Parklane bustop

Growing up in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s on the outskirts of London, was a very different experience for Andy to most of us here in Australia. “Back in those days, if your family had a car, you were a little bit posh, most working class families did not own a car”, Andy jokingly recalls. People mostly got around on motorcycles & that's exactly where Andy cut his teeth & the journey began in finding this fantastic Porsche 924 GT.

Andy remembers being in his teens & the many trail bike adventures he & his mates would have, riding around on dirt roads & ripping through old quarries was all standard fun in those days. On returning home & after washing the dirt off with a bath, he’d retire to his bedroom & wander off to sleep looking at the posters pinned to his wall - a Lamborghini Countach & a Ferrari 288 GTO. These were the exotic cars most kids dreamt about just seeing, let alone owning one.

Until one fateful day, Andy had to make a trip into London. As he left the comforts of his Suburb, the bus eventually pulled into Parklane & there in the front window of a Porsche dealership was a brand new bright red 924 Carrera GT. As it spun around on its carousel, Andy was frozen in time & totally blown away. “I remember looking at the 924 GT & thinking WOW! That is amazing, it's so awesome. It felt like an eternity, just staring at the Porsche”. Eventually the bus jerked away, but the effects of that moment & the impression it had on Andy, still resonate to this day.

A seed planted will grow

It was a natural progression for kids growing up in England to go from motorcycles to cars. Once Andy was at the age he could start working, while still at school, he was stacking shelves at <insertstore> & saving up his pay. The day came when he had enough cash to purchase a secondhand Ford Escort Mk1 1300 XL, every young lad's achievable boy racer. The next natural transition was to turn that MK1 into a track ready car to go racing in. “We’d strip them out, put bucket seats in & harnesses, spot lights, all pretty straight forward stuff, but it was loads of fun”, Andy recalls. 

As time progressed & the British economy improved, Andy was out in the real world & working for a successful technology company in the UK. With a little more disposable income burning a hole in his back pocket, Andy started to spend more time at local race track meetings. In 1986 Andy had the greatest experience of all, attending Le Mans. There he watched Derik Bell win the race outright in the Rothmans #17 Porsche 911. Inspired by Derick’s win, Andy returned home & purchased his first 911 to go racing, he fittingly chose #17 as his race number.

In 2013 Andy migrated to Australia the Porsche 924 Carrera he saw in the Parklane dealership, still held a dear place in his heart. It's this connection to the Carrera that saw Andy set his sights on owning one. “I joined the Porsche club & 2 guys in the club had 924 Carrera GTs, I thought I’ve gotta get one of these” Andy recalls. From this point, Andy’s path to purchasing his 924 Carrera was pretty straight forward, unless you think buying a Porsche site unseen from the UK sounds difficult.

Andy's 924 Carrera GT was a real barn find, he found it sitting in the back corner of a shed. Its interior was stripped out, but it only had 56,000 genuine miles & all the service books to prove. Just by chance this 924 had race pedigree, owned & raced by John Greeslee, who Andy happened to know & respect as a good driver. The car did need some work, but at 16,000 pounds purchase price, Andy was prepared to make that happen. He recommissioned the Porsche to a local Porsche 924 specialist. 3 months later with a fresh coat of paint, new interior & an engine rebuild, Andy’s 924 Porsche was shipped off to Australia with a 3 months journey at sea, the 924 GT arrived safely on our shores.

Lets go racing
To qualify for Group 4 racing, Le Mans in particular, Porsche needed to develop a homologation special and in 1979 introduced the Type 924 Carrera GT. Powered by a 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder turbocharged engine, with 210 horsepower and built over a more rigid racing chassis, the Carrera GT features aggressive Group 4-style fender flares to cover forged alloy Fuchs wheels and a wider stance, a frameless windscreen reducing drag and increasing overall rigidity, stiffer suspension and beefier anti-roll bars making it one of the most forward thinking cars of its day.

‍

Despatching 0-100 km/h in just 6.9 seconds and gripping to the road like a barnacle on the hull of an ocean liner the 924 Carrera GT wears the Carrera classification, reserved only for Porsches derived directly from their competition program and is today worshiped by an enormous cult following.

‍

Produced in limited numbers, just 400 cars left the factory with 75 built in right hand drive, of which only 42 are believed to survive in original condition today.

Parklane bustop

Growing up in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s on the outskirts of London, was a very different experience for Andy to most of us here in Australia. “Back in those days, if your family had a car, you were a little bit posh, most working class families did not own a car”, Andy jokingly recalls. People mostly got around on motorcycles & that's exactly where Andy cut his teeth & the journey began in finding this fantastic Porsche 924 GT.

