Hey Cameron,
Welcome to the painful world of Porsche ownership! The 924S looks great to me, it's set up just about the same as the rest of us up here plus a very nice seat. I'm sure by now you've heard the wisdom of buying an already built car versus doing it yourself. I built my car myself and although it was very enjoyable, it ended up costing twice what you will pay for that ready to go car. Having said that, if you choose to build one yourself I live close to you and have made all the big mistakes and can help you avoid those. The biggest piece of advice I can give is get racing as soon as possible even if the car is not fully finished. Track time will pay big dividends in the end. Here in Norcal Jerry bought his fire damaged car, lowered it, put the cage in, fixed some fire damage and went racing. Now that his car is better prepared(still ugly as sin though!) he is much faster and more experienced.
If you buy a street car to build, the 944/924S breaks down into four models eligible for spec. The early offset cars(83-85) with steel A arms up front and steel swing arms out back, late offset cars (87-88) with aluminum arms, and the 85.5 & 86 with aluminum arms but early offset. Also included is the 924S. I'm sure I'll get some argument about this but most guys seem to prefer the early cars. The steel A arms bend, don't break and are a fraction the cost of an aluminum A arm with new ball joints. My car is a 86 that I backdated to the steel A arms but it has the late model dash that I thought would make a difference because the steering column is a little higher. It didn't. Not only that, i have a hard time getting the car down in weight. Ken's car that you drove is a late car. If i were looking to build another car I'd focus on early cars but price would be the biggest factor.
Anyway good luck and if you need any help or advice feel free to call/email.
p.s. i know of an early car buried in the snow above Nevada city that I can have cheap. I was going to buy it after I sell one of my extranious cars but if you need a car maybe we can go drag it out of there.
Ron
