There's some info about the engine on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_PFM_3200

There are quite a few that "escaped", there's a little followership at the airfield of Heubach near Stuttgart where Porsche is located: https://www.porscheaviation.com/

Flying magazine even did a piece about racing a Porsche Mooney and a 911 from Reno to San Francisco when it came out. It can be read on Google Books..

For the $140k asking price you could get a very, very nice V-tail which in my biased opinion is a better and more maintainable airplane.

Heavier, slower and more expensive than the J model/201 that they hoped to replace. The only good thing that came from it was the second stretch of the M20 fuselage that was used by the later "long body" Mooneys... The Bravo, Ovation, Eagle, Acclaim.

Enjoyable article and it's good information that I can get my IFR refresher tapes in either VHS or Beta format. Perhaps they'll cover the new Apollo 618 "super bandit" LORAN I see advertised?

Always fun looking back at what was amazing stuff.

Heavier, slower and more expensive than the J model/201 that they hoped to replace. The only good thing that came from it was the second stretch of the M20 fuselage that was used by the later "long body" Mooneys... The Bravo, Ovation, Eagle, Acclaim.

The windows got longer later, past a steel tube in the cage.

That plane did make a big splash when it was introduced.
Lotsa fanfare.

Back in that timeframe, I was talking to a senior guy from Lyvoming or Continental (I forget which) at a SAE conference, and he said that he would be embarassed tp propose that engine to a customer.

Just goes to show that replacing the current ancient technology might not be as easy as it sounds.

Manufacturer support aside, what was wrong with the engine design that would prompt such a comment?

At 6200 RPM redline my 3.2L 911 is screeming. The PorscheMooney was geared down from 6000.

While the Porsche engines are bullet proof in a car I do not think I want that engine doing 6000+ RPM till TBO what ever that was.

Manufacturer support aside, what was wrong with the engine design that would prompt such a comment?

$140K Canadian is only $105K US dollars.

Even if the engine came apart and you had to replace it later, it’s a pretty cool airplane. I thought that engine was working pretty well, just that Porsche reconsidered the liability and bailed.

$140K Canadian is only $105K US dollars.

Even if the engine came apart and you had to replace it later, it’s a pretty cool airplane. I thought that engine was working pretty well, just that Porsche reconsidered the liability and bailed.

There was an STC to replace the PFM engine with an IO-550, but it is no longer available. That really reduces the value of this plane to salvage unless a museum wants it. Or perhaps some upcoming engine STC company that might want a test airframe.

Those converted PFMs really took a hit on useful loads, too. They added the 550, but retained the 2900lbs gross weight. The TLS and Ovation gross weights went up to 3368.