Leiding promptly canceled the EA266 project. Although it was slated to use a water-cooled engine, the EA266’s mid-engine configuration seemed like a bad bet in a market that was beginning to embrace the transverse front-engine/front-wheel-drive layout of the BMC Mini, Autobianchi Primula, and Autobianchi A112/Fiat 127, among others. The mid-engine layout had advantages for racing and sports cars, but also had serious drawbacks in packaging, noise, and powertrain access, which made it a bad bet for a family sedan. Furthermore, sales of the mid-engine 914 didn’t inspire confidence in the public’s acceptance of such a configuration.

The cancellation of the EA266 raised the question of whether Volkswagen still needed Porsche at all. The engineering staff VW had acquired from Audi and NSU had much more experience with water cooling and front-wheel drive, neither of which Porsche had ever used in a production car. Consequently, Leiding informed Ferry Porsche that VW would not be renewing its current development contract, which was set to expire in 1973.

The end of the relationship with Volkswagen was only one of the dramatic changes that took place at Porsche during this period. In the fall of 1971, Porsche had begun work on the V8-powered 928, intended as the eventual replacement for the familiar rear-engine 911. A few months later, in March 1972, the firm began a reorganization that transformed it from a privately held firm into a public company, Porsche AG. Ferry Porsche and his sister, Louise Daxer-Piëch, opted to step back from their roles as managing directors and engineering director Ernst Fuhrmann became CEO, the first non-family member to head the company.

THE CORPORATE KIT CAR

Leiding, aware that the VW contracts had represented a substantial portion of Porsche’s income, decided to offer Porsche a final project as a sort of severance package. It would be a new inexpensive sports car, intended as a successor to the slow-selling 914.

The heads of VW-Porsche VG, Erich Filius and Klaus Schneider, had actually started discussing a replacement for the 914 back in 1970, when it became clear that 914 sales would be less than hoped. Filius and Schneider had several ideas about how to rectify that problem in future models, including offering a 2+2 rather than a pure two-seater, sharing even more off-the-shelf hardware to keep down production costs and retail prices, and establishing styling continuity with other Porsche models. The 914 had deliberately borne no resemblance to existing Porsche or Volkswagen cars, but that had proven to be a commercial miscalculation.

In early 1972, those ideas became the basic parameters of Porsche’s farewell project, which was coded EA425. It was to be designed entirely at Porsche’s Weissach development center, but financed by Volkswagen. One catch was that Leiding insisted that the EA425 be marketed only as a Volkswagen or an Audi, not as a Porsche. Porsche’s board of directors wasn’t happy about that stipulation — the main reason they had been interested in the 914 in the first place was that they needed a cheaper entry-level car — but they were not in a position to refuse.

There was no enthusiasm for repeating the 914’s mid-engine layout, but the Porsche 928 project suggested an interesting alternative. Like the old “rope-drive” Pontiac Tempest of the early sixties, the 928 had its engine in front, but mounted the transmission at the rear, connected to the engine via a narrow driveshaft Porsche engineers dubbed the “fast shaft.” This provided better weight distribution than a conventional front-engine/rear-drive layout as well as a larger polar moment of inertia for greater stability.

While the 928 was intended as a much more expensive car than was the EA425, project leader Jochen Freund believed it would be possible to make the “fast shaft” work on the EA425’s budget by borrowing as many existing components as possible. To explore the idea, the development team created a test mule using a second-hand BMW sedan and the powertrain from an Audi 100, which had a longitudinal front engine and front-wheel drive. The engine and clutch were installed in the BMW’s engine bay while the Audi’s heavily modified O-88 four-speed transaxle was placed at the rear axle. The two were joined by a narrow torque tube housing a 66.9-inch (1.7-meter) driveshaft of about 0.8-inch (20mm) diameter. (For comparison, the driveshaft of a manually shifted 1961 Pontiac Tempest was 82 inches (2,083 mm) long and had a diameter of 0.75 inches (19 mm.)