Andy remembers being in his teens & the many trail bike adventures he & his mates would have, riding around on dirt roads & ripping through old quarries was all standard fun in those days. On returning home & after washing the dirt off with a bath, he’d retire to his bedroom & wander off to sleep looking at the posters pinned to his wall - a Lamborghini Countach & a Ferrari 288 GTO. These were the exotic cars most kids dreamt about just seeing, let alone owning one.

Until one fateful day, Andy had to make a trip into London. As he left the comforts of his Suburb, the bus eventually pulled into Parklane & there in the front window of a Porsche dealership was a brand new bright red 924 Carrera GT. As it spun around on its carousel, Andy was frozen in time & totally blown away. “I remember looking at the 924 GT & thinking WOW! That is amazing, it's so awesome. It felt like an eternity, just staring at the Porsche”. Eventually the bus jerked away, but the effects of that moment & the impression it had on Andy, still resonate to this day.

A seed planted will grow

It was a natural progression for kids growing up in England to go from motorcycles to cars. Once Andy was at the age he could start working, while still at school, he was stacking shelves at <insertstore> & saving up his pay. The day came when he had enough cash to purchase a secondhand Ford Escort Mk1 1300 XL, every young lad's achievable boy racer. The next natural transition was to turn that MK1 into a track ready car to go racing in. “We’d strip them out, put bucket seats in & harnesses, spot lights, all pretty straight forward stuff, but it was loads of fun”, Andy recalls. 

As time progressed & the British economy improved, Andy was out in the real world & working for a successful technology company in the UK. With a little more disposable income burning a hole in his back pocket, Andy started to spend more time at local race track meetings. In 1986 Andy had the greatest experience of all, attending Le Mans. There he watched Derik Bell win the race outright in the Rothmans #17 Porsche 911. Inspired by Derick’s win, Andy returned home & purchased his first 911 to go racing, he fittingly chose #17 as his race number.

In 2013 Andy migrated to Australia the Porsche 924 Carrera he saw in the Parklane dealership, still held a dear place in his heart. It's this connection to the Carrera that saw Andy set his sights on owning one. “I joined the Porsche club & 2 guys in the club had 924 Carrera GTs, I thought I’ve gotta get one of these” Andy recalls. From this point, Andy’s path to purchasing his 924 Carrera was pretty straight forward, unless you think buying a Porsche site unseen from the UK sounds difficult.

Andy's 924 Carrera GT was a real barn find, he found it sitting in the back corner of a shed. Its interior was stripped out, but it only had 56,000 genuine miles & all the service books to prove. Just by chance this 924 had race pedigree, owned & raced by John Greeslee, who Andy happened to know & respect as a good driver. The car did need some work, but at 16,000 pounds purchase price, Andy was prepared to make that happen. He recommissioned the Porsche to a local Porsche 924 specialist. 3 months later with a fresh coat of paint, new interior & an engine rebuild, Andy’s 924 Porsche was shipped off to Australia with a 3 months journey at sea, the 924 GT arrived safely on our shores.

Lets go racing
To qualify for Group 4 racing, Le Mans in particular, Porsche needed to develop a homologation special and in 1979 introduced the Type 924 Carrera GT. Powered by a 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder turbocharged engine, with 210 horsepower and built over a more rigid racing chassis, the Carrera GT features aggressive Group 4-style fender flares to cover forged alloy Fuchs wheels and a wider stance, a frameless windscreen reducing drag and increasing overall rigidity, stiffer suspension and beefier anti-roll bars making it one of the most forward thinking cars of its day.

‍

Despatching 0-100 km/h in just 6.9 seconds and gripping to the road like a barnacle on the hull of an ocean liner the 924 Carrera GT wears the Carrera classification, reserved only for Porsches derived directly from their competition program and is today worshiped by an enormous cult following.

‍

Produced in limited numbers, just 400 cars left the factory with 75 built in right hand drive, of which only 42 are believed to survive in original condition today.

Parklane bustop

Growing up in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s on the outskirts of London, was a very different experience for Andy to most of us here in Australia. “Back in those days, if your family had a car, you were a little bit posh, most working class families did not own a car”, Andy jokingly recalls. People mostly got around on motorcycles & that's exactly where Andy cut his teeth & the journey began in finding this fantastic Porsche 924 GT.

Andy remembers being in his teens & the many trail bike adventures he & his mates would have, riding around on dirt roads & ripping through old quarries was all standard fun in those days. On returning home & after washing the dirt off with a bath, he’d retire to his bedroom & wander off to sleep looking at the posters pinned to his wall - a Lamborghini Countach & a Ferrari 288 GTO. These were the exotic cars most kids dreamt about just seeing, let alone owning one.

