Call me slightly odd, and many have, but I’m more than a little excited about today’s spot of time travel. Come again? Well, not time travel as such, because obviously that’s impossible, but what is any sort of anniversary or retrospective, if not a look back in time. And when it comes to cars, that means an immersive, and totally interactive drive back in time too. The odd bit? Well perhaps the fact that today’s spot of time travel involves 50 years of the Porsche 924. Is that really something to be excited about?
Well, obviously I’m going say yes. I wouldn’t have carefully constructed the above if I wasn’t. But it’s very much from the heart and I would also suggest that the Porsche 924 was the most important car that Porsche built in the 1970s, the one that pointed to its future, rather than its past, like the 911, which had lost the backing of many within Porsche by the mid 70s. Without the 924 there would have been no 928 and clearly no 944 or 968 either. No 20 years of transaxle innovation or production from 1975 to 1995, which is quite a run, by any standard.
‘The car that saved Porsche?’ How many times have we heard that? In the case of the 924, it might not be strictly true, but it certainly came along at the right time, which is why Porsche wasn’t going to let it go, not after so much time and effort. We refer, of course, to the fact that the Porsche 924 was never supposed to be a Porsche at all, but a Volkswagen, or possibly even an Audi. No one seems to be quite sure on that score, but what is for sure is the kerfuffle that followed, when Porsche took full ownership of what was internally known as Project EA 425 (‘EA’ standing Entwicklungsaufrag, or development contract), the car that VW-Audi commissioned Porsche to develop to replace that other great Porsche/VW partnership success story, the mid-engined 914.
Yes, a slight hint of sarcasm there. The 914 project was plagued by internal conflict between the two partners and badge confusion to the point that no one ever quite knew whether the 914 was a Porsche, a VW Porsche or… well you get the picture. This time there would be no mistake. EA 425 was/is a Porsche, but only after VW canned the whole project after – you guessed it – another bout of internal politics.
In order to discover quite what happened we have to set the controls to circa 1969 and the establishment of the VW-Porsche Vertriebsgesellschaft in Ludwigsburg. This joint company was formed mainly so that Porsche’s expertise could be called upon in the design of sports constructed using a variety of VW/Audi bits ‘n bobs. All good commercial stuff for Porsche, and more than a nod back to Porsche’s own back catalogue and the Dr Porsche created 356 which relied heavily on VW components. Needs must and all that.
Porsche’s brief was to design a machine to compete with models from Alfa Romeo Opel and BMW and, in order to minimise costs, it had to use as many existing VW or Audi parts as possible. This was hardly surprising and had long been accepted practice in the market for affordable sports cars, for manufacturers to use components from their volume-produced saloons. Look at any of the EA 425s potential rivals and the same was true.
Of course, you know where this is going, but before we get to the engine and other perceived off the shelf underpinnings, let’s consider what Porsche bought to the party in terms of design and layout, which elevated the project beyond just a pretty face by clever use of what it had at its disposal.
And let’s not forget the wow factor here. Harm Lagaay took more than a little from the 928 project for the body styling, for a very clean and very contemporary look. In a world where the MGB was still being built, this was every bit the modernist sports car in keeping with the times, with a distinct lifestyle twist and practicality built in, with its dominating glass rear hatch. Oh, and let’s not forget the pop-up headlights!
Dynamically the layout was 928 inspired too. That’s to say front-engined with a rear mounted transaxle. With the drive at the rear, the engine could be mounted further back too, which gave the 924 its famed 48 per cent front and 52 per cent rear weight distribution. This was crucial for Porsche’s ‘safe’ handling ambitions, which doesn’t sound very exciting, but the physics and driving dynamics can’t be argued with, nor the driving experience, which we’ll come to. So, with Harm’s smooth if slightly bland body work sorted, and the drivetrain layout nailed, it was time for Porsche’s engineers to choose from the VW/Audi parts bin. Well, it could have been worse. Imagine if this was a project for British Leyland, or even Ford for that matter?
Upfront was conventional enough, with a mix of Golf and Audi 100 suspension and steering, plus brakes. At the rear four – soon to be five – Audi gears were installed into a bespoke casing, while the rear suspension was a mix of torsion bars, upright damper units and a crossmember from the Super Beetle 1303.
