1978 Porsche 924 Rallye
Debuted In 1979
The 924 Rallye version was based on an idea of Jürgen Barth, Roland Kußmaul and Helmut Ristl. From the end of 1978 onwards, they worked during their free time on the two turbo rally versions.
Due to a steel strike lasting six weeks the Porsche 924 Rallye was not approved until February 1st, 1979. This was why for the 1979 Monte Carlo Rally Barth decided to convert the Porsche 924 to a conventional naturally-aspirated engine. In turn, this measure meant that the car only had an output of 125 hp instead of 170. Thus the Monte Carlo rally was given the status of a test race.
However, the first victory for a Porsche 924 in its class was chalked up as early as July 1979 in the Australian Repco Rally. After this Barth competed in his first German rally for more than ten years when, driving a Porsche 924 Turbo and with Christa Herrmann as co-driver, he took part in the Rhine-Hesse Rally, which was one of the heats in the 1979 German Rally Championship. On asphalt, the pairing of Barth and 924 was a truly spectacular one, whereby his choice of tyres proved to be of a definite advantage as on the Rally he used radial tyres only!
From the spring of 1981 onwards a Group 4 version of the 924 Carrera GT (basis as in Le Mans line up) was available for both rally and circuit races
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copyright 2002