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 Porsche Magazine’s Project 924 Turbo restoration was finally covered in fresh paint yesterday. I might be slightly biased, but the finished product really floats my boat.
You remember I bought the silver 924 Turbo on eBay last year from a Porsche barn up in Norfolk. I had the car delivered to best mate Robert Campbell at Racing Restorations in Pershore, Worcestershire, where Rob’s guys started picking through the mechanical work.
This included some rewiring, an alternator rebuild, steering rack overhaul and other works. I still have some bits to do before it can go to MOT, but the focus recently turned to bodywork when an unexpected slot opened up in the Racing Restorations paint schedule. While vintage sportscar specialist Rob is normally booked up six months in advance, delays on an Alfa Romeo restoration meant the 924 could claim a week and slip in.
Car guys talk lots about paint and how long it takes, but painting takes next to no time: just four hours on the 924. The preparation for paint took a full five days! Thanks to a rust-free chassis and (some) good panels, bare-metalling the 924 and getting it in primer took from Monday to Wednesday. Rob primered it on Wednesday night, and left it to bake for a day.
Flatting the primer took another day, so on Saturday this weekend, we drove it into the paint booth just vacated by a custom-painted McLaren MP12-4C, then spent a couple of hours degreasing the bodywork and wiping it off with tack rags before the painter did his thing.
The 924 Turbo now has four coats of the most expensive two-pack primer I could buy. The body has three coats of paint – Porsche code L97A – and three coats of lacquer. It looks pretty good and won’t need much polishing: a quick mop, pick out a few flecks of dust and that’s it.
I’ll start putting this back together next week – should be some fun getting it done. No doubt I’ll spend much more on new body trim bits than originally intended. Let me know if you’ve got a NOS rear bumper rubber lying around!
Ferdinand’s Porsche 924 Turbo project is finally being painted. I spent all day yesterday stripping the body for the prep guy to start on it this week.
Rob Campbell and I dragged the car out of storage at Rob’s Racing Restorations in Pershore, pulling it into the workshop and 30-degree heat. Not the best day to do the job, but the only spare day either of us have in the next few weeks.
A flat battery was no surprise, so we ran jump leads from my M3 to the 924 Turbo and it fired straight up. I finally drove my first few metres behind the wheel of the silver 924. This runs well and ticks over nicely: I was suitably impressed.
There are quite a few bits on a 924 body but it all came off easily enough. I’ll have to fit some new side window and tailgate rubbers and still not decided on pulling the windscreen: I think we should but we’ll see what the prep guy says. The tailgate stays on until the really dusty stuff is done.
We’re estimating four days to bare metal the car and get it ready for paint next weekend in original L97A Diamond Silver Metallic. Looking forward to seeing it done and will be back over there during the week to take more pics. Only rust on the whole car is this bit by the aerial: I am redoing it as standard so leaving the roof aerial on. We will chemically remove that surface rust and prep thoroughly to prevent recurrence.
There’s a small chance I will sell this later in the year as I have no time to use my cars at the minute and storage is not my favourite! Get in touch if you’re interested. It’s a left hand-drive 1980 Series 2 Turbo, no sunroof, lower than average miles and there is no rust underneath.
The mechanicals seem in good shape, so could make a terrific rally car! Not looked at German 924 Turbo prices for a while, but I will price it in line with what’s happening in Europe.
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Note: this car has now sold via the Ferdinand Magazine Blog and lives in New Zealand.
Fellow European R Gruppe member, Christian, has just sent details of his 911 RS recreation, which he has put up for sale. I followed this car in build for a couple of years and am surprised he is letting it go.
It made slightly more sense when Christian told me how a top secret barn find with a 360 chassis number was behind the decision, although part of me thinks I’d prefer to own this one.
This car is just so right. “This is the only Carrera 2.7L RS replica which was invited to the official 40th anniversary Porsche Carrera RS World Meeting in Stuttgart in September 2012”, says Christian. “It appears in the official participant book as number 36. The car is in overall perfect shape, always very well maintained and handles perfectly. It has a nice driving position as the driver’s seat, the special seat railings and the hub extension were built for a person around 175-190cm (5’7″-6’2″).”
Based on a late 1972 911T (’73 MY), this 911 is what Christian calls a “contemporary 2,7L RS M471 lightweight build”.
The colour is Grand Prix White over Viper Green. Four layers of paint protect a detailed restoration by Hans Patutschnick in 2010, with full photo documentation. Except for DP Motorsport bumpers & ducktail, the body is all steel and was fully wax protected.
Suspension is classic 911 19/26mm torsion bars with Bilstein Nurburgring suspension and raised front spindles. Adjustable 18mm bars front and rear, 7 and 8×15 wheels in proper anodised-with-bright-rim finish and Avon CR6ZZ tyres.
Inside is a DP Lollipop seat, with RS co-drivers seat: love the houndstooth. VDO gauges restored by North Hollywood, original 1973 Momo Prototipo, 85l plastic tank, magnesium transmission with correct gearset and a Quaife LSD. Full transmission cooling and Webasto cabin heating.
The engine is a true work of art, built by Oliver Bienert of Boxer-Motoren, Manching, Germany in 2011. It’s a 2.8-litre MFI, making 281 hp at around 7,200k RPM. The 7R case was modified with shuffle pins, oil bypass and boat tailing, before the bottom end was built around a knife edged 70.4mm crankshaft, with 964 oil pump, Carrillo rods and 92mm Mahle barrels and pistons.
The engine list really is too much, including custom Bosch throttles, MFI pump and twin plug distributor. An RSR flywheel and lightweight clutch finish it off.
Fuelled up with 30 litres and ready to go, the RS rebuild weighs 980 kilograms. It’s done 5,000 miles with no track use since completion. Everything is detailed in the German registration papers, it carries a H (historic) registration plate and is fully TUV approved.
Having just seen what traders were asking at Techno Classica for ordinary early cars, this seems well priced at €94,000. Though he is based near Frankfurt, I hear Christian has had contact from France and the US on this car, so get your skates on if you want to discuss it.
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