The rest of the EA425 was a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf Volkswagen and Audi components. To keep costs down, the EA425 needed to use an existing VW or Audi engine, so Freund’s team opted for the Type 831 engine used in Volkswagen’s big LT31 van, a 1,984 cc (121 cu. in.) OHC four with an iron block and an aluminum head with the combustion chambers formed by the dished pistons (a Heron head design), fitted for this application with Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection. The EA425 had front disc and rear drum brakes while the suspension used MacPherson struts in front and semi-trailing arms (with torsion bar springs) in back. Most of the components were borrowed from other Volkswagen or Audi products, including the Super Beetle, the Type 181 utility vehicle (a.k.a “The Thing”), the Audi 100, the Scirocco, and the Golf; the latter also supplied the heating and ventilation system and many interior pieces.

The EA425’s exterior styling was the work of Dutchman Harm Lagaay under the supervision of Porsche styling director Tony Lapine. In broad strokes, the EA425 resembled its 928 sibling, with a fat, semi-fastback tail and a steeply sloping, grille-less nose (which required tilting the engine 40 degrees toward the right) with pop-up headlights. The EA425’s body was essentially a wedge shape with flowing, organic lines marked by a number of sharp creases. U.S. models got body-colored bumpers on hydraulic struts to meet federal 5 mph (8 km/h) crash standards without looking like battering rams. With its sleek contours and smooth nose, the EA425 was one of the most aerodynamic cars of the seventies, with a claimed drag coefficient of 0.36.

THE EA425 BECOMES A PRODUCTION CAR

Volkswagen approved the EA425 in mid-1974, but there were signs that VW’s commitment was wavering. The project was delayed in March, after the launch of the FWD Volkswagen Scirocco, and in May, Volkswagen had allowed Porsche to buy out its share of VW-Porsche VG. There were rumblings from Wolfsburg that Volkswagen was financially overextended; although the new Golf and Scirocco were off to a good start and would prove to be extremely successful, their development and launch had been very expensive, making 1974 a money-losing year for VW. Those losses, which ultimately totaled some DM 800 million (then equivalent to about $310 million), undermined the VW board’s confidence in Rudolf Leiding. They forced him to resign in January 1975. Since the EA425 was Leiding’s project, his departure boded ill.

Leiding’s replacement, former Ford of Germany executive Toni Schmücker, quickly decided that a new sports car was low on VW’s list of priorities, particularly since the Scirocco was doing well. He told Ernst Fuhrmann that Volkswagen had decided not to proceed with the EA425 project.

This left Fuhrmann in a difficult spot. Although Volkswagen had insisted the EA425 not be sold as a Porsche, the project was still a much-needed source of work and revenue. Also, production of the 914 was winding down by 1975, and while 911 sales were improving after the brief slump provoked by the OPEC oil embargo, the 911 was too expensive to sell in the volume Porsche needed to survive. As a temporary measure, Porsche reintroduced the 912 for 1976, powered by the fuel-injected flat-four from late 914s, but it was just a stopgap. Porsche was in dire need of a cheaper entry-level car.

The obvious answer was the EA425, which was already finished and basically ready for production; there were eight prototypes running by the winter of 1974. Leiding had previously refused Fuhrmann’s offer to buy the project, but Schmücker was more amenable to the idea, in large part because it would help him extricate Volkswagen from a messy labor situation. The original plan had been to build the EA425 at the NSU plant in Neckarsulm that also built the NSU Ro 80, but with the EA425 project going on the shelf and the Ro 80 selling poorly, Schmücker concluded that Volkswagen really didn’t need the plant at all. Considering Volkswagen’s losses the previous year, closing the Neckarsulm factory made financial sense, but that prospect went over poorly with the auto workers union and with the government of Baden-Württemberg, putting Schmücker — and Volkswagen — in an awkward political position.

