Porsche 944 Turbo Cup

The vehicle in detail

Chassis No. WP0AA0950JN165082

In a bid to prove the race credentials of its 944 Turbo, Porsche envisioned a turnkey spec-racing series in the mid-1980s. The automaker’s Competition Department in Weissach stripped 944 Turbos of their heavy luxuries and made substantial fiberglass weight-saving tweaks as well as significant under-hood changes such as a larger turbocharger, uprated 928 S4-sourced brakes, and various drivetrain upgrades. Just 39 were allocated for the North American market, including Canada. The result was an ideal blend of grassroots-style driving with cars properly prepped from the get-go.

Purchased new by Agincourt Autohaus Leasing and delivered to Cooke Motors of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this 944 Turbo Cup was initially raced by Rick Bye, who later worked for Porsche’s Canadian operations. Securing Reebok—which was on the heels, so to speak, of the launch of its new Pump line of athletic shoes in the late 1980s—as a sponsor, Bye commissioned the eye-catching bright livery the car wears today. Bye campaigned the car successfully in the Rothmans Porsche Turbo Cup Championship, placing tenth and ninth in the 1988 and 1989 final standings respectively, and claiming victory in July 1989 at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant.

The 944 Turbo Cup was then sold to a Mr. Ian Goggin who prepared and raced the car in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk series in the early 1990s. Goggin retired the car, and after a brief period of storage, it was reunited with Bye in 1994 and exported to the United States. There, a careful restoration was undertaken to its current condition, including a refinish into its period-correct Reebok livery.

The car remained under fastidious single ownership into the early 2020s, and today it presents as a relative time capsule to an important era for Porsche. Look beyond its signature graphics and you’ll find a simplified cabin with a heavily bolstered Recaro racing seat next to a stock seat wearing the automaker’s distinctive script upholstery, but little else. Up front, the uprated KKK-turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder remains paired with a five-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip differential. Significantly, this factory-built race car remains road-legal and is offered with an Ohio title, making it equally suited to wheel-to-wheel racing at PCA and vintage racing events or enjoyment on public roads.