radiator and put the cooling system back in order, he discovered that the head gasket had blown at some point...
In the end I paid for a head gasket, front end reseal, radiator, water pump and thermostat, all belts and rollers, oil cooler seal, timing chain tensioner, and new muffler. A whole lot more money than I'd expected, a severe cramp in my plans to move back to Massachusetts by summer, and it was not ready in time for NER's first DE event of the season. Ouch. And after all that, I had to get used to what I find to be an irritating high-pitched whine that seems to be endemic to the 16-valve S models...
On the whole, despite the money, I was pretty happy. This is a great little car - comfortable, responsive, very well sorted out. Driving between New York and Massachusetts was a pleasure, expecially since I almost always take the very twisty Merritt Parkway for the leg between New York and Hartford. Of course, this has a downside too - in less than six months I had already been issued two speeding citations. And while I had always had good experiences with state troopers, this time it was a Massachusetts lieutenant in his fifties who had to prove himself the exception to the rule and play Iron Jack... The extent to which this guy went out of his way to be a prick was much more disappointing than the ticket itself.
A few weeks after taking delivery of the car, I finally made it to my first Driver's Ed event with PCA's Northern New Jersey Region at Watkin's Glen. What an incredible experience! I was more than halfway to becoming a track junkie based on just this one outing, and I had many more lined up for the summer. Unfortunately my schedule would not turn out the way I had planned...