Porsche 924 turbo - today's tempter
Sporty Euro coupe
In recent years the prices of air-cooled 911-series Porsches have gone through the roof, while even the more desirable front-engined cars - such as the 928 - have firmed up considerably.
Which means that if you must have a Porsche nameplate on your toy, you need a pretty fat wallet. Most of the time.
One cheaper option is the 924 series, which started life as a joint development with Volkswagen. The latter pulled out of the deal, but Porsche persisted with this entry-level car.
In basic form, it ran an Audi/VW four-cylinder 2.0 litre engine which pumped out a modest 110 horses in its most lively normally-aspirated form.
Porsche inevitably decided to build a hotrod version, with a turbo, that produced closer to 180 horses. Initial versions had reliability issues, though the 'MkII' version from 1979 addressed those problems.
What you get with the 924 is a chassis that is widely regarded as one of the best-handling packages out there. Weighing around 1180kg, it has a transaxle, which helps to give a near-even front/rear weight distribution.
The turbo, rather than the normally-aspirated car, is the one to have if you can afford it.
This 1980 example claims to have a new turbo installed and is priced at $28,000.
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