by John Glynn | Apr 10, 2018 | Project Cars, Classic Porsche Blog
It’s been almost five years since I took my 1981 Porsche 924 Turbo apart for a repaint and the car is still not back together. Family life and motorbike fun just keeps getting in the way of my available time to work on this beautiful old car and get it road legal in the UK.
The most recent burst of activity on the 924 Turbo stopped after I bought my 1150 GS Adventure two years ago. Last year’s addition of another boxer – the 2004 BMW R1150RT that middle daughter Ciara and I enjoyed two great European tours on last year and which I fully rebuilt bar the engine during this winter just gone – meant that the 924 was left unloved for another twelve months. However, it is now in the way of another big project, so I’ve been putting that right at weekends and it’s looking much more like a car again.
The latest work is reassembling the engine and getting it running again, so I can move it to finish the inside of my new garage build. I took the induction apart in 2015 to check gaskets and vacuum leaks, powder coat some parts and to get to the cam belt to change it, but soon realised what I really wanted to do was to pull the engine, transmission and front and rear suspension to refurb everything after my complete body repaint and full strip and rebuild of the interior. I decided to just have a good look, tidy things up and make a list of bits to start collecting for a more detailed refurb at a later date.
I really like looking at and working on this car and am excited to begin working on a complete powertrain refurb at a later date once this new garage workshop is sorted. Good-as-new mechanicals and underside parts will really make the 924 Turbo something special. My intention now is to get it running cleanly, take it for another MOT to help get it UK registered and then send it away for the summer while I sort this garage space for project use.
I took a few pics when ripping this all to bits in 2015 and am I glad I did: the brain soon forgets where stuff goes. During reassembly, I’ve found a couple of bits that could do with changing and ordered some more new parts which should hopefully get here this week. One thing that would really be nice to change is the the vacuum capsule, which has a cracked bracket, but I can’t find one in my stash at the minute. It is on the list for the future.
I have a few more bits to put back together, then the brakes need to come off: discs will be de-rusted and the calipers will be dismantled before a system flush with fresh fluid (it is absolutely black at the minute) and then we can run it and see what else needs looking at. I bought a set of tyres for the original wheels and have fixed everything thrown up by the previous MOT, so fingers crossed that it all works out.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
by John Glynn | Jan 22, 2018 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche People
Confirmation of Singer Vehicle Design’s partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering became public several weeks ago, when computer mockups of the latest Singer Porsche DLS (Dynamics and Lightweighting Study), were shared on social media.
Some of my friends have been involved in the project since its earliest days, so I’ve been following progress from the sidelines for months. It is a interesting collaboration. Now that the bodyshells have entered production, Singer has started advertising for people to help assemble these cars in the UK. The jobs are here in sunny Northamptonshire and the accompanying text from the Singer website is below. You can also download the full Singer Porsche jobs PDF.
About Singer
Singer Vehicle Design was formed in 2009 to explore the creative possibilities within the vibrant world of the classic automobile. Singer is dedicated to the passionate study, preservation and optimisation of the world’s most respected high-performance vehicles. Our focus – indeed obsession – has been the pursuit of a meticulously restored and reimagined air-cooled Porsche 911. Our lofty objective is to distill, enhance and recombine the strands of greatness that have long marked the Porsche 911 as iconic. Today, the cars we restore to bespoke commission for our global clientele appear in the world’s most prestigious global automotive shows and publications.
Singer Porsche UK Jobs
Our latest endeavour on behalf of our clients is a Dynamics and Lightweighting Study “DLS” undertaken with Williams Advanced Engineering – part of the Williams Grand Prix Engineering Group. DLS encompasses a selection of restoration and modification services strongly oriented toward lightweighting and dynamic gains.
The restoration of cars for owners who select the Dynamics and Lightweighting Study will be carried out in the UK. As a result, we are looking for talented individuals to join our UK-based operations.
