crags' rather old, rather orange 911
Discussion
despite being a long time poster on pistonheads i've never put any of my cars on the readers cars section, though to be honest only because i didn't realise this great little section was here. i love reading about peoples p&j's no matter what they've done to them, some people don't like certain makes & models, some don't like the fact that people modify what they see to be "holy grails" but me, i just like to hear about other petrolheads that blow inordinant amounts of money on what swmbo's can never understand!
so with that in mind i'll post up a little history & the sequence of events that led to a young man like myself to blow his lifes savings on a 30+ year old car
having been into cars all my life & being lucky enough to own some real beauties over the years(lots of rs fords in my late teens/early 20's) in my late 20's i returned from living abroad to a new carreer & no no-claims bonus. a cheap to insure but fun car needed to be had & after being turned on to the writings in evo magazine i decided upon a mk3 mr2 spyder. what a car! it taught me the fundamentals of mid engined/rwd handling to the point of drifting almost every corner, damp weather permitting!
after a while more power was needed & after setting up my own business the funds were there, what followed were pretty much some of my "most wanted" of modern cars, & great they all were (m3 csl, megane r26.r, 350z, exige), but my self defined "end product" had been set, & if i'm honest it always had been as i have a bit of a confession to make:
i have always wanted a porsche 911.
there's no rhyme or reason to it, but the martini sponsored cars of the late 70's & rothmans sports cars of the 80's probably had something to do with it. in fact during the 80's carlisle had it's own motorshow (yes really) & despite being allowed to sit in a road homologated rs200 (i guess that might have resulted in the ford rs fixation?) my most prized possetion became a mid 80's porsche brochure. they still make some of the best brochures (like little books really) out there & this one was no different, i studied that thing for years & vowed one day i'd own one.
fast forward a couple of years & i finally got my hands on one, a gorgeous my1998 carrera4 that came from new with a full rs bodykit, special chassis option & loads of other goodies. it was mega!
so after all that time i finally got my 911, driving it back from edinburgh was superb, a summers night, tom petty on the stereo, i don't mind admitting i got the car in the garage cracked open a few cans & just admired it-talk about a happy man
or so it seemed for a while, before long i was posting on forums about how i was having second thoughts about tracking it, what with it being so mint etc etc then as often happens someone got in touch off pistonheads......long story short, i sold it.
now, i'm not that pragmatic about cars, i love them but they are just cars, & especially over the last few years i've had some of them a matter of months before moving on but swmbo declared i'd regret this one-& she was right! so i was then on the search. my basic idea, although not written in stone was to buy something cheaper, something i wouldn't be too precious about! i had grand schemes about building a 73 or 74 rsr replica (see below)
or perhaps an early narrow body hotrod but the right car just never came up. 6 months later & with nothing but a saw bench & a honda lawnmower in the garage i was starting to wonder if i'd ever find anything, i even started looking at gt3's again & came close a few times!
so, perusing the usual porsche forums i spotted a fantastic looking impact bumper model in a very fetching orange. no harm in asking i thought so i emailed the owner asking who had carried out the work & what exatctly the car was, with the idea that if i found a suitable base car i could use some good contacts to carry out similar work.
julian got back & gave me the complete run down of the car, he'd done exactly what i wanted to do. buy a good base car & build essentially a new car out of that. our dialogue went back & forth until julian, sensing i didn't want an unending spend on building the car, suggested i might think about buying his. after spending so much time & money building the car his situation had changed & he no longer had anywhere to store the car, in fact faced with leavining the car out for the winter he had the it put in a local car museum for the winter.
so, me & swmbo made the long journey down to brighton from carlisle with the intentions of taking a look at the car & deciding if it was something we actually wanted. tucked in amongst some very nice exoctic classic cars was the orange 911 behind the velvet ropes, i'm sure guys who buy exoctic classics go through this all the time but it sure was a random way of viewing the car! in amongst me crawling underneath it with a torch & pulling verious trim panels out to inspect the nooks & crannies we had paying visiters stoppping us & asking questions about it, the posative reactions we recieved when we told people we were looking at purchasing it were encouraging it to say the least.
we then took it out for an extended test drive, & although trying to keep a straight face the car started work it's magic on us. the thing with old cars is they're so light compared to moderns, with no central locking, electric seats, no abs or traction control the way in which a relatively modest power output can fire you up the road can't help but put a smile on your face.
so a deal was done there & then, money transfered, insurance paid, & one very bright orange my1981 911 3.0 SC was mine, along with a couple of ring binders full of invoices, details, magazine features & various other bits!
being at the other end of the country i didn't want swmbo to have to drive her beetle all the way home on her own so i left the car with nick moss' Early 911 garage with a view to getting a couple of jobs done. over the last few weeks nick has sourced & fitted a new ducktail rear engine cover & front lip spoiler to give it a little more high speed stability & now she's ready to pick up.
so tomorrows the day, train ticket booked, sat nav packed & copy of my classic car break down recovery ready to hand! setting off early doors from carlisle so it should be interesting to say the least, will a 30 odd year old car make it back? place you're bets gentlemen....
