PROVING ITSELF AT LAST
A triple entry at Le Mans proved the mettle of Porsche’s 924 – but this evolved GTR version had to wait 35 years before it got to race
The 924 is that rare thing: a Porsche that, in its day, failed to ignite passion within the marque community. Shouldn’t a factory-sanctioned racing programme have adjusted that thinking? I’m on a track in a 924 Carrera GTR race car and it certainly delivers, reeling in more powerful cars because it’s so good in the corners. So, how come the 924 is such a small chapter in the rich history of Weissach’s racing adventures? ‘We had just come out of the 935 programme,’ recalls Norbert Singer, lead engineer of Porsche’s 924 race effort. ‘At Le Mans in 1978 we had the last factory outing with the Group 5 935. Around that time, Helmuth Bott and Ernst Fuhrmann came up with the idea to boost 924 sales through a factory racing programme. In Germany the 924 was not considered a real Porsche because it had an Audi engine. So, the idea grew to show people that the 924 was a real Porsche and that it could race.
‘I liked the challenge. We accepted that we would not be gunning for top spot overall, but for me it brought a big change because it was completely different from the 911.’
Not least in one obvious respect. ‘The balance was interesting. We had the engine in the front, and with the gearbox in a transaxle layout the weight distribution – 48:52 – was excellent. That was a good starting point. We knew from the start that we would not get the power needed to keep the car alive, so we would have to keep an eye out for basic aerodynamics and the lowest possible drag. That was pretty much it.’
Before the 1980 factory Le Mans effort, other 924 racing initiatives included the British importer’s 924 Cup series in 1978, with near-standard non-turbo cars on slick tyres. That same year, Porsche started developing a 924
for the US’s SCCA Production D category. This was also a non-turbo, but the engine was bored out from 1984cc to 2039cc to give 180bhp.
The SCCA 924 made its debut in 1979 and the wins soon came. In 1980 it took the North-East Division title with Doc Bundy, who also won the finals at Road Atlanta. This was great, but Porsche was planning greater things: a three-car factory entry at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1980.
‘As usual, we were short of preparation time,’ Singer recalls. He received the green light only in September 1979; by February 1980 the first car was on a transporter to Paul Ricard in the South of France for testing.
‘We are a tight family at Porsche. Everybody talks to everybody and tries to help. When you are building a race car you want it to be as stiff as possible, and the 924 has a large opening for the big rear window. I met a fellow employee in the canteen. He said: “Bring the car to us. We have a nice dyno and we’ll put sensors on the car. We run through a range of frequencies until we find a resonance. The higher the resonance frequency is, the stiffer the car is.” We quickly built in a rollcage to reinforce the chassis and started measuring. In days, we had doubled the stiffness, up to pretty much the same level as a 935’s.’
The cars for Le Mans were based on the 924 Carrera GT concept car Porsche had shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1979. Its 2.0-litre, turbocharged, Audi-based engine was pushed from 210bhp to 320bhp at 6500rpm, helped by a bigger intercooler. It used the clutch and gears from the 935, in a dog-leg five-speed gearbox. The propshaft was titanium and Porsche opted for a solid rear differential in place of limited-slip. The brakes came from the 917 and had also been used on the 935. It weighed just 930kg and ran with clear headlight covers instead of the pop-ups for better night-time aerodynamics.
‘We went to Le Mans with three 924 Carrera GTs, each painted in the colours of a big Porsche market,’ says Singer. ‘They represented Germany, the UK and the United States.’ The third UK driver, Derek Bell, was transferred to the US car to replace Peter Gregg, who had been injured in a road accident before the race. Bell’s former fellow Octane columnist Tony Dron was paired with Andy Rouse – he recalled the race when he was reunited with the car in Octane 163. The German car, driven by Jürgen Barth and Manfred Schurti, finished sixth overall. It was a brilliant achievement for a car intended for Group 4, although it was entered in the prototype category because it had yet to be homologated.
For 1981 Porsche developed the 924 Carrera GTR for customer racing, with power taken up to 375bhp by increasing turbo boost from 1bar to 1.5bar. Only 17 were built, presented initially with the round rear wheelarches of the 924 GTS they were based on, though some GTRs were modified with the bigger Le Mans-style arches. It was homologated for the World Endurance Championship and would run in Trans-Am and IMSA races in the USA. Nominally it weighed a svelte 945kg, but Porsche advised its customers to check before racing: some were delivered underweight.
Doc Bundy’s performance had drawn attention to the 924, and at least six of the 17 factory-built 924 GTRs went straight to the USA. Al Holbert built six more cars with parts supplied by Porsche, adding some modifications. One of his cars, originally his 1980 factory Le Mans Carrera GT, appeared at the 1981 Daytona 24 Hours entered as a GTR .