Schmücker finally decided that the better part of valor was to sell the rights to the EA425 project to Porsche on the condition that the cars be built by Volkswagen Group workers at the Neckarsulm plant, allowing it to remain open. The selling price to which Schmücker and Fuhrmann agreed, DM 160 million (about $65 million), was less than the DM 180 million Volkswagen had invested in the project, but considering the potentially ugly political problems it avoided, it wasn’t a bad deal. Furthermore, since Volkswagen still had Porsche’s distribution rights, VW-Audi dealers actually stood more to gain by selling the EA425 as a Porsche — which would probably mean a higher price — than as a Volkswagen or an Audi.

PORSCHE 924

Once it became a Porsche project, the EA425 received a new type number: 924. Porsche built about 100 preproduction models in the summer of 1975 and full production began that fall. The Porsche 924 was introduced to the press in November at a special event in Camargue, in the south of France. The car went on sale in Germany in February 1976 and debuted in the U.S. in April as an early 1977 model.

Although it was the entry-level Porsche, the 924 was hardly inexpensive. In Germany, it started at DM 23,240 (around $9,200). The initial U.S. models started at $9,395 — adjusted for inflation, that’s the equivalent of about $33,000 today. The 924 was cheaper than the short-lived 912E, but some $2,000 more expensive than the final 914 and far costlier than it would have been as an Audi or a VW. Furthermore, the price escalated rapidly. By 1978, it was up to almost $12,000 and would hit nearly $17,000 by 1980.

The Porsche 924 was not exactly a stunning value. Its handling was superb, with none of the knife-in-the-back tendencies of the contemporary 911, but the 924 was noisy, had a jittery ride, and its brakes wilted in hard driving. Moreover, it wasn’t very fast. European models, with 125 PS (92 kW), had reasonable performance — 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in around 9 seconds and a top speed of about 125 mph (202 km/h) — but a Ford Capri 3000 could blow the 924’s doors off. Even more embarrassingly, the Volkswagen Golf GTI was as quick or quicker (though not as fast all out) for about half the price. American 924s, which were de-tuned to 95 hp (71 kW) to meet U.S. emissions standards, needed around 11 seconds to reach 60 mph (97 km/h) and topped out at about 110 mph (176 km/h), which was decidedly mediocre compared to the Datsun 280ZX, Mazda RX-7, or Chevrolet Corvette, particularly since the 924 was more expensive than any of those rivals.

As with the 914, hardcore Porsche fans groused that the 924 was not a ‘real’ Porsche. Even if it hadn’t been another departure from the established rear-engine, air-cooled format of the 911 and 356, the 924’s assortment of Volkswagen parts-bin components would inevitably have provoked some sour reactions. Although the 924 was generally well assembled, people spending this kind of money were jarred by seeing climate control dials and other pieces borrowed from the Golf/Rabbit.

We strongly suspect that Porsche didn’t help the 924’s case by releasing it before the 928. Although the 928 had been designed first, it didn’t debut until the Geneva show in March 1977, which led observers to perceive the 928 as an overgrown 924 costing about twice as much. Had the 928 debuted first, the 924 would have seemed more like an affordable version of the new flagship and both might have been better received.

The 924 sold well at first, more than 30,000 units a year in both 1976 and 1977, but the cool reception provoked defensive responses from Zuffenhausen. Porsche fans’ attachment to the 911 was a source of ongoing frustration for Ernst Fuhrmann, who at that time assumed the 911 would have to be phased out due to its inability to meet more stringent emissions and noise standards. To hear first the 924 and then the 928 decried as “not a real Porsche” clearly struck a nerve.

PORSCHE 924 TURBO

Porsche quickly moved to address complaints about the 924. Midway through the 1977 model year, U.S. cars got a higher compression ratio, a new camshaft, and a catalytic converter, adding 15 hp (10 kW). A five-speed gearbox became available for European cars in 1978, although it had a racing-style shift pattern (first gear down and to the left) that made it awkward in traffic. This became standard in 1979.

