944 Turbo or 300zx for summer car

Looking to pick up a car this summer to use as a semi-daily driver and toy. My budget will be sub $15K to purchase the vehicle. The two cars that "do it for me" are the 944 turbo (S or 89) and a twin turbo 300zx 

I know there are probably better cars out there for the money but I LIKE these two, so I would be interested in hearing others feedback on each and which one they would choose. The car will be used mostly as a street car with some long trips here and there (7-10 hours). Which ever I purchase will be used for general Motorsports fun but its not a priority that they are the best platform for it. Any advise or opinions would be appreciated!!!

Not much help from me here.  I think they would both be good choices and ones that I have considered many times in my life.  The two pictured in black that you have provided even look very similar although in actuality they are not so much so.  Since you want an opinion I would give the Porsche the tiniest little edge but you can't go wrong with either one. I think the deciding factor may be which one you can find in the best condition for your price range. Good luck!

After riding in a friend's well built 300zx I say go with that one. Tons of fun and part availability is pretty good.

In reply to Fitzauto :

What did your friend have done to the 300zx?

Feedyurhed said: I think the deciding factor may be which one you can find in the best condition for your price range. Good luck!

This will probably hold true, I keep going back and forth between the two. 

One thing I will say is you can make the 300zx a lot faster than the Porsche in a straight line pretty easily and cheaply. Neither will depreciate from this point on. Check insurance rates on both. Maybe one is way more than the other...

The 300zx isn’t fun to work on, keep that in mind. 

You can find jdm versions with low mileage if you don’t mind the rhd aspect. 

clutchsmoke said:

One thing I will say is you can make the 300zx a lot faster than the Porsche in a straight line pretty easily and cheaply. Neither will depreciate from this point on. Check insurance rates on both. Maybe one is way more than the other...

Good point about the insurance, I think the cost to keep up on either would be about the same. 

In reply to Shawnb :

I’ve come to terms with the fact that all the cars I like are a PITA to work on. Luckily I have a few friends with shops I can work on the car at over the winters. 

I am a fan of both but you really need to decide what is more important to you. Track time or road trips of 7 hours. What you really are comparing is similar to  comparing a 944 and a 928. I have had both. Track day car and around town skateboard go with the 944. Longer hall road trip car the 300zx. 

Also your budget is going to get you a well used turbo s that will more than likely be a bit behind in maintenance. Nice ones are trading much closer to 20k. There is also the #2 rod bearing issue that you need to be aware of with the 944. I finally fixed it by adding the biggest accusump available at the time. Either a two or three quart. I don’t remember now. I don’t know if the 300 has any issues like that. 

If I was looking at another 944(and I am). I would go for the 944s2. No you can not really add any more power but you loose all the complexity of the turbo and you basically start at the same hp as a turbo and you will have more torque under the curve.  

I really don’t know a lot about that generation of 300zx so others will have to chime in with its strong and weak points. 

944 is a maintenance HOG.  Takes LOTS of it!  Timing belts every 30k miles.  Also has old school turbo lag.  I've owned 2 944 Turbo S's and while I enjoyed them, they're needy vehicles and not that much fun to drive around town due to the lag.

Maybe the 300zx is the better option for my needs. I could probably pick up a very nice one for 15k versus a 944 that needs some loving. 

Whats the general opinion on learning to drive in a 300zx? I’ve never done any HPDEs, track days, or autocross but would like to. I don’t care about being competitive but I’d like something that is safe and competent to learn in. 

The answer is the answer. Get a cheep one that if you ball up you don’t care. Have fun with it and use the 300 for everything else. 

The other answer for the track could be a civic if you don’t mind a FWD platform. 

The other answer is an E36 M3.  You can find a nice one for $10k, which gives you plenty of money for maintenance and upgrades.

Having two fun cars isn’t really an option for me. I know Miata/E36 would be the obvious front runners for track/hpde units but I’m not going to buy one because it’s better at 10% of the things I’ll do with it. That would be letting the tail wag the dog in my case. 

Having said that if the 300zx is dangerous or completely inept on a track maybe a 944 would be a better choice...then again I have zero experience so I’m sure a yugo would be more competent than me on a track

Can you afford to walk away from a $15,000 car if bad things happen. If so then have at it is all I am saying. 

You can get track day insurance so there is that. Also if your insurance company finds out you are on track that can be a problem as well. Don’t get me wrong I used many of my DD cars for track fun but non of them back then were worth much. 

In reply to 80sFast :

He had bigger turbos and all the upgrades to go with those, coil overs, 18x10 wheels and bigger brake rotors with stock calipers. It was a force to be reckoned with at our local autocross.

944S2. Forget the turbo. 

As an aside, even though I have a (lowly) 924S, it is "built" as my long-haul road trip car and nothing I've owned (including many modern vehicles) comes close to it as a high-speed highway cruiser.  A 944 (S2 in particular) is that but to a much higher degree.

I've spent some time in Z32's as well and found them to be excellent cars and really far more modern in feel than a 944. That said, I'm not certain I'd enjoy a long road trip in one. They wrap around you like a glove but don't really have an "airy" open feel like a 944. 

I don't think you can go wrong with either - but personally I would go with an S2 or a N/A 300ZX. For a road-trip cruiser and occasional motorsports car I don't really see the upside to turbo or the maintenance difficulties of either car in turbo configuration. Just my opinion though. 

In reply to dean1484 :

Is renting a car an option?

If you are going to get a 951 (Porsche) and are going to DIY the belts and stuff on the approved intervals then you might want to look up just what the belts and related parts cost, because it wasn’t cheap. 

I’m curious what is the weight difference between the two?  I always thought the 300zx was much heavier than the 951

In reply to irish44j :

I agree the turbos would be less trouble. But at the end of the day I just want a turbo car because I think they’re cool, and frankly that’s the whole point of getting one for me. 

Interesting that you felt a 944 is a more airy cockpit. Did the 300zx you drove have t-tops? I just always assumed the Nissan would be more wide open because of its size. 

In reply to octavious :

The timing belt and new water pump run about $200 total...couldn’t find a price for the pulley. 

A bit of googling turned this up for weights:

944 Turbo: 3,122

300ZX TT: 3,373

so about 250 pounds difference...I thought it’d be more. 

My choice would obviously be a 944. But I have had some variety of 944 in my driveway for 25-30 years. I probably have enough parts stashed to build a complete car.  Yes I think I have a problem. Lol.