924Board.org

[plasticbaldy]

I'm looking at buying a 1980 924 turbo that was exported from the US to Australia and converted to RH drive. Is this a 931? It has rear drum brakes. There are 924 turbos here with rear discs. What other serious differences are there? I havn't seen it yet but am told it starts and only runs for a few seconds. What could cause that? What else do I look for that could be faulty mechanically and expensive? Thanks.

[dwak]

The 5 bolt wheel 931's are the one's to look for. They have 4 weel disc brakes, etc. Unless you're gifted mechanically and have a nice shop, don't buy a 931 unless it is driving well. The problems you're describing could be anything and more than likely elusive and costly.

[John H]

My advice is don’t touch it unless the price is real good. It’s value should be about par with a normal 924 – I wouldn’t pay a premium on the car cause it’s a 924 Turbo. In fact cause it’s a US spec car in a predominantly Euro spec market the price should be less than a N/A 924. An acquaintance in New Zealand did the same as you and brought a US spec 924 turbo. He did this many years ago and found after a while that US spec car was distinctly inferior to the Euro spec cars found in New Zealand.

As you’ve pointed out the brakes are disc / drum and when you get used to the car you will find this limiting.

Also as the owner of a 924 that has been converted from left to right hand drive unless the conversion has been done using a wrecked right hand drive car little things that go wrong on the car can grow into major problems. On one of my cars the guys just chopped the wiring, added some wires in to make it stretch to the steering column. They weren’t too particular about matching the colour coding of the wires and trying to cure a bad connection has been a real nightmare. Most parts are interchangeable whether it’s right or left-hand drive.

The resale value of the car will never be very good for this car in Aussie ( Peter can probably confirm this).

[Peter_in_AU]

John's summed it up. It really comes down to condition, price and knowing what you're getting.

A couple of things; check the VIN and engine codes. Get the numbers and go to Darrin's site at http://members.tripod.com/darrin_smith/porsche/924home.html and find out what you are really looking at. It's possible that you're looking at a turbo motor in a standard 924 body.

Porsche replaced the drum brake version of the 931 very quickly presumably because the brakes were not up to the job (they barely cope on a standard 924 when you're going hard).

It should have the Porsche 5-speed "snail-shell" transaxle (1st left and down, below reverse).

Power-wise you're looking at 150hp compared to 170 for an early Euro version.

Take a torch when you go and look at it. Lay the front seats flat, take your shoes off and get upside-down under the dash. You'll very quickly see if the left to right conversion was done properly. You'll also get a taste of a position a lot of us here spend an excessive amount of time in

Know what you're buying and there'll be less surprises later