In late 1978, Porsche unveiled a more considered response to the 924’s performance deficit with the introduction of the 924 Turbo, known internally by the type number 931. By the late seventies, many manufacturers, most notably Saab and Buick, were adopting turbochargers as a way of extracting more power from smaller engines. Porsche had experience with turbocharging on the 917/10K Can Am racer and had introduced a turbocharged 911, known internally as 930, in the spring of 1975, so a turbocharged 924 was the next logical step.

The 931’s engine used the standard Type 831 block, but had a new cylinder head, an oil cooler, and new pistons to lower the compression ratio to 7.5:1. A single KKK turbocharger provided up to 10 psi (0.7 bar) of boost. An unusual trick borrowed from the 917/10K was an exhaust gas recirculation valve designed to keep the turbine spinning when the driver lifted off the throttle; the 930 had the same feature. To withstand the extra power, the diameter of the “fast shaft” was increased from 0.8 to 1.0 inches (20 to 25 mm). The 931 had also various chassis upgrades, 15-inch rather than 14-inch wheels, and an assortment of scoops and cooling slats on the nose.

European cars, which went on sale in 1979, had 170 PS DIN (125 kW) and 181 lb-ft (245 N-m) of torque and came with four-wheel disc brakes. In Germany, the starting price was DM 37,000 (about $20,000), compared to DM 26,850 (a bit under $15,000) for a 1979 924. U.S. cars, with only 7 psi (0.45 bar) boost, had 143 hp SAE (107 kW) and 147 lb-ft (198 N-m) of torque and retained disc/drum brakes, although the rear drums were wider. Starting price was $20,850. There was also an optional 924 S package that allowed you to buy a normally aspirated 924 with the 931’s chassis, wheels, and brakes.

The 931 was considerably faster than the normally aspirated 924. European 924 Turbos could now reach 60 mph (97 km/h) in around 7 seconds and had a top speed of 140 mph (225 km/h) or better. North American cars were not that fast, but were now respectably quick. The drawback was turbo lag; even with the exhaust recirculation valve, the turbocharged engine was weaker than its normally aspirated cousin at lower speeds and power delivery was far from linear. Also, while the turbocharged engine was quieter, it also ran hotter and higher under-hood temperatures (despite the various cooling slats) led to problems with overheating. Many critics were ecstatic about the greater speed and chassis and brake improvements, but not everyone was willing to overlook the 931’s flaws.

For 1980, 924s got a new five-speed gearbox (an Audi-based unit with a conventional shift pattern), normally aspirated U.S. cars got an extra 5 hp (3 kW), and the S package (option M471) became a wheel and chassis upgrade option for both 924s and 931s, including 16-inch wheels and bigger four-wheel disc brakes. Four-wheel discs became standard on 924s for 1981.

924 CARRERA GT

In 1979, Porsche built a handful of heavily modified normally aspirated 924s, known internally as type 933, for the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)’s D-Production championship. They didn’t fare well in D-Production, but 924 had more ambitious competition plans for the 924. Fuhrmann insisted this was nothing more than a good marketing tactic, but Porsche was undoubtedly eager to silence criticisms of the 924’s bastard origins by giving it a proper competition pedigree. Racing the 924 was also a way to shift the focus of Porsche’s racing efforts away from the 911, which was still slated to die by the mid-eighties.

In September 1979, Porsche exhibited a 924 “styling study” at the Frankfurt auto show, with a new nose piece and flared polyurethane fenders covering a significantly wider track. This was actually a prototype for a 924-derived Group 4 homologation special known internally as Type 937 (938 in right-hand-drive form). Porsche built 406 937/938 cars, which were called 924 Carrera GT. Aside from the wider fenders, the cars featured various suspension and brake modifications and an air-to-air intercooler, which allowed Porsche to bump the 931 engine to 210 PS (155 kW). Porsche also built 59 Carrera GTS cars with more boost and additional power. Fifteen of these were 270 PS (199 kW) Club Sport cars, which were lightened by 135 lb (61 kg) and had standard roll cages.

