Rare 1988 Porsche 924S SE Springs Back to Life After Years in a Barn

The 356 is also an essential piece of the company's heritage. It's the first Porsche ever produced, and, quite frankly, it's beautiful. The 914 may not be that pretty, but it's definitely an underrated rig, mainly due to its association with Volkswagen. But this sports car looks unlike any other Porsche and can be an excellent track toy.

But what about front-engined Porsches like the 928, 944, and 924? They were a bit controversial when they first came out, but they've morphed into sought-after classics. Well. the 924 isn't quite as desirable yet, but it's getting there. And much like every Porsche built, it also spawned a few iconic iterations.

A successor to the 914, the 924 was Porsche's entry-level and most affordable vehicle from 1976 to 1988. Initially powered by a 2.0-liter inline-four of the VW variety, the 924 entered the high-performance market in 1978 with a turbocharged version. Rated at 170 horsepower, the 924 Turbo was a notable upgrade over the regular version.

But the Turbo wasn't the most spectacular version of the 924. Porsche introduced the Carrera GT in 1980. Built for homologation purposes, it arrived in showrooms as a limited-edition sports car with up to 280 horsepower in GTS Club Sport trim. Porsche also produced a race-spec Carrera GTR model for endurance competition.

Finally, there's the 924S Special Edition. Based on the 924S fitted with the larger 2.5-liter inline-four, the Special Edition is nowhere near as potent as the Carrera GT, but it's a rare and underrated classic.

The 924S story begins in 1986, four years after Porsche retired the 924 from the US market. With the 944 a bit too expensive as an entry-level offering, Porsche brought the 924 back to North America as a more minimalist car with a detuned version of the 944's 2.5-liter four-banger (148 horsepower).

The Special Edition was born in 1988 and was essentially the US version of the 924S Club Sport. Specced out as lighter cars with track enthusiasts in mind, the Club Sport featured manual steering and windows and lacked certain convenience features, including a sunroof, passenger-side mirror, AC, cruise control, and radio.

They got slightly wider rear wheels, a stiffer suspension, and lightweight upholstery on the seats and door panels. The cars shipped to the US were rebadged Special Edition and had power steering and AC added back in, while the sunroof was included on the options list. Of the 980 Club Sport models produced, only 500 were sold in the US as Special Edition cars. All were painted black.

How many of them are still around? That's a piece of info I don't have, but YouTube's "5150mxVW" rescued one that's been sitting since 2015. One year later, our host decided to get the 2.5-liter inline-four running again. And even though it's been deprived of gasoline for about nine years, the Porsche-spec M44/40 powerplant agreed to run again.

It's not the smoothest running engine, and the car is far from being road-worthy, but it's a great first step toward returning this forgotten sports car to the road. And hopefully, it will happen soon. Check it out in the video below.