An interesting conversation tonight about WEVO’s 915 GateShift kit versus the classic WEVO shifter.
After years of using a WEVO shifter in my own 911, I recommend the beautifully engineered WEVO shifter as the number one upgrade on any impact-bumper Porsche 911 running a 915 transmission (seen below on a Tuthill rally build). Surprisingly, the man who invented, designed and manufactures both products says different.
“At Windrush, we say the best upgrade for the 915 is the internal gate of the WEVO GateShift kit”, says Hayden Burvill. “The internal architecture of the 915 is such that extra control of the shift rail mechanism can greatly reduce the risk of a potential missed shift.
“Chassis twist, drivers hanging on the shift lever and the unmanaged freedom of the internals of the 915 mean that you can mis-select gears without feeling any real tactile warning. The GateShift kit (below) installs a “spoiler” between the gear planes, creating an obstruction that will warn you that the gear you are heading for is not here! You stay in neutral, not selecting a potentially destructive ratio.
“The driver with a steady hand and smooth shifting style will hardly notice it is there. It’s dormant: only coming into effect when you inadvertently cut the corners of the shift pattern.
“For those who have driven with the GateShift kit, I believe very few would ever build another 915 without one. We drove ours for a long time with a completely stock shifter, only the stock coupler had new round hole aftermarket bushes. It was wonderful, we have since added a WEVO 915 Classic Shifter (base detail below), mostly for the reduced lever travel.”
Quite the revelation. Turns out you can also fit WEVO’s GateShift without removing the transmission. You learn something new every day! Despite Hayden’s wisdom, I still place my shifter at the top of the upgrade list, and have never felt the need for a GateShift. But, were money no object, I would have the WEVO lot!
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I’ve had a good week of car sales, with my MX5 and Subaru Outback going to new homes quickly on eBay. I’m selling as too many cars and two home extensions eating cash! The MX5 needed a decent polish before departure, and I’d set today aside to get stuck into it. The weather was excellent, so I did it outside the back gates.
My M3 (above in MOT last weekend by Rob at Racing Restorations) was hurriedly polished after its respray last year and it looks crap. I had a few run-ins with the paint shop we used during and after the work, so I decided to sort it myself. I’m no stranger to polishers, having started my career as a valeter. I have an air-powered CP dual action sander/polisher, but air is a pain to polish with, so I went hunting for an electric machine.
I eventually nabbed an almost unused DAS Pro 6 dual-action polisher kit with Mezerna polishes on eBay and stashed it with a bunch of pads and other compounds in the garage. Not paint corrected the M3 as yet, but I dragged the DAS 6 Pro out for the Mazda this morning.
Our Miata is solid Mazda Red, so had oxidised quite a bit over the summer. It took about two hours to compound it using the dual action machine polisher, a foam pad and Meguiars Ultimate Compound, before finishing with hand-applied Zymol glaze. It came up an absolute treat: so good I felt like keeping it! The new owner will adore it for sure.
The MX is not leaving until next week, so I put that away under cover. The sun was still lovely, so I dragged out the hosepipe and washed the Cayenne, which has been doing sterling service shifting all sorts of building materials, with the trailer and without.
It’s the first time I’ve washed the Big Pig myself and it came up OK, but I was reminded of numerous marks in the paint. In its previous life, my V8 had vinyl signwriting over it, and there was still some vinyl adhesive and a lot of rub marks where solvent was used to shift glue. I’ve been meaning to sort this since buying it. It was time to hit the Cayenne.
I dried it with compressed air, a Meguiars water magnet drying cloth and some microfibre towels. I decided not to clay the paint, just wiped the panels down with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover, which also removed the last bits of vinyl adhesive. It’s good stuff.
I had forgotten what a relief it is to abandon the phone and Internet and just escape into cleaning a car, so the job was quite enjoyable. I tried a few different polishes on the Basalt Black metallic paint, eventually settling on Menzerna Fast Gloss FG500 with a hard foam polishing pad as the best combination.
I used Farecla G3 scratch remover on a separate hard pad for the longer scratches down the NS (from hedges down our country lanes), and also for fingernail scratches around the tailgate release and driver’s door handle. The tar remover did a good job taking wax off where the DA caught the edge of plastic trim: no need to mask off the edges etc as I wasn’t going too hard and the dual action polisher is quite safe.
I didn’t go all-out for a perfect finish – I was working outside with just an afternoon’s worth of light and no clay treatment, so not much point – but the Fast Gloss on a moderate polisher speed gave a great finish quite easily. Once buffed with some microfibres, I topped it off with hand-applied Dodo Juice Blue Velvet hard wax, specially made for dark paint. Just put it on with your hands and wax off with a soft terry cloth.
I’m not going to turn this into a Detailer’s World anorak photo fest: you’ll have to gauge the shine from my iPhone pics. I’m really delighted with the result: thumbs up for the DAS 6 Pro Dual Action polisher and having a load of different polishes to try. Excellent!
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While at Autofarm last Friday, I caught up with the Signal Yellow Porsche 911S restoration repatriated from Eire a while back and had a chance to meet the owner. Chris is a really nice guy, been a 911 man for years and currently owns a 993 Turbo, amongst other things. He’s doing some of the work himself at Autofarm’s workshops.
