Porsche 924 - Octane Magazine

Octane Magazine
Porsche 924 `Sherlock`

Creative Direction
Production
Styling

Photographer:
Jan Steinhilber

Creative Director & Production:
Andrea Wald - Waldbranding

Shooting & Interview for famous Octane Magazine, talking about my 924 from 1981.

Octane magazine is a magazine for lovers of historic and sporty cars. It captures the exclusivity and excitement of the classic car world.

Interview 29.07.2022
Porsche 924 `Sherlock`

Andrea Wald is a creative director and lives with her family in Berlin. She drives a transaxle Porsche, an onyx green 924 from 1981.

"For me, the 924 is simply one of the hottest youngtimers and actually the coolest Porsche ever built. Porsche fans almost always drive a 911, the transaxle models you mainly see are 928s and 944s. But to find a really original 924 is hard. They have become quite rare. I believe that this is mainly due to the fact that these cars have not been garaged over the decades and have not been cared for as intimately as their air-cooled siblings. In addition, there is this eternal discussion as to whether the model is a "real Porsche", since it was originally designed for VW using parts from VW and Audi and the transaxle concept was such a break with the famous Porsche engine layout. But to be honest, I can live with the terms "housewife Porsche" or "puzzle Porsche", because the car is just a lot of fun for me and I just love the shape and its character. Many people don't know that without the 924 Porsche might not exist anymore. The great commercial success of the transaxle models saved the Porsche brand from bankruptcy in the early 80s. The 924 was at times one of the best selling sports car in the world in the early 1980s. And for me, the 924 is the perfect, practical sports car, with its huge 370l trunk volume, where even the children's bikes or full photo equipment fit. In addition, spare parts are relatively available and affordable and garage bills stay within reasonable limits. At least so far.

When it comes to cars in general, I believe that 1974-1984 was the golden decade of design. Maybe this is linked to the culture imprint of my childhood, but i hardly ever find a car I love that was designed outside this period.

As a creative director I am also involved with cars. I have developed many brand identities, brand experiences and campaigns for automotive companies over the years and I always embrace the design principle „less but better“. It’s quite interesting to notice that most brands go for simplicity in their branding but the car‘s interior and exterior design goes wild and furious with rare exceptions.

For many years I enjoyed driving a glacier blue VW Golf 2 „Manhattan“ that I inherited from my grandmother. The next car I fell in love with was a beige VW T3 Turbo Diesel Multivan my boyfriend and I bargained for just 1000 euro from a local car dealer. It was our reliable companion for 10 years. We drove it down the European Atlantic Coast for half a year.

The relationship with these old machines is just so much more intense and this is the automotive romanticism that for me makes the difference and emotionally ties me to these pre-software-controlled automobiles. With our VW Bus, for example, we always had to suffer together when we wanted to climb up alpine roads. We always had to turn the heat on “full blast” especially on hot summer days in order to take the turbo generated heat out of the system. Maybe my 924 is just the logical next step. It’s door handles, air vents and switches already well-known to me from the Golf and the Multivan made me feel right at home.

But my love for the 924 actually dates back much further. When I was 8, my grandfather gave me an „Autoquartett“ card game which featured a 924 and I fell in love with the slim design language – the hatchback, the pop-up headlights, the rubber rear wing.

When I finally decided to go for one, I was lucky to find an incredibly well preserved specimen and I just had to own it.
The car was in a very good condition, the dashboard is not cracked and the pinstriped seats are not worn out as on most 924s.I immediately fell in love with the overall composition of this very car, the onyx metallic paint, the cross spoke rims, the fancy brown pinstripe seats, the beautiful black 4 spoke steering wheel and that sound – just everything was perfect.

In addition, I found in the previous owner Tim someone who could be trusted and who had also invested a lot of love and time in the car. He told me that he had searched for a 924 in this incredible paint colour for over 6 years. The car belonged to a detective and security agency in the early 80s. At some point it went on to the bosses wife until the prior owner took it over in 2014. Due to the vehicle history, my family and I call the 924 „Sherlock". So far no larger repairs have been needed and an old relay made the most problems. It does have the 924 typical issues when starting from a medium warm engine but that really is not a show stopper.

The car gets a lot of attention on the road – from former 924 owners, from car lovers but also from teenagers who see it for the first time. Recently I got a big smile and a thumbs up from a 16 year old "post-nirvana fan“ on the side of the road. It even happened to me that I was asked for a drag race by a group of young „gangsters“ at a traffic light or whether I would sell my car to them. The 924 seems to attract all kinds of people from all milieus since 1976 until today. One of my worst experiences was being stopped by the Berlin police with my 8-year-old son because the car does not have a three-point seat belt. Despite reference to the original condition, my son was ordered to get out immediately and take a cab home – in Covid times.

Taking „Sherlock“ out on weekends has become a real family highlight. The kids love it and it sometimes feels like travelling back in time and being in a 1980s 924 commercial ad. In 2020 I started merging my love for classic cars with my profession though an instagram feed @waldbranding. I hunt cars in Berlin whenever they appear – spectacular models but also "everyday heroes“, cars that stand out in their natural street environment. Feel free to follow.

You may have heard it before, but it is true that the old image of the 924 has been noticeably changing for a few years now. The car has achieved the status of real coolness. There are now voices that say the 924 is the 912 of the 2020s. So if you want to find a good one, you should hurry.”