Yahoo Autos Porsche 924 Carrera GTS rally car restored for Walter Rohrl
Porsche has just completed restoration of a 924 Carrera GTS rally car. The project was a surprise for the 74th birthday of rally driver Walter Röhrl.
Röhrl is a racing legend, but the German native has officially raced for Porsche for only one rally season. That was 40 years ago, behind the wheel of this gold-and-black 924 for the 1981 season of the German Rally Championship. Röhrl and co-driver Christian Geistdörfer won four races and came in second overall in the championship points standings. After that, the duo signed on to the Opel team and Röhrl went on to drive other legendary cars.
Back in 1981, the 924 Carerra GTS was the most expensive car Porsche had ever produced up until that time. Only 50 of the Group 4 (predecessor to Group B) homologation specials were made, all painted in Guards Red. The GTS made 237 horsepower while a more powerful (and rarer) Clubsport variant made 271 hp.
An additional nine prototypes were built, of which Röhrl's rally car was the fifth. The race car started out with 247 hp but power was added as the season went on. It has had a number of special features as well, including a fiberglass coating for the axle links from the innovative rear transaxle to protect against rocks, skid plates beneath the oil pan and gearbox, and a fuel distributor from the V8-powered 928.
The painstaking restoration was conducted at Porsche's historic motor racing department in Weissach, the same garage where the car was born on December 12, 1980. The restoration team strove to preserve as much of the original car as possible.