Job opportunities available Singer GB, a subsidiary of Singer Vehicle Design, will commence operations in February 2018 in Northamptonshire and is currently looking for:
- Painters
- Fabricators
- Mechanics
If you are interested in finding out more about the Singer GB team and these positions please contact us: email info@singergb.co.uk
by John Glynn | Dec 15, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods, Road Trips
I went back to doing some magazine work earlier this year, with my friend Simon Jackson at GT Porsche magazine. Having run a few of my features through 2017, Simon asked if I fancied writing another regular column and I was happy to say yes, so the January 2018 issue has at least one page written by me.
Elsewhere in the latest issue is the story of my road trip to Ruf Automobile Gmbh last July. I made the trip as a passenger in Jonny Hart’s Delphi Green 911 SC, to demo the Classic Retrofit air conditioning system and give Alois and team a tour of the other Classic Retrofit products. The visit was a great success: so much so that the stop-off at the Porsche Museum the following day was a slight anticlimax. When a genuine Porsche hero takes you to lunch, the experience is hard to beat.
Ruf CTR versus Singer/Williams
After our trip, Jonny became part of the project team on the new Ruf CTR and has been working away on the development of the heating and ventilation system for this incredible car. I’ve seen lots of progress photos and they are pretty exciting – such a brave project from Ruf. No chance to share anything for the minute, but they will all come out eventually.
Jonny is also working on the new Singer, as are a few more of my friends, and that is another quite interesting project. Comparing the two from a static driver’s seat is interesting. The Ruf is built on a completely new body shell, all in carbon and with slightly bigger dimensions from the original, while the Singer retains much of the 964 floorpan with additional composite elements. Having seen both up close and sat in the Ruf, the slight shifts in scale give a different feeling from one driver’s seat to the other and that will be interesting to compare on the road. I probably won’t get to drive either of them, but no doubt the big boys will have much to discuss.
GT Porsche: my Tyre Kicker column
I first started working with GT Porsche editor, Simon Jackson, back in 2009. At the time, Simon was running Retro Cars magazine and my creative partner of the time, James Lipman, had already done a few features with him. The three of us went on to do a few bits together and I really enjoyed being in that magazine.
Like all good editors, Simon is easy to work for: he is not shy about speaking his mind on certain contradictions in the world of classic Porsche and is happy to let his contributors just go and get on with it. I like what he is doing at GT Porsche, especially given the operational pressures all magazines face nowadays. Check out the latest issue if you run across it.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
by John Glynn | Dec 11, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
I recently made the acquaintance of Nick Diggens in Victoria, Australia and his sweet 911 SC in Copper Bronze Metallic. The introduction came courtesy of fellow SC owner, Jonny Hart at Classic Retrofit. We’re all members of the period SC appreciation society, so Nick’s SC was worth sharing.
The first pic I saw was the one above, showing the newly-restored 911 on cookie cutter wheels, wrapped in 195/65 15 and 205/60 15 tyres front and rear respectively, which I thought sounded much bigger than standard. The day before, I had been swapping emails with another mate who has just bought a 911 SC Coupe at auction. He wanted to know what wheels to buy to replace the boat anchor 964 Cup replica wheels it came on, so Nick’s pic came at quite an opportune time.
The big question with wheel sizes nowadays is: what tyres can you get to fit the wheels? I have 7″ x 16″ front and 9″ x 16″ rear Fuchs on my car and finding tyres to fit can sometimes be a drag – I use Conti SportContacts – but the pain of 15″ rubber is even worse again. The ideal choice for 15s (7s and 8s) might be something like a 195/55 front and 215/55 rear, but try finding a matched set of those for sensible money.
You can get Toyo rubber, but the thin Toyo sidewall does the 911 no favours. I like the chunky side profile of the Pilot Sport Cup, but the holographic tread and short lifespan is not for everyone. Pirelli P7 Corsas are available in 15″, but they are not cheap. No one wants to put cheap-brand tyres on their old 911, but these are pretty much all the options for wider 15″ wheels.
This car shows an interesting choice of rubber for the SC. I expected the standard size rear tyre to be a 55 section at most, but going by original sales receipts, the 8″ rears had 215/60s as standard and they look pretty cool to me. Standard fronts were a 185/70 15, so quite a different look. If one was currently using a 205/55 on the rear, a 215/60 R15 tyre would be a just under one inch taller and less than 3mph faster at 70mph. So while it may seem that the rear tyres are substantially taller than a standard size, online tyre size comparators say otherwise.
