From a golden era of true homologation specials, the 924 GTS is one of Porsche’s most dynamic as it strayed from the marque’s rear-engined 911 in so many ways. Released in 1979, the four cylinder, front-engined 924 Turbo was already proving to be quite a capable sportscar but for 1981 a big step change was to follow and a very special variant was needed to homologate the car for Group 4 (and Group B thereafter) competition.
FIA regulations stipulated that a minimum of 400 examples had to be built and this was achieved with the 924 Carrera GT (406 in total) but Porsche were not done there and the Carrera GTS was devised. Shedding just under 60kgs was achieved by employing Perspex windows (apart from windscreen) and fibreglass body panels including the bonnet, wings and doors. The car was lower, wider and also benefitted from a substantial power upgrade from 210bhp up to 240bhp and in total just 44 were built and marketed by Porsche in their brochure as a ‘street-legal race car’.
But Porsche still had something extra special to add, a limited run of just 15 924 Carrera GTS were developed further and designated as the ‘Club Sport’ variant. Dropping a further 60kgs, the curb weight was just 1,060kgs! Power massively grew to a peak at 270bhp making for a 0-60 sprint in just 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 160mph, at the time it was said to be the fastest production car Porsche had built and was 25% MORE expensive than the 911 Turbo. Notably a lot of the weight save was achieved by extensive use of aluminium componentry underneath the car across the suspension set up (including the adjustable platform Bilstein shocks) and taking the aluminium, finned brakes from the 930/935. The intention was to sell these as customer cars for rally use (if not employed as a truly formidable road car).
Of note, it is stated in Roy Smith’s definitive ‘The 924 Carrera – Evolution to Excellence-‘ that the 15 Club Sports were built in the factory competition department in Weissach.
HISTORY
Specified in Guards Red with Matter aluminium roll cage and black felt lined ‘Lollipop’ competition seats, this GTS Clubsport was delivered new to the USA. The file and owner-researched history tells us that the car was delivered to California Porsche Audi Inc. in San Francisco in the latter half of 1982, there is also note on the original Porsche release document that it left there on 12th July 1982 and the then Dealer Principal, James Tracy, is also mentioned. It is not known when it was onward sold or who to but it is stated in a latter from, ex racer, Olaf Lang as having been used by the Porsche Sales Department for demonstration purposes. By the late 80s (at least) it had not travelled far as it was owned by the well-reputed collector David Morse of Campbell, California (just south of San Francisco). Morse had his own fully-staffed team to maintain and run his fleet and the car remained with him until his passing in the early 2000s.
Research on file includes an excerpt from Ray Joseph of RPM Sports Cars in Houston commenting that in March 2003 ownership transferred to South Carolina based Porsche collector Matt Drendel. G & W Motorwerkes Ltd in Virginia then handled the next sale of the car to another North Carolina resident in May 2006 before Ray Jospeh purchased it in October 2006 when he onward sold it to Edmond Blais of Utah who kept it until 2012.
This was to spell the return to Europe for GTS CS, chassis 032. It was bought by Johan Dirkx in Belgium who added just 10kms to the odometer and sold it to Dutch dealer Auto Leitner from where the current custodian bought the car in 2014 and subsequently imported it into the UK when the odometer read just 5,197kms.
TECHNICAL/ CONDITION STATUS
Currently displaying just 5,426kms it really has been seldom used but regularly run up and stored in a climate controlled environment at the owner’s residence.
I have not personally driven the car on the road thus am currently unable to comment on this aspect. Starts on the button, settles to idle instantly and no issues otherwise identified it would benefit from driving in order to comment further, a belts and fluid service would be advised at minimum before extended use.
Condition presented is to an extremely high standard as the images attest, signs of isolated paint touch ins and some light road rash to the lower rear arches in particular but aside from that is stunning for its age with minimal internal wear too. The underneath presentation is really something to behold, images available by request.
DOCUMENTATION
– History file with various maintenance invoices, import/ export paperwork, MOTs, prior images and the 1990 dated letter from Olaf Lang at Porsche
– Current UK V5 registration document
– Unmarked User/ Maintenance manuals in both English & German
– Tool roll
– Cover
– Spare wheel
– Spare key
SUMMARY
Rarity, performance and condition make this a serious consideration for any Porsche collector or indeed collector of competition intended homologation specials. In my estimation, of the 15, at least 5 were used in competition or further modified and most have recorded much more significant mileages thus this should rank at the top end of examples extant in factory specification.
Inspection welcome by appointment.
1981 
1981 
1979 
1977 
