The 944 Turbo Offers Porsche Soul without the Price

When Rob Piekarczyk turns the key to his 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo, it takes him back to a very specific moment.

“I was seven years old, and I remember going to the Longest Day at Nelson Ledges and watching Fred Baker and others race the 944,” he said. “Even though it was a fantastic race car, up against the Corvettes and Camaros, the impression I got as a kid was that it was kind of an underdog—it had a fighting spirit to it. I said, ‘holy cow, that is the coolest car I’ve ever seen.’ And it stuck with me forever.”

It’s no surprise that the car—and that moment—left an impression: What Piekarczyk witnessed was the 944 tested in the most grueling of circumstances. The Longest Day, a 24-hour SCCA-sanctioned race that got its start in 1980, pitted cars in a brutal endurance battle at one of the fastest road courses in the country. The competition was stiff, too, with big names like Baker, Hurley Haywood, Janet Guthrie, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, and John Heinricy racing against some of the best the SCCA had to offer, including Piekarczyk’s dad, Bob, as well as a host of Road & Track and Car and Driver writers. The 944, and the 924 before it, were always in the thick of it, and the 944 took home wins in 1982 and 1984.

Decades later, Piekarczyk himself holds a class win at the Longest Day, and remains as passionate as ever about 944s and Porsches in general. His story is a familiar one—many of us remember exactly when we first fell in love with a particular make or model. But, as I found out one recent summer evening, even without the personal ties, there are plenty of reasons to appreciate a 944 Turbo as an emerging classic and as a still-great sports car.

The 944 Turbo is an evolutionary stop on the meandering path of front-engine, water-cooled cars that Porsche fans refer to as the “transaxle era”. What began as a project for Volkswagen turned into the 924, then the 944, and culminated with the 968. Debuting in 1985 (although fewer than 200 cars were made that year), the Turbo added, you guessed it, a turbocharger to the 143-horsepower Porsche 2.5-liter four cylinder that had premiered with the 944 in 1982. Aided by an intercooler, forged pistons, improved exhaust, and other durability-related tweaks, the boosted engine produced a healthy 220 horsepower and 243 lb-ft. of torque. These were solid numbers at the time—the standard 911 made 207 hp and the C4 Corvette, a car that would prove to be the 944 Turbo’s nemesis on track, featured the new L98 V-8 that put out a similar 230 hp.

Complementing the added power, Porsche added stronger brakes from the 911 to the 944 Turbo, as well as revised spring rates to address the additional weight. The result was a car lauded for its balance, poise, and livability, securing accolade after accolade from magazines, even besting its big brother 911 in a head-to-head matchup in Car magazine in March of 1985.

In the intervening years, the market and strongly held beliefs about Porsche engine layouts and locations have conspired to make this buff-book champion much more affordable than contemporary 911s, which were getting long in the tooth by the middle of the ’80s. It was with that context that I headed over to Piekarczyk’s house in northeast Ohio to see his car and better understand what the 944 Turbo is all about.

Walk up to a 944 and you’ll notice how petite it is by modern standards. At 94.5 inches, the 944’s wheelbase is 6.9 inches shorter than that of a new Subaru BRZ, and the Porsche is about 1.5 inches shorter overall than the Subaru. It’s all the size you need in a sports car—enough room in the back seats and shallow hatch area for a weekend trip or a grocery run to Costco—and nothing extra.

The 944’s profile is trademark ’80s sports coupe, and while its slender 924 predecessor looks very much like the affordable bantamweight fighter it was originally conceived as, the 944 shows as the more complete, evolved package that it is. It didn’t take much—the boxed fenders give the design the muscle it needed, and the more assertive wheel and tire package sits well beneath the fenders. The Turbo’s front fascia completes the look, fully integrating the bumper and adding aggressive inlets and driving lights.

Piekarczyk’s car rounds out the on-point period feel with phone dial wheels and oh-so-eighties Crystal Green Metallic paint. Available only in 1985 and 1986, this shade can appear as deep aqua or a greenish silver depending on how the light hits it, a characteristic that plays beautifully the body’s flares and creases.

I slide behind the wheel and immediately notice just how shallow the dashboard is and how close windshield feels relative to the seating position. This makes for an expansive view ahead without the hefty, long-nose feel present in some other front-engine sports cars of the era.

The utilitarian interior sticks to the straightforward German approach of the ’80s—while Japanese sport coupes and the C4 Corvette went full high-tech, the 944 shares its info via basic analog gauges neatly arranged. Perhaps to make up for that, several interior colors were offered—Piekarczyk’s is finished in burgundy, an attractive shade that looks more like a rich shade of brown in person.

Composed and competent, the 944 Turbo does regular car well when puttering around town. It’s much more accommodating than 911s from the same period while still managing to have a healthy identity. The controls feel precise and ready, but nothing is frenetic, overly weighted, or intense. The seats offer a just-right blend of padding and bolstering, and remain comfortable throughout my evening drive.

