1982 Le Mans car for sale

[Diver944]

What would the genuine 1982 Le Mans car driven by Andy Rouse, Richard Lloyd and Tony Dron be worth?

I ask because it has just resurfaced at the US Rennsport meeting at Daytona and the current owner wants to sell it. Here is what it looks like now.

The original 2 litre 924 engine has been removed for safekeeping and a rebuilt and uprated 944T engine has been fitted.

The second half of this YouTube video shows it in action at Rennsport a few weeks ago, the first half is a US 944 GTR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MrGGlal6EQ

 

[morris944s2john]

According to one of my Porsche books ,(The one I can find atm) the Le Mans cars were actually more 944 than 924 as they featured a turbocharged 16valve prototype of the 944 engine. Do we have any pics of the original engine to have a clue?

Is this the car that won its class in Le Mans 1981 and came an incredible 6th overall???

 

[Mark_Bennett]

I thought 2 of the cars were 924, and the third a 944 prototype, entered as a 924?

 

[morris944s2john]

According to the Michael cotton book the Dron/ Rouse car came in 13th at Le Mans 1981, running on only two cylinders! (burnt exhaust valves due to weakening mixture). Is this the same car? Not bad for a souped up VW engine in a steel monocoque car! The book also says the 1982 car had a prototype 16v turbo 944 engine, with 420 BHP and came in 7th at le mans!!! Driven by Barth and Rohrl, so I'm confused which car this is or is it the same car with different drivers and engine in 1981 and 1982?

Interesting stuff, shows our cars have true motor racing heritage.[]

 

[Diver944]

I have three 944 books that talk about the Le Mans results and one large Le Mans book that mentions them but all four of them contradict eachother [&:] There are a couple of websites that list all the results of all the Le Mans races and I believe these are the accurate picture:

1980

6th place 924 Carrera (number 4 driven by Jurgen Barth , Manfred Shurti)
12th place 924 Carrera (number 2 driven by Andy Rouse , Tony Dron)
13th place 924 Carrera (number 3 driven by Derek bell, Al Holbert)

1981

7th place 944 LM (car number 1 driven by Jurgen Barth, Water Rohrl) 2.5 engine
11th place 924 Carrera (number 11 driven by anfred Schurti, Andy Rouse)
51st DNF 924 Carrera (number73 driven by Aleras & Almeras)

1982

16th place 924 Carrera (car number 16 driven by Busby & Bundy)
29th place 924 Carrera (car number 86 driven by Bedard, Miller & Schurti)
39th DNF 924 Carrera (car number 84 driven by Lloyd, Rouse & Dron)
This is the car I believe is for sale and in the first pictures

1994

35th place DNF 968 Turbo RS

Here are some pictures from the Porsche magazine Excellence in May 2002 of the prototype 16v head that was used on the lone 944 LM 2.5 engine in 1981. It has a good writeup and I'll upload some scans later

and this is a pic of the 2.0L 924 engine used in the 924 GTP's

 

[TTM]

Gorgeous car, thanks for the pictures.
Any mention on why the 968 did not finish in '94 ?

 

[Diver944]

It crashed after 84 laps [] There's a good writeup with some pics here:

http://www.968turbo.homestead.com/Number1.html

Sadly it doesn't say what position it was running in at the time

 

[944Turbo]

The coys one at eynsham had loads of spares and bodywork molds but IIRC didnt sell - wasnt the reserve around £65k. I guess if they are eligible for the classic le mans the value may be higher - would be a nice use of the coc money []
Tony

 

[Hilux]

and this is a pic of the 2.0L 924 engine used in the 924 GTP's

Interesting how long the intakes are []

 

[333pg333]

ORIGINAL: Hilux

and this is a pic of the 2.0L 924 engine used in the 924 GTP's

Interesting how long the intakes are []

Just what I was thinking. Would have had a narrow powerband right up in the rev's you'd imagine. Probably perfect for the event although you don't see that length intake tubes on current racers out of the US.
Incidentaly there's a good thread on Rennlist at the moment called 'Trick 951's' Worth checking out.

 

[morris944s2john]

It looks like the 924 GTP has a spaceframe construction at the front (note the frame tubes and lack of inner wings), wheras the 944LM has more conventional inner wings that we are used to on our cars.

 

[Hilux]

Would have had a narrow powerband right up in the rev's you'd imagine.

Agree entirely but Le Mans cars are tuned for reliability and not max power/revs as in a shorter race so that little thing thrashing its nuts off to do so well is a remarkable achievement.

 

[Diver944]

The various books talk about the 2 litre cars having 420bhp with the boost wound right up but they were turned down to only 375bhp for the race itself. They could only manage 175mph down the full three miles of Mulsanne (with no chicanes) and I've read somewhere an interview with one of the drivers where he complained about the boredom crawling along the straight at full revs for over a minute whilst the 956's, 935's and other top cars blew by at over 200mph

That's nearly a 50mph speed differential []

 

[Diver944]

Here's some scans of that May 2002 article in Excellence:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page1N.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page2N.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page3N.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page4N.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page5N.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/diver944/GTR/Page6N.jpg

 

[George Elliott]

very interesting thread, I never knew there was a 16v LM engine.

16v was all the thing back then, and its especially interesting to look back at the days when the front engine cars were a major priority (may-be the major priority) for the factory.

Long inlets = torque eh? Hilux

George

944t

 

[Jonny944CS]

Great thread, thanks for the pics Paul.
Interesting to see, on the steel monocoque car, they didn't feel the need to brace the strut towers transversely across the engine bay - simply triangulating them rearward towards the bulkhead.
Perhaps they didn't have room with the 16v head and manifold.

 

[Peter Empson]

Just found the website selling this car: http://www.johnstarkeycars.com/pages/for_sale/1981_Porsche_924_GTR.html

 

[Alex Postan]

ORIGINAL: Jonny944CS

Great thread, thanks for the pics Paul.
Interesting to see, on the steel monocoque car, they didn't feel the need to brace the strut towers transversely across the engine bay - simply triangulating them rearward towards the bulkhead.
Perhaps they didn't have room with the 16v head and manifold.

Triangulation to bulkhead provides far greater rigidity that an untriangulated bar between strut tops. Strut braces are generally the bolt on market solution, much loved by Saxo drivers.[]

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: Peter Empson

Just found the website selling this car:

Wow $225000, that's me out of the running []

Good detective work Peter []

 

[Diver944]

I noticed the ad mentioned there was another 924 GTR car for sale in Europe so a quick bit of googling found it at Freisinger motorsport.

http://www.freisinger-motorsport.de/porsche/?lang=uk&site=carsforsaledetail&car_id=62

The Starkey car is one of the customer cars from 1981 that did not finish, the Freisniger car claims to be one of the three factory cars from 1980. They were entered into Le Mans as a UK car, a US car and a German car. They each had drivers from the corresponding country and were liveried up with the respective flags. This is the US car that finished 13th in 1980