The Carrera GT was not imported to the U.S., although there were some gray-market imports. Buyers who couldn’t get one could settle for an improved S2 version of the 931 with a new Bosch DME engine management system, a higher compression ratio, and a bit more power: 177 PS DIN (130 kW) in Europe, 154 hp SAE (115 kW) in the U.S.

Porsche qualified nine of the full competition-spec Carrera GTs for the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans. Because Porsche had not yet sold 400 cars, the three entrants had to run in the Prototype (GTP, rather than GT) class, finishing 6th, 12th, and 13th. The 924s were reliable and handled well, but they simply didn’t have the power to match the leaders in the GTP class.

A CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Despite Fuhrmann’s hopes, the Porsche 924’s brief competition career did not help sales. Like many automakers, the recession of 1979–1981 hit Porsche hard. Worldwide sales fell from around 36,000 to 28,000 and the company posted its first-ever net loss for 1980. In 1981, the board pushed Ernst Fuhrmann to resign and hired as his replacement Peter Schutz, formerly of Cologne-based engine manufacturer Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz (now Deutz AG).

Schutz ordered a number of major policy shifts. He reversed Fuhrmann’s decision to phase out the 911 and called for a new emphasis on the American market. Schutz, who had grown up in America after his family fled Germany in thirties, recognized that the U.S. was Porsche’s most lucrative market and instituted a new “one spec” policy so that U.S. cars would no longer be shortchanged on power or features.

Fuhrmann had been considering a new entry-level car, based on the second-generation Volkswagen Scirocco and priced in the under-$15,000 bracket the 924 had outgrown. Schutz shelved those plans, contending that Porsche didn’t need a cheaper car so much as it needed to make its entry-level car worthy of the price.

TYPE 944

Porsche returned to Le Mans in the summer of 1981 with a new 924 GTP. Under the hood, it had a brand-new all-aluminum 2,479 cc (151 cu. in.) turbocharged four-cylinder engine, related not to the Volkswagen Type 831 engine in the 924, but to the 928’s water-cooled V8.

Although it called up memories of the old slant four engine in the aforementioned rope-drive Pontiac Tempest, the new engine (whose valve cover read “944 Le Mans”) was not literally a V8 shorn of one cylinder bank, as the Pontiac engine had been. Nonetheless, the four shared much of the V8’s architecture, allowing it to be built with the same equipment. To control the second-order shaking that would have otherwise afflicted the big-capacity four, Porsche adopted twin counter-rotating balance shafts, although to the undoubted chagrin of technical director Helmuth Bott, Porsche found that it could not avoid paying Mitsubishi patent royalties on the balance shaft design, which cost Porsche about $8 per engine. The new four also traded the 924’s K-Jetronic mechanical injection for the 928’s L-Jetronic electronic system.

The Le Mans engine had dual overhead cams — the contemporary 928 engine was SOHC — and made 410–420 PS (302–309 kW) with a single big KKK turbo. The car, driven by Walter Röhrl and Jürgen Barth, finished seventh overall.

The greater impact of the Le Mans car, however, was the new engine. The Volkswagen engine had always been one of the 924’s biggest problems as far as image was concerned; climate control knobs and switchgear were one thing, but not having a real Porsche engine was harder to accept. Fuhrmann’s original contract with Volkswagen had obligated Porsche to use the Type 831 engine on the first 100,000 924s, a milestone Porsche had passed in 1981. Volkswagen had also informed Porsche that the Type 831 engine would be phased out by the end of 1984, so it was clearly time for a change.

