Walter Röhrl & His 924 Carrera GTS Rally From 40 Years Ago Reunite

Walter Röhrl & His 924 Carrera GTS Rally From 40 Years Ago Reunite - Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally

Walter Röhrl got a nice surprise being reunited with his 1981 924 Carrera GTS. The 15 May 2021 is the 40th anniversary of Röhrl and his co-driver Christian Geistdörfer starting the international ADAC Metz Rally 1981. The only time the two-time World Champion drove for Porsche.

In the first race the car suffered with a few faults and didn’t finish, but the pair managed to take four victories from the total of seven races that season and finished in second place overall. Röhrl and Geistdörfer were victorious in the Hessen Rally, the Serengeti Safari Rally, Anterior Palatinate Rally and finally the Baltic Rally.

The following year Röhrl and Geistdörfer moved to Opel, the 924 Carrera GTS had its last race outing at the Boucles de Spa Rally in February 1982. Behind the wheel this time was racing driver Jacky Ickx. The car was decorated in a blue livery for cigarette brand Gitanes replacing the striking gold and black paintwork with sponsor cognac producer Monnet.

Walter Röhrl got a nice surprise being reunited with his 1981 924 Carrera GTS. The 15 May 2021 is the 40th anniversary of Röhrl and his co-driver Christian Geistdörfer starting the international ADAC Metz Rally 1981. The only time the two-time World Champion drove for Porsche.

In the first race the car suffered with a few faults and didn’t finish, but the pair managed to take four victories from the total of seven races that season and finished in second place overall. Röhrl and Geistdörfer were victorious in the Hessen Rally, the Serengeti Safari Rally, Anterior Palatinate Rally and finally the Baltic Rally.

The following year Röhrl and Geistdörfer moved to Opel, the 924 Carrera GTS had its last race outing at the Boucles de Spa Rally in February 1982. Behind the wheel this time was racing driver Jacky Ickx. The car was decorated in a blue livery for cigarette brand Gitanes replacing the striking gold and black paintwork with sponsor cognac producer Monnet.

After this last race the 924 GTS test car was taken in by the Porsche Museum and returned to its original colour. This has remained unchanged to this day and the aim was to preserve as much of the car’s originality as possible. Preserving the traces of time and the special stages it completed on asphalt and gravel was important. The restoration 924 was done in the same place where the car was built 40 years ago, in the historic motor racing department in Weissach.

At that time the 924 Carrera GTS was the most expensive production Porsche of the time. The road car costing 110,000 marks. The transaxle concept used in the car proved the point that it could be successful in motorsport.

After this last race the 924 GTS test car was taken in by the Porsche Museum and returned to its original colour. This has remained unchanged to this day and the aim was to preserve as much of the car’s originality as possible. Preserving the traces of time and the special stages it completed on asphalt and gravel was important. The restoration 924 was done in the same place where the car was built 40 years ago, in the historic motor racing department in Weissach.

At that time the 924 Carrera GTS was the most expensive production Porsche of the time. The road car costing 110,000 marks. The transaxle concept used in the car proved the point that it could be successful in motorsport.

Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration

 The Type 931 924 Turbo provided the basis for further development and gave birth to the enhanced 210-PS 924 Carrera GT, Type 937. Presented in June 1980 and homologated for Group 4. The more powerful development version was the 924 Carrera GTS, Type 939. The standard GTS delivered 240 PS and the Clubsport variant 275 PS.

The GTR designed exclusively for racing had a power output of 375 PS. Production runs were small. Between February and April only 50 left hand drive 924 Carrera GTS cars were built. All of them painted in Guards Red. In total, including all of the prototypes there were a total of 59 cars produced.

Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration
Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration
Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration

Test Car No. 5

The 924 Carrera GTS Rally was built on 12 December 1980 was number 5 of the pre-series vehicles. Its two-litre four-cylinder turbo engine was also a test unit, so it didn’t have a serial number which meant it was never intended for sale. It managed to survive the complete

1981 rally season without any damage. Even though it’s seen limited use it has covered 10,371 kilometres, most of those hard driven.

Retaining the patina was important to the restoration, complete originality down to the last detail was too. Even retaining the sun faded red seat belt harness under the large glass hatch. The belts still wearing the embroidered R on the driver’s side and CG for the passenger identifying Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer.

Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration
Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration

With the exception of consumable wearing items, several of the chassis’ components and fuel system were stripped and overhauled and reinstalled. The original 911 Turbo brake calipers to the custom hand built charge-air cooler were re-used. A camera was used to inspect the engine internals and the KKK 26 turbocharger before they were run for the first time in quite a while. The gearbox was stripped for inspection, but nothing serious was found and it showed little sign of wear.

The Porsche Museum workshop had a new race clutch in stock to complete the drivetrain rebuild and Pirelli had a set of new 255/55 R15 tyres with the correct period pattern.

Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally Restoration

The specialists at Weissach specialists called on former colleague Roland Kussmaul who built the car within two months for the 1981 German Rally Championship. Not only was he an engineer he was also a test driver and rally driver himself. Schmidt Motorsport from Nuremberg were responsible for service work during the events. 

The 924 Rally has some special features. The rear axle links are laminated in glass-fibre to protect them against stone damage/ thick metal plates protect the underside and the engine’s sump and the gearbox. The fuel distributer from the 928 V8 was used to provide enough fuel pressure at high engine speeds. The engine used a dry sump with the oil tank mounted in the rear and filled through an opening by the luggage compartment lock.

The obvious surprise and pleaseure Röhrl shows when he sees the finished car is clear. And he shows he hasn’t lost his touch on the test drive.

Walter Röhrl 924 Carrera GTS Rally

Thanks to Porsche for the images and video,

Simon

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