Until one fateful day, Andy had to make a trip into London. As he left the comforts of his Suburb, the bus eventually pulled into Parklane & there in the front window of a Porsche dealership was a brand new bright red 924 Carrera GT. As it spun around on its carousel, Andy was frozen in time & totally blown away. “I remember looking at the 924 GT & thinking WOW! That is amazing, it's so awesome. It felt like an eternity, just staring at the Porsche”. Eventually the bus jerked away, but the effects of that moment & the impression it had on Andy, still resonate to this day.

A seed planted will grow

It was a natural progression for kids growing up in England to go from motorcycles to cars. Once Andy was at the age he could start working, while still at school, he was stacking shelves at <insertstore> & saving up his pay. The day came when he had enough cash to purchase a secondhand Ford Escort Mk1 1300 XL, every young lad's achievable boy racer. The next natural transition was to turn that MK1 into a track ready car to go racing in. “We’d strip them out, put bucket seats in & harnesses, spot lights, all pretty straight forward stuff, but it was loads of fun”, Andy recalls. 

As time progressed & the British economy improved, Andy was out in the real world & working for a successful technology company in the UK. With a little more disposable income burning a hole in his back pocket, Andy started to spend more time at local race track meetings. In 1986 Andy had the greatest experience of all, attending Le Mans. There he watched Derik Bell win the race outright in the Rothmans #17 Porsche 911. Inspired by Derick’s win, Andy returned home & purchased his first 911 to go racing, he fittingly chose #17 as his race number.

In 2013 Andy migrated to Australia the Porsche 924 Carrera he saw in the Parklane dealership, still held a dear place in his heart. It's this connection to the Carrera that saw Andy set his sights on owning one. “I joined the Porsche club & 2 guys in the club had 924 Carrera GTs, I thought I’ve gotta get one of these” Andy recalls. From this point, Andy’s path to purchasing his 924 Carrera was pretty straight forward, unless you think buying a Porsche site unseen from the UK sounds difficult.

Andy's 924 Carrera GT was a real barn find, he found it sitting in the back corner of a shed. Its interior was stripped out, but it only had 56,000 genuine miles & all the service books to prove. Just by chance this 924 had race pedigree, owned & raced by John Greeslee, who Andy happened to know & respect as a good driver. The car did need some work, but at 16,000 pounds purchase price, Andy was prepared to make that happen. He recommissioned the Porsche to a local Porsche 924 specialist. 3 months later with a fresh coat of paint, new interior & an engine rebuild, Andy’s 924 Porsche was shipped off to Australia with a 3 months journey at sea, the 924 GT arrived safely on our shores.

Lets go racing
To qualify for Group 4 racing, Le Mans in particular, Porsche needed to develop a homologation special and in 1979 introduced the Type 924 Carrera GT. Powered by a 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder turbocharged engine, with 210 horsepower and built over a more rigid racing chassis, the Carrera GT features aggressive Group 4-style fender flares to cover forged alloy Fuchs wheels and a wider stance, a frameless windscreen reducing drag and increasing overall rigidity, stiffer suspension and beefier anti-roll bars making it one of the most forward thinking cars of its day.

‍

Despatching 0-100 km/h in just 6.9 seconds and gripping to the road like a barnacle on the hull of an ocean liner the 924 Carrera GT wears the Carrera classification, reserved only for Porsches derived directly from their competition program and is today worshiped by an enormous cult following.

‍

Produced in limited numbers, just 400 cars left the factory with 75 built in right hand drive, of which only 42 are believed to survive in original condition today.

More than a feeling, it's an experience

As Andy’s Carrera GT rolled off the dock, he looked on with great anticipation & a bit of anxiety. Would it be worth all the waiting, time, effort & of course money he put into achieving his boyhood dream. “ I remember looking at it for the first time, thinking WOW! I was so impressed. It was so good, even better than I was hoping for. Then I sat inside, turned the engine oh… OH YEAH! I was hooked, couldn't wait to take her on our maiden drive”. Andy enthusiastically describes.

Once Andy had the car registered & on the road, he was even more impressed. “It’s a phenomenal car, an absolute joy to drive, even when you push the limits of the 924 Carrera GT on the track. On the track, Andy has seen his 924 GT run lap time, just short of the 911 Group S, which is a race spec car, which speaks volumes for this little Porsche.

“The most use we get out of the 924 GT these days is at regular events, club runs & of course Sunday drives” Andy said.

BIG thanks to Andy for sharing his story.