OK, so engine time. There is no smoke without fire, and perhaps Porsche didn’t have a great deal to choose from, but to claim that the power unit was derived entirely from a VW LT van is somewhat wide of any sort of mark. Audi 100 would be closer, but even then, that’s debatable. The engine may share the block and cylinder head with both, but that’s really about it. First up the attraction for Porsche was the engine’s canted over design, meaning that it would fit easily under the 924’s very low nose. Secondly, at 2-litres, it had the potential to develop the required power and was modern too, with a belt driven single overhead cam and alloy cylinder head. Given that it was going to be potentially on the receiving end of a pretty hard time, Porsche specced a forged-steel crankshaft (useful when the 924 gained a turbo and went racing) and enlarged the five main bearings and beefed up the oil system. The compression ratio was raised to 9.3:1 for more power and there was also a die-cast aluminium sump with deep fins on its underside to cool the oil.
Crucially though, what really set it aside from an LT Van or Audi 100, was Porsche’s adoption of Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, for both power potential and the requirement to meet US emissions regs. So, with all of the above, Porsche managed to squeeze a robust and reliable 125bhp at 5800rpm and 121lbs/ft of torque at 3500rpm, from its re-worked donkey. Not a massive figure, granted, but certainly competitive and with more to come.
The drivetrain was connected from the engine to the transaxle via a torque tube, rigidly connected to the engine, where the clutch is mounted too, and to the front of the transaxle at the rear. Inside the tube runs a slender the prop shaft supported on four sealed for life bearings positioned to support the prop shaft to keep it from flexing. All clever stuff and a world apart from most of its contemporaries, whether VW, Audi or Porsche.
So, what happened? Why did VW extricate itself from the deal, trying to offload Project EA 425 on to Audi in process? Well let’s keep, it brief because it’s all rather lost in the mists of time, and our time would be better spent on driving what is surely one of the most original Porsche 924s in existence outside of Porsche’s own museum collection.
As is so often the case, a change at the top prompted a re-think. VW CEO, Rudolf Leiding, to whom the whole project could be accredited to, was effectively ousted. In came Toni Shmucker and out went Project 425, Schmucker reasoning that the incoming VW Scirocco was sporty enough and VW didn’t need a halo sports car, despite the project being virtually completed and huge sums having been spent already. Quite how this could have been sanctioned so soon after the 914 debacle is astonishing, but Porsche was having none of it, thank you very much.
They had been working on it since the early ‘70s and it already meant more to them than just time and money, and they told Schmucker that they absolutely weren’t prepared to let the car drop and they’d buy the project back from VW, complete it and market it themselves as a fully-fledged Porsche sold only through Porsche dealers. The fact is, Porsche was as proud of the 924 as it was the 911, or the forthcoming 928, from which the 924 had been conceptually derived. They were prepared to style out any issues of birthright, provenance and authenticity, for the promise of a whole new customer base and demographic at a time when the world was shifting in favour of the more frugal. That could be said to have been making a virtue from a necessity, but truth of the matter is, Porsche clearly wouldn’t have done things much differently, had the project been in house all along. And of course, in time, it would develop the 924 beyond all recognition, gradually fully assimilating it into the Porsche family and developing it into the best-selling 944 and beyond. Clearly Porsche’s crystal ball was firing on all four cylinders…
Time for a transaxle confessional. I am something of a trans enthusiast. I know fully what the 924 became, having owned countless 944s and a 968 Club Sport too, over period of 20+ years. Why? Because they were deeply satisfying cars and in the case of the 968 CS, one of the best handling cars I’ve ever driven or owned. That’s how right the original 924 concept was/is. But here’s the thing, aside from a 2.5-litre 924S and a 924 Carrera GT, my actual 924 experience, as in the original 2-litre 924, is er zero. That’s why I’m excited, because this really is the Genesis of the transaxle.
Porsche launched the 924 in the south of FRance Nov 1975. The first press drives were around the same time, and the sharper UK mags, like Car, managed to get the 924 into their Dec 1975 issues. Sales officially started in 1976, which is why Porsche will probably acknowledge the 924’s 50th with a cake and candles next year.
Whatever, here at Porsche Post, we’re going early and to truly experience the 924 at the start of its development curve, we need a properly early car too. And this Chifon example, courtesy of York based Specialist Cars, is exactly that. Registered in October 1976, it is reputed to be from the first 100 cars off the production line and is almost certainly the oldest 924 in the UK. Not that it is a UK car, because UK sales didn’t start until 1977. No, this LHD drive example was imported from Switzerland from its original owner and it has just 21,000kms showing, which equates to 13,000 miles. “Try finding another?” as Derek would say on Bangers and cash…
Narrow and devoid of any macho protrusions, with its skinny 14in wheels and 185/70 profile tyres (sadly not Dunlop SPs), it is the 924 at its most pure and simple, a really, really lovely thing to behold. Sure, one of the 70s ‘Safety’ colours like green or orange would have been more spangly, but there’s something subtly Swiss and grown up about Chifon. It features the full VW/Audi parts bin list, which is what we want for the full early 924 road test experience, right down to the four-speed transaxle and the single driver’s door mirror.
