This year, my youngtimer had its’ 30th anniversary and I have been planning on a road trip to its’ birthplace in Germany, however the pandemic has put some delays to it. In stead the car has received full pampering and making it ready for the coming season, to take it around in Europe.
I do think the car is in a quite good mechanical shape from before, and cars are for driving! They can’t just sit in a garage or museum for admiration. So after a nice season of driving the service appointment was due, and of course it was delivered to the specialists - a Porsche Classic center, who know their trade. As some updates were due to the powertrain, they also noted some previous repairs (before my ownership) which had resulted in some faulty assembly and other minor irritating issues. The Porsche Son classic center1 mended it all - that’s what I expect from professionals. As such, I would always recommend owners to take their vehicles to the experts, it simply ensures good quality work, without the risk of breaking other systems or impede the driving experience.
The 944 has a 4 cylinder engine (at that point in time, the largest four cylinder engine for vehicles in production: 3.0 L) and to reduce the second order vibrations, it is typical to have balancing shafts. Somewhere, sometime, probably during a shift of the engine belts, that the balance shafts on mine 944 where wrongly mounted. By a non-Porsche werkstatt. Well, this got taken care of and afterwards, the car was vastly improved - it has probably not been in this good shape since its’ first years after being built!
I grew up in SAAB city, Trollhättan, and SAAB was in the forefront of 4-cylinder engines. I remember applying for a summer internship already when I was 14 years old, but due to laws, rules and regulations it was not possible and I was rejected. I tried again when I was 15 years old. Same answer. Then finally when I got 16 years old I was allowed and accepted! This was like a dream come true! I was allowed to assemble the powertrains, think my affection for engines was cemented that summer. So perfecting these neat powertrains is something that I think is a treat of fantastic engineering. So no doubt I am fascinated with these power pots, like the one in the 944.
And look at Porsche today - the 718 Cayman T has a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder boxer motor with 300 hp and max torque of 280 lb-ft2. 30 years ago the 944 S2 churned out 208 hp and 207 lb-ft3. These both vehicles have close to the same curb weight.
At SAAB I was fortunate to take part in various developments and testing, even though the internal test vehicle with the 3.0 L V6 full-turbo was extremely fun (this beast never made it to a production vehicle). I still fancied what we did on the fourpots.
Studying mechanical engineering, we learnt the theories behind advanced curves, like Bezier curves and B-splines. Working on the CAD stations, we got the opportunity to learn in practice how to use these. Recently I had the opportunity to have a podcast4 interview with a fabulous industrial designer, Einar Hareide, who has a past as design director at SAAB. He expressed how he sees cars as sculptures and I get it - expressed with mathematical formulas and algorithms, one can create beautiful shapes and iconic cars.
Car design today seem to be somewhat lost, highly complex shapes and a sensory overload on lines, materials, colors. It would be great to see vehicle design going back to the roots, simplifying design. In this sense I think the 944 is gripping to the eye. Few lines and panels, less is more. An idea is to check out the Roadster Life5 YouTube channel by designer Matteo Licata, who I also talked to for a podcast episode6 previous season. There we talked about the simplicity of design. I would like this to come back!
For next year, the plan is getting more detailed and exciting for the road trip. And I have invited a good friend to join me to explore Europe and have an enjoyable driving experience. A 31-year old car (at that point) can still show some tricks!
Beyond that I have been thinking of what to do with the cars powertrain - should I listen to what Porsche says about their plans for synthetic fuels and the likes of Paddy Lowe, like in his interview with Roger Atkins (who joined my podcast last season7) on “Petroleum without Fossils”8. I will explore this further, the other option would be to rewire the car to go electric. 944e? what do you think?
https://opplevvestby.no/2020/10/27/et-unikt-porsche-center/
https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/718/718-models/718-cayman-t/
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1701-porsche-944s2-project-maintenance-before-performance-parts/
https://www.youtube.com/c/RoadsterLifeVideo/videos