But 1981 turned out not to be a great year for the GTR . Customers complained about reliability issues even though, in the USA, some had taken their cars apart themselves and rebuilt them. Meanwhile, Porsche brought a further prototype 924 to Le Mans with the turbocharged 2.5-litre engine from the as-yet-unlaunched 944, which finished seventh overall and first in GTP.
Another factory 924 was driven in the race by Schurti and Rouse, its 2.0-litre engine upgraded to deliver 370bhp. It finished 11th overall and first in the IMSA GTO class.
This car surprised Singer when he took a closer look at his notes on the 1981 race in the Porsche archive, some 20 years later. ‘The 924 had spent a long time in the pits for various repairs. I realised that, if the car had run normally, it could have beaten the 944. On average, with pitstops taken out of the equation, the 924 was a second per lap quicker than the 944… and it used less fuel!’
The next year brought more of the same. The 924 GTR was capable of both the best (another class victory in Le Mans, for the privately entered Brumos car of Busby/ Bundy) and the worst. W hich brings us to the car we have here: chassis 009, the only 924 GTR not to race in period.
It was bought by Vasek Polak as a spare car. Many US teams had been going their own way to improve the GTR , and 009 just sat there until it was sold to the Matsuda collection in Japan. Still it saw little running, although it was maintained in perfect order. It wasn’t until 2016, 35 years on, that it was finally entered in its first race. It ran in that year’s Le Mans Classic as well, wearing the Boss livery of the 924/944 prototype. That has been mostly removed now, though you can still see traces.
How do you present a car that has no race history, that didn’t make a name for itself back in its day? New owner Oliver Mathai isn’t bothered; he is more interested in new results and runs it in Europe’s Peter Auto classic series.
‘We found a car that was still completely original,’ the German racer explains in the pitlane at the Nürburgring. ‘We took it to Britec Motorsports, who serviced it and changed what needed changing. There was a bit of a cooling issue, but we found a solution for that. After some changes to the set-up, it started to run fine.’ Mathai has already scored two podium finishes in 2019. ‘Both times I had the fastest Porsche in my category,’ he adds, proudly.
It’s time to experience it for ourselves. Getting in is easy, the dashboard isn’t too cluttered, and the big
‘CHASSIS 009 WAS BOUGHT AS A SPARE CAR, AND SAT THERE UNTIL IT WAS SOLD TO JAPAN. IT WASN’T UNTIL 2016 THAT IT ENTERED ITS FIRST RACE’
gearlever is close to your right hand. Flick the switch for the fuel pumps, then start it with a regular key. The clutch bites at once but the GTR is easy to get off the line, with no stuttering.
At first you think: ‘Well, this doesn’t seem like much.’ Then that big scoop on the bonnet catches your eye. And once the turbo delivers its first serious kick, the 924 GTR enters the big league. There’s a reason why Porsche made the boost gauge almost as obvious as the revcounter. Pre-boost, this is just a neat little sports car with more noise than go, thanks to the less-than-musical fourcylinder drone and the exhaust buzzing away under the passenger door. But as the revcounter’s needle speeds its way around the dial to the engine’s increasingly aggressive bark, the GTR becomes ever more spectacular. Does it really have just 2.0 litres?
That transaxle layout makes sense, too. This car is so nicely balanced that you quickly gain confidence. The steering is keen, the front end is willing to work, the rear sticks solidly to the asphalt, so you just try to keep it on boost as much as you can. This is early-1980s turbo technology, so if it falls off boost there is nothing to do but wait for the turbo to spool up again, to whistle and let you know it’s in the zone. Get it right and it’s astonishing how quickly you’ll make it through a turn, giving you maximum shove when exiting the corner.
You can feel the 924 rolling slightly as the slicks stick. Eventually it will run out of grip, but very progressively, giving you time to react. Working the steering demands a bit of effort, but there’s rarely a need to wrestle this car.
Surprisingly, the dog-leg five-speed gearbox offers precise and quick shifts. The ratios are not so well-suited to this Nürburgring Grand Prix track, but the circuit’s curves highlight the fine chassis dynamics as you dash from left to right under power in the esses. Those ample brakes are more than up to the job, and even on cold tyres you can shed speed quickly without locking up.
The 924 began life modestly but became extremely capable on the track. And this ultimate version is huge fun, thanks to its benign yet engaging handling: few giant-killing racers could be as easy to drive. After more than three decades denied the chance to prove itself, this thoroughbred racer is at last – thanks to its enthusiastic owner – accomplishing all it was designed to do.
THANKS TO Oliver Mathai, www.cool4.racing
‘IF IT FALLS OFF BOOST THERE IS NOTHING TO DO BUT WAIT FOR THE TURBO TO SPOOL UP AGAIN, TO WHISTLE AND LET YOU KNOW IT’S IN THE ZONE’