Turn up the wick and the car responds in kind. We ramped up the pace on some two-lane roads in the rural valleys south of Cleveland, and the Turbo’s real personality emerged.

The engine ramps up exactly as you’d imagine an ’80s turbocharged mill of small-ish displacement would—it’s got some lag, taking about 500-700 rpm to make boost. That said, once on boil, the 944 Turbo provides plenty of hustle even by modern standards, and you quickly learn to plant your foot a little ahead of where you otherwise would in a naturally aspirated car.

Piekarczyk says he considered the naturally aspirated S2 version, which, with its larger, 208-horse 3.0-liter inline four, is considered by many to be more tractable in regular use. But he ultimately settled on the Turbo: “The S2’s three-liter was understandably popular because it was more linear and didn’t have the quirks of the Turbo,” he shared. “But the Turbo is the model I best remember from that era, and its spooling whoosh and power delivery really define the car’s character.”

The engine is indeed what sets the Turbo apart from other 944 trims, but the brilliant chassis dynamics are what I take away from my brief time with the car. Well damped with plenty of suspension travel, Rob’s 944 exemplifies how beautifully a car can dance when engineers don’t simply throw a ton of spring rate at the problem and call it a day. Just enough spring and a healthy amount of anti-roll bar keep the 944 flat and composed. It confidently takes a set in a corner, letting you feel the sidewalls at work through the seat of your pants and a pleasantly communicative steering rack.

Plenty of cars can out-hustle this one, but that’s not the point—the 944 Turbo’s precision and capability will impress anyone used to more modern metal. For Piekarczyk, who also owns a newer 911 and had a sixth-generation Mustang GT prior to the 944 Turbo, the appeal is rooted in the 944’s tactility compared to newer cars. “This is just a different level of interaction,” he said. “You feel every input more directly, and you have to put thought into driving it.”

944s are reliable if properly maintained (Piekarczyk, who took his time finding a well-sorted example, reports that his cost of ownership has been pleasantly low), but it’s important to note that they do have some significant maintenance items. The timing belt schedule is every 30K miles, and while the water pump isn’t necessarily as short—some recommend every other timing belt change—it’s a good “while you’re in there” safety measure. Be sure to budget both in if there’s no recent record of replacement. Engine and transaxle mounts will allow driveline vibrations to transfer to passengers if they’re worn out—these and the rest of the chassis bushings should be inspected.

Between the fact that these cars were cheap thrills for a long while and the engine’s ability to take quite a bit more boost, plenty of them have been modified. Buying a stock example is the safest bet, but if you’re not afraid of a few tweaks, make sure they’ve been made by a knowledgable shop. Interior components can get a little brittle, and sourcing them is not always easy. As with any older car, but especially with a Porsche, seeing a healthy stack of receipts and paying for a pre-purchase inspection can provide peace of mind and save you money later. Porsche built 25,245 944 Turbos from 1985 to 1991 (not counting the 1635 Turbo S cars or the 635 Turbo cabriolets)—that’s not a lot, but it is enough for a buyer to be able to be choosy.

Values for the 944 Turbo are up, and have held steady despite the overall retreat of the collector car market. Cars in #2 (excellent) condition are up 54 percent since 2019 to an even $54K. Driver-quality cars—those that are well-sorted but showing signs of wear—can still be had in the mid-$20K range. Turbo values slightly outpace S2 values even though about 10,000 fewer S2 coupes were made (perhaps there’s something to having that Turbo badge out back, or, like Piekarczyk, buyers like the period feel of the power delivery). To highlight the hierarchy within Porsche models, ’84-’89 911s in #2 condition are worth nearly double a similar-condition 944 Turbo.

Perhaps understandably, then, owner demographics for the 944 Turbo skew younger than those from 911s of the same era. Fifty-four percent of 944 Turbo owners are Gen X or younger compared with 41 percent for the 1986-89 911. Based on the data, the 944 appears to appeal to folks like Piekarczyk who were first exposed to them decades ago at the track or on the pages of magazines, where they were winning comparison tests. Critically, though, they are also sought after by younger enthusiasts seeking entry to the Porsche brand. Regardless of how or when enthusiasts arrive at the idea of owning a 944 Turbo, it remains a relatively attainable sports car benchmark.

After we finished our drive, we brought the conversation full circle, comparing the halo Porsches of the era—the brutally quick 962s and 911 Turbos he saw when his dad took him to Mid-Ohio—to the 944s coursing around Nelson Ledges. “For me,” said Piekarczyk, “the soul of Porsche isn’t necessarily brute force like the 962s, or the layout and truly unique experience of the 911. I appreciate those attributes, but I think it really lies in precision and execution.”

That precision and execution, that Porsche-ness, is very much present in the 944 Turbo. Handling, communication, competence, and maybe just a dab of quirkiness are what Porsches are all about, regardless of look or layout.

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