At the Frankfurt show in September 1981, Porsche announced the arrival of a new front-engine model powered by a SOHC version of the engine from the 1981 Le Mans car. Although the new model bore a distinct resemblance to the 937, Porsche assigned the new car a new type number, 944, to signify the break with the 924. In fact, the 944’s relationship with the 924 was much like the relationship between the sixties 356C and its VW-based ancestor: changed significantly in detail, but still of unmistakable lineage.

END OF THE LINE

The arrival of the 944, which debuted in May 1982 as a 1983 model, meant the end of the Porsche 924 Turbo, but not the 924 itself. Porsche dropped the U.S.-market 924 for the 1983 model year, but it remained in production for the rest of the world through July 1985 with few changes. That fall, Porsche launched a new 924S, which combined the old 924 body with the engine of the 944. This reappeared in the U.S. market the following summer, priced at $19,900, about $5,000 less than a 944. Production of the 924S ended in September 1988, the last of the 924 line.

The 924 sold quite well by Porsche standards; the final tally was 121,289 924s, 13,616 931s, 16,669 of the later 924S, and 507 Carrera GTs and other special-production models. Stylistically, the 924 was one of the most influential cars of its time. Obvious imitators included the Mazda RX-7 and Dodge Daytona/Chrysler Laser, but the 924’s influence was visible in many later sport coupes.

Despite all that, the 924 never quite overcame its red-headed-stepchild stigma. Its resale values were far less robust than those of the 911, which by the late eighties made survivors something of a bargain. Thanks to their assortment of off-the-shelf VW parts, 924s were somewhat less wallet-abusing to own than a 911 or 928 and the 931 lends itself to amateur racing and shade-tree hot-rodding. Still, as with the 914 and Ferrari/Dino 308 GT4, the 924 will probably never be coveted despite its admitted virtues.

In the second part of our story, we’ll take a closer look at the Porsche 944 and the final iteration of this series, the 968.

