Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

i have a guards red 944s in really good shape, zero rust, decent paint, decent black pinstripe half leather interior.

150k miles on the shell, but the engine suffered chain tensioner failure so currently no engine.

i have a complete 220hp turbo engine sat in the workshop, which i am considering fitting, beforehand will get belts/waterpump/clutch/head gasket etc, so its all 100%, engine has only done 100k miles.

before i get too stuck in, what sort of money do people think it might be worth with the turbo lump installed. bearing in mind the very high value of turbos these days. this could be a cheap way into turbo power.

only worth me installing the turbo lump if the end value is high enough to warrant it, bearing in mind the engine conversion parts and labour add up to a fair amount.

half decent 944s 16v are around 4-6k now, and turbos are 15-25k so where on the spectrum would something like this sit? bearing in mind you cant buy a turbo lump conversion for less than about 3k with ancilleries

I don't really know, Nick. There are two main markets; those who like their cars "standard" and the "modifiers". I've found the "modifiers" seem to get most of their fun out of "doing" and are not overly fond of buying someone else's creation. I think the audience for the car you envisage might be quite small and finding a buyer could be tricky.

I had a BMW 323i convertible which at the time was worth £9k. I turned it into a full on M3 replica except for the engine but boosted the power by other means by 75bhp. It looked amazing and sounded it too. I had it up for sale for over a year dropping the price constantly. I eventually sold it for £3k to someone who wanted to remove all mods and put it back to standard.

Moral of the story, modifying a car will only ever decrease its value to all but as Glenn said, the very smallest of markets.

I agree in a lot of cases modifying cars can reduce value. It looking at other porsche that have sold in the past its not always the case

Look at sump crackers car, which was a std 2.5 lux, then fitted with a turbo engine etc and the car sold for around 9k which is considerably more than the original car was worth.

Its quite simple, build it put a sticker on it and wait and see what happens.

Talking up cars is often fools gold, its worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Lots of Porsche traders went pop in the downturn in the 90's. Bought too much high valued stock. The classic car market will swing back at some point, just like the stock market does.

FWIW I think Sumpcracker sold his 944 Lux with the Turbo conversion for £9k.

That said, his car was magazine featured and had quite a following across the internet.

based on the fact i have a lot of interest in the turbo engine after putting a feeler out, i wont be installing the engine, may have a 944s in guards red requiring an engine for sale in the near future though.

I wouldn't,

I struggles to get 8k.
With a fully built engine, many mods, , big turbo, turbo brakes full MO30 suspension, 30mm roll bar and scripted mint sports seats ect, cage , Azev wheels,
So when you think about it, probably 4k tops for the car in stock form with just a stock engine.


Id quite happily pay 9 to get buy it back if I could find it, but nobody knows anything about where its gone.