Having run an early 944, the interior is fully familiar. I even notice switch gear from my first car, a VW 1303 Super Beetle, along with some of the rear suspension parts. The seats, though, are straight from the 911, which immediately lifted the 924. In time it would get the 911’s steering wheel and externally the posh ‘flag’ door mirrors.
The steering wheel sits low but doesn’t trap my 34in pins. It’s big because there’s no power steering. That said, with such skinny wheels and tyres, it doesn’t really need it. My non powered 944 really did, particularly as here, the rack is quite low geared, with a good swing needed in tighter turns.
While the 924 came in for plenty of what we would these days call ‘banter’ with regards its VW/Audi parts mash up, its reception from the Chris Goffeys and William Woolards of the day, was largely very positive. We haven’t mentioned performance, but most managed to squeeze out 125mph and 0-60mph in a tad over 8 secs. Economy was lauded too, with Car reporting that factory racer and PR man, Jurgen Borth (sic), claimed 21mpg from a trip to the South of France, flat out at the 924’s top speed of 128mph. So, 30mpg for most then… Spelling mistakes aside, and predictably it’s the handling that comes in for the most applause, Car’s Mel Nicholls praising its balance and point-to-point speed and, more tellingly, the 924’s ability to happily keep up with a 911 2.7 (Mel doesn’t say whether it was a narrow bodied 2.7 Coupe, or a Carrera 2.7. We suspect the former), unless the 911 was driven with absolute commitment. And that, surely, is advantage transaxle and testimony to Porsche’s concept, and a tacit acknowledgement that the rear-engined 911, was charismatically flawed and this was the future. Wrong, of course, as charismatic and flawed clearly won the day.
It wasn’t all praise and plaudits. The 924 did get it in the neck for the vibratory tendencies from the rigidly attached drive train, which clearly wasn’t quite as NVH supressed from the body as it could have been. Not for nothing did the 944’s big bang 2.5-litre four get balance shafts to smooth the vibes, plus fluid filled engine mounts to further isolate the engine. Later the 968 would have all this plus a dual mass flywheel too.
We don’t have a 911 2.7 of any description to chase down today, which is probably a good thing, but there’s no doubting the vibes coming through the drive train and being transmitted through the bodyshell. It’s a buzz and zing thing! Drive through, that and the connected drivetrain quietens itself and the engine becomes smoother only getting vocal again as the revs approach 6000rpm. No, it’s a not audibly comparable to say a contemporary Alfa twin cam, but it’s certainly no Pinto either.
It's not fast in the modern sense, but with only 1080kg to punt around, it’s certainly swift. The gearbox is slightly rubbery, accentuated by the very rubbery shifter and gaitor, but ultimately smooth enough and the four on the floor is a reminder that most cars, back then came so equipped.
So far, so good, but what’s the 924 really good at, over and above its back in the day rivals? Well as Mel observes it’s the point-to-point speed, or its ability to carry its speed almost effortlessly and er, safely. Damming with faint praise? No, not at all. It’s physics innit? The most satisfying way to drive the 924, with its modest power, and narrow grip levels, is to get it up to speed and then let it drift and dance its way along the road, with subtle steering and and throttle inputs to adjust its trajectory. There’s no point in being brutal, over driving or getting aggressive with the accelerator because there isn’t enough power to really make the chassis work. Smooth is best. It’s not a sideways machine, well not unless you really provoke it, with some lift off oversteer antics, when the tail will swing so wide it almost comes to a stop, with not enough power to get it all back again and smoke off up the road, exciting as that might be.
Exciting? Maybe not, but that’s not the Porsche way, is it? Over and above the competition which in Motor magazine’s first full road test, included everything from a TVR 3000M to a Lotus Eclat, with the Scimitar GTE wedged in between, the 924 probably appeared a bit dull and stayed, but I would wager that it would have been far the most satisfying over the long haul.
Drive over and photos in the can. Time for a bit of quiet contemplation. It was typically pragmatic of Porsche to take over the EA 425 project, and typically pragmatic to then absolutely make the most of it for 20 years. The Porsche world would have been a very different place without the 924 and it was also truly the first Porsche for the masses, which is something that has been lost today, which is a great shame.
This feature was written by Steve Bennett and first appeared in the December 2025 issue of our monthly Club magazine, Porsche Post. Join today to receive your copy, as well as enjoying a host of exclusive member benefits and savings.