Featured: The Porsche 924 Carrera GT Is An Underappreciated Sports Car

The Porsche 924 Carrera GT Is An Underappreciated Sports Car

By Petrolicious
May 20, 2015

Story by: David Leger // Photography by: Franck Couvreur

Far from the very fashionable rear-engined Porsche 911 and 912, the mid-engined 914, Boxster, and Cayman, and even the other front-engined 928, 944, 968, and Panamera models, the small but strong 924 Carrera GT has a lot to say—if you look closely at the details.

To start, the Porsche 924 Carrera GT remains a rare pearl in the range, and colored black it is even more so compared to the red, and grey.

Porsche’s small production run of just 406 examples ensures that the first Carrera GT will remain a little-appreciated sports car for years to come. In this photo set, photographer Franck Couvreur and myself, a graphic designer, decided on an attempt to capture the rare and fascinating car, and say they both “fell for this one, well before starting to talk about the project.”

Far from its turbocharged cousins, the 924 Carrera GT is more than just a turbocharger. Porsche endowed the car with a much more capable chassis for racing and Group.4-style fender flares to cover its wider stance. Inside, however, the car retains all of the classic elements of the 924, including the austere speedometer, gearshift and instrument panel.

Power comes from a small 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine with 210 horsepower, and it’s the perfect combination for tackling Alpine roads as we searched for the ideal place to photograph the car.

It is in a loft in the south of France, at the foot of the Alps, that we ended up shooting this car at night, trying to discover it through some light painting, done in a subtle manner—with more than a little left to chance.

Like a discussion between a psychiatrist and patient, we tried to capture its best lines, in the hopes more people would appreciate its unique look. Beyond a few racing engagements, the least of which the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 924 Carrera GT captured only a few good results before descending into oblivion.

What a pity, when we’ve been able to experience the incredible balance of this car on the track and on the road. We can be assured that this car would have had the same success if the factory had wanted to develop it as it should have.

You can read more of David Leger’s work and see more of his photography at 69racingattitude.com.

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Peter Chapin
Peter Chapin
9 years ago

During the 1980s and early 90s, I was an instructor with PCA. Another instructor had a 924 Carrera GT which he also ran in the PCA racing. At one session I was quite pleased with my ability to keep my 944 Turbo S on his tail. That is until he took notice and just ran away from me. It is a very quick car on a tight course!

Ae Neuman
Ae Neuman
9 years ago

lovely cars.
when car magazine drove it in 1980, the cover proudly proclaimed ” 2 litres is enough”
😉

Ae Neuman
Ae Neuman
9 years ago
Reply to  Ae Neuman

oops it was 1981 issue

Ae Neuman
Ae Neuman
9 years ago
Reply to  Ae Neuman

try again ?

Hellena Miron
Hellena Miron
9 years ago

Yes, Petrolicious covered this model with a book review –

http://petrolicious.com/book-review-the-porsche-924-carrera

Sammy Brown
Sammy Brown
9 years ago

What a shit storm of an opening sentence.

Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
9 years ago

Haven’t we already been down the 924 Carrera GT road complete with book review ? Oh well . Regardless . Yes . Despite its pedestrian underpinnings and parts bin origins the 924 Carrera has to be the least appreciated as well as least known car in Porsche’s entire line up Road or track . FYI though . The 924 actually had a pretty illustrious run for the short time the Porsche factory as well as the customer teams ran them both on the track as well as World Rallying . Many famous drivers such as Walter Rorhl drove the daylights out of the cars with good results . Which is to say dig a little deeper and you’ll be surprised at both how often the 924 Carrera GT was driven in competition ( of all kinds ) as well as the number of good results they garnered . A rumor that persists amongst the Porscheofile community as to why the factory dropped the 924 Carrera GT ? Because there was a genuine fear if developed any further the car may of supplanted its 911’s in both sales and on track . Thats just a rumor/myth as I said but knowing Porsche and their history I wouldn’t doubt that its true . All bets now being the new Cayman GT4 may wind up suffering the same fate when all is said and done .

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