NOTES ON SOURCES

Our sources for the development of the 924 included Jeanette Ahlgren, “Yes Virginia, There IS an ‘S,'” 924 Garage, n.d., www.924. org/ models/ 924_S_model.htm, accessed 15 November 2009; the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Porsche Chronicle (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1995); Rich Ceppos, “Porsche 924 Turbo,” Car and Driver Vol. 24, No. 8 (February 1979): 47–50; Tony Corlett, Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera: The Last of the Evolution (Dorchester, England: Veloce Publishing, 2005); Mike Covello, Standard Catalog of Imported Cars 1946-2002, 2nd ed. (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2001); Steve Cropley, “Midnight special,” CAR April 1981, pp. 56–62; “Decisions, Decisions: Comparison-shopping the Porsche 924S, 944, 944S and 944 Turbo,” Road & Track November 1987, pp. 44–53; Bobby Dodd, “The 931 – What is it?” 924 Garage, www.924. org/ models/931_overview.htm, accessed 15 November 2009; “Four Automatic Sports/GTs,” Road & Track Vol. 30, No. 8 (April 1979); “Giant Test: Alfetta 2000 [v.] Porsche 924,” CAR April 1977, pp. 54–59; “Giant Test: Porsche 924 Lotus Eclat 523,” CAR May 1978, pp. 41–45; “Group Test: Two plus twos and a TR,” Motor Road Tests 1979, pp. 94–99; Chris Horton, “Brothers in arms,” 911 & Porsche World November 2007, pp. 94–101; Jarkom89, “924 Carrera GTR at Le Mans,” All About PORSCHE Car, 31 December 2008, porsche-lovers.blogspot. com/ 2008/ 12/ 924-carrera-gtr-at-le-mans.html, accessed 15 November 2009; Georg Kacher, “Porsche’s Autobahn Activist,” CAR April 1981, pp. 62–63; L’Editrice Dell’Automobile LEA, World Cars 1973 (Bronxville, NY: Herald Books, 1973), and World Cars 1979 (Pelham, NY: Herald Books, 1979); Randy Leffingwell, Porsche Legends (Motorbooks Classic) (Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 1993); Karl Ludvigsen, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected: The Comprehensive History of the Company, its Cars and its Racing Heritage (Cambridge, MA: Bentley Publishers, 2008); Jon Milani, “924 GTP Le Mans,” Porsche 944 Turbo Resource, 14 February 2009, 944turbo. net/ ?page_id=57, accessed 15 November 2009; “Models and History,” 924 Garage, n.d., www.924. org/ models/ modelhistory.htm, accessed 15 November 2009; Hirokazu Nakamura, Hikoichi Motoyama, Tadahiko Ito, and Seizo Iwasa, assignors to Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation), U.S. Patent No. 3,995,610A, “Four Cylinder Straight-Type Engine with Secondary Balancer System,” filed 27 September 1974, issued 7 December 1976; “924 Carrera GT,” 924GT.com, n.d., accessed 15 November 2009; “Porsche’s New Performer (Road Test: Porsche 944 Turbo),” Autocar 29 January 1986, pp. 34–40; “Road Test: Porsche 924 Turbo,” Motor Road Tests 1980, pp. 132–135; Graham Robson and the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Volkswagen Chronicle (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1996); Edoard Seidler, “Dr. Kurt Lotz: Vorstandsvorsitzender of Volkswagen: The man who thinks beyond the Bug,” Motor Trend Vol. 21, No. 8 (August 1969): 18–22, 96, and “Upheaval of an empire: How Lotz went out and Leiding came in,” Autocar 25 November 1971, pp. 44-47; Craig Seko, “A short history of the cheap Porsche,” Rennlist.com, 2003, members.rennlist. com/944sandmore/ history.htm, accessed 14 November 2009; Mark Wan, “Porsche 924 / 944 /968 (1976),” AutoZine, n.d., www.autozine. org/ Archive/ Porsche/ classic/ 924.html, accessed 12 November 2009; and Julius Weitmann and Rico Steinemann, Project 928. A Development History of the Porsche 928 From First Sketch to Production (Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1977). Additional technical details came from the 924/944/968 Frequently Asked Questions page (Version 1.8.9, 15 July 2009, www.connact. com/ ~kgross/FAQ/944faq.html, accessed 15 November 2009), and the Wikipedia® entry for the 924 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_924, accessed 15 November 2009).

Background on the “rope-drive” Pontiac Tempest came from Bill Carroll, “Inside Pontiac’s Terrific Tempest!” Sports Cars Illustrated October 1960, reprinted in Car and Driver on Pontiac 1961–1975, ed. R.M. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Book Distribution Ltd., 1985), pp. 5–7, 16; Wick Humble, “1961 Pontiac Tempest: But cars aren’t supposed to have curved driveshafts,” Special Interest Autos #48 (November-December 1978), reprinted in The Hemmings Motor News Book of Pontiacs: driveReports from Special Interest Autos magazine, eds. Terry Ehrich and Richard Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2001), pp. 78–86; Don Keefe, “1961-63 Pontiac Tempest: Innovative Brainstorm,” Collectible Automobile Vol. 19, No. 4 (December 2002): 8–21; Jan P. Norbye and Jim Dunne, Pontiac, 1946–1978: The Classic Postwar Years (Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International Publishers & Wholesalers, 1979), pp. 88–99; and “Road Research Report: Pontiac Tempest,” Sports Cars Illustrated March 1961, reprinted in Car and Driver on Pontiac 1961–1975, pp. 8–16.

Historical exchange rate data for the dollar and the mark came from Harold Marcuse, “Historical Dollar-to-Marks Currency Conversion Page,” UC Santa Barbara, 19 August 2005, www.history.ucsb. edu/ faculty/marcuse/projects/currency.htm, accessed 9 December 2009. Inflation estimates came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator, data.bls. gov/ cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. All equivalencies cited in the text are approximate and are provided for illustration and informational purposes only — this is an automotive history, not a treatise on currency trading or the value of money, and nothing in this article should be taken as financial advice of any kind!