Porsche 984
The Porsche 984 Junior was a 2-door roadster concept from the German automobile manufacturer Porsche, that was in development between 1984 and 1987. It was designed to be a small, affordable and fuel-efficient sports car similar to the Porsche 924, albeit with a lower sales price. It was conceptualized in cooperation with Spanish automaker SEAT, although Porsche eventually pressed forward with development on their own. The entire project was discontinued in early 1988.
History
The Porsche 984 concept was inspired by a joint project done with SEAT, and together the two companies birthed the "Porsche PS", which was never prototyped. A 1.5 L inline-four watercooled engine, officially codenamed "System Porsche", was developed shortly after to go along with the PS, although SEAT later kept it and used it in the first generation SEAT Ibiza. A 2.0 L flat-four engine developed entirely by Porsche was prepared for use in the 984 instead.SEAT eventually left the project, and Porsche chose to proceed with the development of the concept alone. According to Porsche, the car was designed to appeal to a younger audience, with a planned price that was somewhere in the area of 40,000 DM Had it gone into production, it would have likely replaced the Porsche 924 as the entry-level vehicle in their lineup.
In spite of whatever promise the prototype may have shown, plummeting sales worldwide following Black Monday in October of 1987 rendered the continuation of development economically infeasible. This brought the project to a halt by March of 1988.
Design
The 984 concept was very similar to the aforementioned Porsche-SEAT project, and were very similar in terms of what they were intended to be. Both were to be a lightweight, fun to drive, and affordable vehicle, and the rear-engine configuration, among other features, seemed to reflect these aspirations. During development, large portions of the manufactured prototypes contained parts throughout both the interior and exterior that were pulled from other Porsche models of the era.Much unlike the 924, the designers at Porsche ostensibly planned for the car to incorporate an optional all-wheel drive system, as well as a hard-top.
These features, especially all-wheel drive and its rear engine layout, would help to separate it from other roadsters of the era, such as the Mazda MX-5. Porsche would, despite the end of the 984 project, later go on to produce the Boxster during the 1990s, which was designed to serve a very similar purpose to the 984 concept.