The Porsche 944 was Porsche’s replacement for the 924, which in turn, was the replacement for the 914. Like the 914, the 924 was developed originally as a joint project between Porsche and Volkswagen, but Volkswagen pulled out of the project before it was completed, leaving it for Porsche to finish the design and sell the car exclusively. The 924 was fitted with a two liter Audi engine, but Porsche wanted to create a mid-level car, keeping the 924 as their entry level model. As a result, they created the 944, releasing it 1982, based on the 924 platform, but fitted with a new 2.5 liter Porsche developed engine, based on half of the Porsche 928 5.0 liter V8 engine. The all-alloy engine was mounted at a 45 degree angle Sold alongside the 924 for the most of its production and utilized counter-rotating balance shafts to help smooth out its running, based on a design licensed from Mitsubishi. As is typical of Porsche’s design approach, over the course of production, the 944 was constantly updated, refined, and upgraded. In 1986, Porsche introduced the 944 Turbo, significantly boosting performance, bringing 0-60 MPH times to below 6 seconds, In addition, they continued to sell the naturally aspirated version at the same time. Production of the 944 continued until 1991, at which point it was replaced by the Porsche 968, with a total of 25,245 Turbo cars produced. This 944 Turbo is a relatively clean, largely original car. The previous owner of the car had it registered in Oregon, but it spent a while off the road before I bought it, and was serviced and recommissioned in southern California by the person I bought it from. This was added to the collection as a representation of Porsche’s front-engined design. Although sometimes looked down upon for the more conventional design by some Porsche purists, a front engined rear-wheel drive design allowed Porsche to build an incredibly well balanced, high performance car, with excellent suspension and very predictable handling, making this 944 an incredibly fun car to drive at speed on winding roads. As is typical for an 1980s turbo car, performance is excellent but turbo lag is significant. As a result, I generally find myself driving the 944 by keeping the revs high in order to keep the turbo spooled up and reducing the impact of the turbo lag. The car is comfortable to drive, has good response with relatively light steering, excellent brakes and comfortable, yet sporty suspension.