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Car and Driver
03-08-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
Original-Owner 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo Is Our Bring a Trailer Pick
The Porsche 944 offers a much more conventional driving experience than a 911, but it's still great. This 944 is from the first year for the Turbo and has some tasteful options. It also has exceptionally low mileage. For decades, the Porsche 944 suffered simply from not being a 911. Why would you get Stuttgart's front-engine, four-cylinder sports car if you could afford the rear-engine, flat-six icon? Well, with air-cooled 911 values now shot to the moon, many Porsche fans have taken another look at the 944. Bring a Trailer This 1986 944 Turbo up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is a prime example of Porsche's transaxle era. It has just 35K miles on the odometer and boasts the desirable 16-inch Fuchs wheels, sport seats, not to mention eighties-tastic features like pop-up headlights and a boost gauge. Bring a Trailer And despite its little-brother status, a naturally-aspirated 944 was crowned champion in a 1984 Car and Driver shootout to find the best handling imported car, beating a 911 and a Porsche 928, as well as a Ferrari, a Lotus, and several others. Testers had few complaints, other than Don Sherman pointing out that the tested 944 could do with the added support of the sport seats. Well, this one has them. Bring a Trailer It also comes with forced induction grunt for its 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, good for 217 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque. That power gets to the ground through a five-speed manual, the gearbox mounted in the rear—again, this is a transaxle machine—for better weight balance. With a curb weight of around 2800 pounds, this 944 has roughly the same power-to-weight ratio as a modern Toyota GR86, more than enough to carve up a back road. However, with a bit of turbo lag to manage, and more torque on tap, the Porsche has a bit more character. It's an accessible performance classic, and great fun to drive. Bring a Trailer Change out the tires (with a date code of 2010, it's probably time for something fresh and sticky), and change the timing belt (again, based on age), and this 944 Turbo is ready to go. Overlooked for decades, these cars have aged like a fine Württemberg riesling. The 944 should always have received the respect it does today. This example has just enough wear on it that you won't feel bad about driving it, and the silver-over-black combination is perfect for shrugging off the miles. Spool up that turbo and hit your favorite piece of wriggling tarmac. A 944 might not drive like a 911. It might actually be better. The auction ends on August 7. Brendan McAleer Contributing Editor Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. Read full bio
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Have you ever wanted a twin-engine Honda CRX?
It's hard to think of a good reason to only have one engine in your car if having two is a possibility. At least that was the thought process of Car and Driver when they created the CR-X² in the 1980s that is now for sale on Bring a Trailer. This one's a fun tale, so sit down and grab some popcorn. This car began innocently enough as a run-of-the-mill 1984 Honda CR-X finished in Greek White with a 1.5L inline four-cylinder engine mounted up front. It didn't take long before Car and Driver editor Don Sherman had the wacky idea of turning the bog-standard CR-X into a CR-X with twice the engine, twice the power, and twice the fun. "I saw how tidy the driveline was in the CR-X. And the thought occurred to me, why not two of them?" Sherman and Driver partnered with Honda themselves to get a second 1.5L inline four-cylinder engine, a three-speed automatic transaxle, as well as all of the wiring and mechanicals needed for a dual powertrain car. The magazine staffers employed the expertise of the Los Angeles-based shop Racing Beat to actually put everything together before the car appeared in a May 1985 article dubbed "Synchronicity." CR-X² proved to be as reliable as a Honda of that era was expected to be, with track testing resulting in a 0-60 time of 8 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 16 seconds at 85 October 1985, a follow-up article dubbed "Super Synchronicity" hit the newsstands, detailing the evolution of CR-X². Rather than the stock 1.5L inline four-cylinder mills, the car was fitted with a Mugen body kit and twin 1.8L inline-fours paired with four-speed automatic transaxles from a Honda Accord. New tests yielded a 6.2-second 0-to-60 run and a quarter-mile time of 14.5 seconds at 95 mph. Following its Car and Driver ownership, CR-X² changed hands a few times between the late 1980s and early 1990s before being acquired by the seller in 2022. He began a cosmetic refurbishment process that was documented on their Carchaeology YouTube. The work performed included custom CR-X² graphics, repainting the exterior trim black, and paint touch-ups at the rear to correct damage from shipping. Car and Driver and even Jay Leno took the car for a drive in December are no words short of "cool" and "astonishing" to describe CR-X². A CR-X on its own is a fantastic throwback to 80s Hondas, but one with a Mugen kit and twin 1.8L inline-four cylinder engines is in another universe. We can't even begin to guess how one would put a price on such a project, but it's likely one of those things where it's worth as much as what someone is willing to pay for it. The Bring a Trailer auction ends in four days, with the bid currently at $22,500. Much like other auctions we've written about before, we have but one request to the future owner: can we drive it?
