964 Last of the Solid Built cars .....

[carreraboy]

Having spent a lot of time recently with my bodyshop specialist who has worked on every Porsche from the very early 356 to the 997 on a very regular basis, he confesses that the 964 was the last really solid properly built Porsche ..... As an enthusiast it saddens him when an early 997 rolls in with no accident damage but is rotting through in parts ..... He actually feels that the the 964 build was a little superior to the 993 when Porsche started cutting the corners ...... All I will say having owned a MK1 GT3 I was pretty impressed with that, maybe being hand built at Werkes 1 something to do with it and a brief ownership of a 993 which was also pretty solid ... Sure they will be around and outlive a lot of the new stuff .... accountants eh ..... [&:]

 

[jason]

Massive 964 fan but the 993 has to win that accolade - they rust far less than the 964s and their engines leak hell of a lot less.

Not so sure about the modern stuff....but had a GT3, Turbo and boxster and bodywork wise and mechanically they were all pretty damn solid, even the 10yr + ones...I guess you get sheds and minters of all ages depending on how they've been looked after.

Galvanising was probably the biggest breakthrough on making cars remain more 'solid'

 

[944s2]

Surely he is not saying tin worm affects 5 year old 997's?

 

[Neil Haughey]

Interesting theory about the 964 v 993. As I stripped down a 89/90 S2 and have been all over my 92 968 I agree that Porsche seemed to start cutting corners. The build quality definitely went down hill. I had to have one of the seams at the back of the 968 shot blasted and retreated and the rear hangers (torsion tube) redone due to rust. This rust only happened because the underseal and treatment in general was nowhere near as good as on the 944, really thin to almost non-existent in places. Contrast this with my old S2 shell which went through the dip at Surface Processing after doing 170K miles in all weathers and only needed some patching to the sills. The rest of the shell had no corrosion whatsoever.

Its a real shame actually as IMHO the 968 is definitely a better car than the S2, most probably say the same about 993 v 964, its just that in that period when Porsche struggled they did IMHE cut corners in some places so you get crazy things like bad rust in one small part of the car and perfect everywhere else. I can remember a time though when many put a premium on the fact that the 968 was built 'in house' in Stuttgart rather than in an old NSU factory like the 944.

BTW 4 of us carried my S2 race car shell into my brothers garage, my back almost gave in it wasn't till later I learned a fully prepped shell is a long good way over 300 kg, having looked at a lot of race prepped cars now I am glad I trust my life in a Porsche shell.