I will share some more about this car later on. It is currently having Nick’s second Classic Retrofit air con kit fitted and has the full range of CR products already in place, including the fuse panels and CDI+ ignition unit. Nick’s mate, Rohan Little, runs an operation called Skunkwerks and looks after Nick’s cars: sound like they have quite a bit of fun with them. Victoria is currently enjoying ambient temperatures circa 35 degrees C, but the Electrocooler A/C is producing a steady 8 degrees at the vents. That is pretty impressive.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
by John Glynn | Nov 8, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I sent out a press release and did some blogging for Jonny at Classic Retrofit yesterday, telling the story of a German 911 enthusiast who had gone to the trouble of measuring the improvement in headlight output after fitting one of Jonny’s replacement blade fuse panels.
I just love the story: it is charming and simple and so down to earth. Perfectly suited to Classic Retrofit. Jonny’s clever replacement fuse panels for classic Porsche 911s have proven to be an exceptionally popular upgrade amongst owners who wish to add reliable modern blade fuse technology to their vintage air-cooled Porsches.
With several hundred of these plug-and-play Porsche fuse boards now in active service beneath factory fuse panel covers, one defining feature of the Classic Retrofit fuse panels is a pair of built-in headlamp relays.
The relays divert current for the infamously dim headlamps away from the column-mounted light switch, supplying the headlamps directly from the battery. Most of us who started in 911s many years ago fitted headlamp relays to improve light output – I have put them on all of my 911s – but Jonny’s boards go a step further, integrating the relays into the fuse panel and making the whole lot fit under the standard fuse panel cover.
Wolfgang’s Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera
Based in Potsdam, in the suburbs of Berlin, Wolfgang Nothnagel is the owner of a special edition US 1989 Carrera 3.2 in superb condition. Wolfgang keeps his car classic and looking as close to stock as possible, so his subtle mods to date include a stainless steel exhaust system, Osram ‘Nightbreaker’ street legal headlamp bulbs in standard light units and all new suspension rubbers underneath. With ‘everything stock’ as the mantra, Jonny’s upgraded blade fuse panels were the perfect low-key upgrade for the standard factory fuse panel.
“With the storm going over Germany, I used the time to finally fit the fuse panel,” said Wolfgang, who runs a lighting design and event staging company in Berlin. “Replacing the fuse board was done without issues in just forty-five minutes. On the incoming side, there was a need to redistribute one or two of the bundled wires, because the opening receptacles of the new fuse board are smaller. Other than that, the changeover was easy.
“To measure the light output, I used a Gossen Mavolux light meter from our workshop. I don’t claim that the measured output is the highest possible peak point, but the spot used for the measurement was more or less in the centre of the beam. Also, the sensor and car were not moved in between the process. So the delta in readings is valid to display the change in light output due to the relay circuit.
“To my surprise, I got a very different readout in between the original wiring style and switching to the new relays. There was an improvement of some 18%: just the right thing to have through the darker autumn and winter evenings. I am very pleased with the results!”
I have some panels to fit to my car and will get around to it eventually, but my favourite part of this story is a: that Wolfgang is such a cool character and b: that 911 people all over the world who run apparently stock examples still love to play with their cars. So much of the original technology in an old 911 has now been superseded, so it makes perfect sense to fit improved technology that doesn’t interfere with the look of the car, but will deliver more effective performance and improve the ownership experience. This is exactly where Jonny comes at all of his products from.
“As Wolfgang pointed out in one of his emails, the original fuse panels in his car worked for twenty-five years without major issue,” says the esteemed Mr Hart, “but upgrading to our fuse panels using the more available blade fuse type with LED blown fuse indicators and additional headlamp relays makes perfect sense. The project is easily DIY-able, our fuse panels for pre-73 and impact bumper 911s are very affordable and everything fits under the original covers.
“Kudos to Wolfgang for measuring the improvements and sharing his findings. It reminds us what we love about our work: so many great people!”