I’m sure we’ll feature more of Chris and his Porsche later on, but what a lovely car this is, and great work being done to preserve the fabric of the spotless 911. Much of the paint and trim is still original and only minor rust repairs have been needed.
Undisturbed factory touches are always nice to see, and usually unheard of on a classic Porsche this clean. The landmark score of an important European football match (7-1) is preserved on the inside of one rear quarter panel – you don’t get better dating points than that!
Speaking of dating points, I’ve had no response from Porsche Cars GB to my request last April for build date and details on our Project 924 Turbo. I’ll check whether my cheque’s been cashed before getting cross about it.
Finally managed to synchronise my amigos in sunny California, and had my project 1976 Porsche 912E roller moved to its new home for the next few months at Porsche specialists, The Stable in San Francisco.
Formerly owned by Alan Klingen, The Stable is now managed by our good friends and long-time Porsche technicians, George and Brian. The guys have widened the range of Porsche servicing to include Boxster and 996 as well as the 356 and all classic air-cooled 911, which The Stable at 1700 Pine Street has long been renowned for.
The Stable offers Porsche owners in this glorious city by the bay a wide range of services, one of which is storage. My 912 is downstairs amongst very good company: I couldn’t be happier that the boys have it tucked away safe and sound.
Obviously this project is a LONG way off, but the idea is to capitalise on the 912E’s slimline rear quarters and build something longhood. Currently liking the idea of a black standard body early car, or a Conda Green ST using EB Motorsport Porsche 911 backdate parts and body panels. Engine will be a 3.6, and a friend of mine just told me he has one of those for sale…
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Life as a Cayenne driver continues. Still loads of people asking what they are like to own, so time for another Porsche Cayenne running report.
I’m about 2,500 miles or so in now and fuel economy is bearable versus my Subarus: roughly 18-20 mpg over a mix of jobs and terrains. It’s about £107 to fill up on 95 RON, then you will get roughly 320-360 miles from a tank, which is just over 20 mpg at best. If you know a Cayenne tank is 90 litres then my maths includes leaving 10 litres in there as a constant.
I’ve been looking at later Cayennes: maybe 2008 GTS. Later cars have slightly different trim and are said to be more sorted (debatable) but the downside is probably £12-13k current cost to change. Really don’t want to spend that while there is no roof on the house (builders are in), and all I am really missing right now is heated seats, so will keep my 2004 for a while. Reliability is looking good, although this starter issue I have had since buying it is bugging me now, so I am going to change that part.
Keeping it means I really want to fit my fuel of choice: LPG (propane). A conversion is circa £1600 using proper gear, tank fits in the wheel well and gives quite a nice price advantage at around 52p a litre plus VAT, but it would take me 18 months at current mileage (1200 monthly) to earn the cost back. Not sure I will keep this for two years so up in the air at the minute. If I get another client further away and my miles climb past 1500 monthly, then I will start thinking about it seriously.
DIY jobs are ongoing. I took it to Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations in Pershore last weekend to work on my 924 Turbo rebuild, but of course we started messing with the Cayenne. The car is Cat D salvage: accident repaired following a tap on the front right corner, so we had a look at the panel gaps on that and adjusted the front wing and bonnet. Turned out my NSF headlamp was rattling around so that was fixed (I could write a feature on how these are fitted to the car). We also straightened the driver’s door, which was slightly twisted. Rob is great at this sort of stuff so took less than an hour.
The wing is still a bit bent where it was repaired, and I could be fussy about the paint, so I may fit a new one. I know if I get into that then I have grown attached and LPG will be next. I’ve also fitted a replacement towbar with Rob’s help and bought some winter wheels and tyres. These were CHEAP so I am chuffed. In fact, everything so far has been very affordable.
Running costs to date on Porsche Cayenne S:
Pollen Filter £8
2 x sets wheel Centre Caps (originals nicked) £14 (ebay)
Wireless DVD headphones new foam £3 (ebay)
Used Detachable Towbar plus Ball inc carriage £60 (ebay)
New footbrake return damper £23 (Porsche Silverstone)
Set 18″ wheels for Winter £102 (ebay)
Set part-worn winter tyres £30 (ebay)
Total spent to date: £240
The wheels and tyres were excellent bargains. Tyres have enough for this winter and I will buy another set with more of a mud profile, so good for thick snow. Don’t give me any grief about buying part worns – I’ve run good part worns on my own cars for most of my driving career and never had a problem on them. New tyres for the Cayenne are £800 to £1000 a set and no way am I paying that with nine other cars in the fleet. Your own car is on part-worns right now: check and inspect them properly and err on the side of safety is my philosophy. That said, I put new tyres on the wife’s CRV, as I don’t get to check it that often.
Anyway, I can see my Big Pig is enjoying its tyres, so am already watching out for good road rubber. Brakes are cheap enough, with Mintex discs and pads costing about £120 for front axle set, £110 for the rear. This starter will cost about £100 to be reconditioned, plus the cost to pull the manifold off and back on. Apart from that, it will be due a service soon to get ready for winter. I plan to change the brake fluid, drop the coolant and make sure that rear screen washer system is all tip top. Last thing I want is a floor full of screenwash in the middle of winter.
Just re-reading what I am writing, I think we know I am eventually doing LPG on this car. Must start tracking down the history.
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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