so with that in mind i'll post up a little history & the sequence of events that led to a young man like myself to blow his lifes savings on a 30+ year old car
having been into cars all my life & being lucky enough to own some real beauties over the years(lots of rs fords in my late teens/early 20's) in my late 20's i returned from living abroad to a new carreer & no no-claims bonus. a cheap to insure but fun car needed to be had & after being turned on to the writings in evo magazine i decided upon a mk3 mr2 spyder. what a car! it taught me the fundamentals of mid engined/rwd handling to the point of drifting almost every corner, damp weather permitting!
after a while more power was needed & after setting up my own business the funds were there, what followed were pretty much some of my "most wanted" of modern cars, & great they all were (m3 csl, megane r26.r, 350z, exige), but my self defined "end product" had been set, & if i'm honest it always had been as i have a bit of a confession to make:
i have always wanted a porsche 911.
there's no rhyme or reason to it, but the martini sponsored cars of the late 70's & rothmans sports cars of the 80's probably had something to do with it. in fact during the 80's carlisle had it's own motorshow (yes really) & despite being allowed to sit in a road homologated rs200 (i guess that might have resulted in the ford rs fixation?) my most prized possetion became a mid 80's porsche brochure. they still make some of the best brochures (like little books really) out there & this one was no different, i studied that thing for years & vowed one day i'd own one.
fast forward a couple of years & i finally got my hands on one, a gorgeous my1998 carrera4 that came from new with a full rs bodykit, special chassis option & loads of other goodies. it was mega!
so after all that time i finally got my 911, driving it back from edinburgh was superb, a summers night, tom petty on the stereo, i don't mind admitting i got the car in the garage cracked open a few cans & just admired it-talk about a happy man
or so it seemed for a while, before long i was posting on forums about how i was having second thoughts about tracking it, what with it being so mint etc etc then as often happens someone got in touch off pistonheads......long story short, i sold it.
now, i'm not that pragmatic about cars, i love them but they are just cars, & especially over the last few years i've had some of them a matter of months before moving on but swmbo declared i'd regret this one-& she was right! so i was then on the search. my basic idea, although not written in stone was to buy something cheaper, something i wouldn't be too precious about! i had grand schemes about building a 73 or 74 rsr replica (see below)
or perhaps an early narrow body hotrod but the right car just never came up. 6 months later & with nothing but a saw bench & a honda lawnmower in the garage i was starting to wonder if i'd ever find anything, i even started looking at gt3's again & came close a few times!
so, perusing the usual porsche forums i spotted a fantastic looking impact bumper model in a very fetching orange. no harm in asking i thought so i emailed the owner asking who had carried out the work & what exatctly the car was, with the idea that if i found a suitable base car i could use some good contacts to carry out similar work.
julian got back & gave me the complete run down of the car, he'd done exactly what i wanted to do. buy a good base car & build essentially a new car out of that. our dialogue went back & forth until julian, sensing i didn't want an unending spend on building the car, suggested i might think about buying his. after spending so much time & money building the car his situation had changed & he no longer had anywhere to store the car, in fact faced with leavining the car out for the winter he had the it put in a local car museum for the winter.
so, me & swmbo made the long journey down to brighton from carlisle with the intentions of taking a look at the car & deciding if it was something we actually wanted. tucked in amongst some very nice exoctic classic cars was the orange 911 behind the velvet ropes, i'm sure guys who buy exoctic classics go through this all the time but it sure was a random way of viewing the car! in amongst me crawling underneath it with a torch & pulling verious trim panels out to inspect the nooks & crannies we had paying visiters stoppping us & asking questions about it, the posative reactions we recieved when we told people we were looking at purchasing it were encouraging it to say the least.
we then took it out for an extended test drive, & although trying to keep a straight face the car started work it's magic on us. the thing with old cars is they're so light compared to moderns, with no central locking, electric seats, no abs or traction control the way in which a relatively modest power output can fire you up the road can't help but put a smile on your face.
so a deal was done there & then, money transfered, insurance paid, & one very bright orange my1981 911 3.0 SC was mine, along with a couple of ring binders full of invoices, details, magazine features & various other bits!
being at the other end of the country i didn't want swmbo to have to drive her beetle all the way home on her own so i left the car with nick moss' Early 911 garage with a view to getting a couple of jobs done. over the last few weeks nick has sourced & fitted a new ducktail rear engine cover & front lip spoiler to give it a little more high speed stability & now she's ready to pick up.
so tomorrows the day, train ticket booked, sat nav packed & copy of my classic car break down recovery ready to hand! setting off early doors from carlisle so it should be interesting to say the least, will a 30 odd year old car make it back? place you're bets gentlemen....
, can't wait to see more Pictures 
so what have i bought? i'll try & enlighten some of the none 911 aficionado's amongst you out there....
basically it's a 911SC, more specifically a B series high compression engine from the 1981 production year.
back in the late 70's porsche had a wonderful idea, essentially as noise & emmisions regulations were becoming ever harder for the air cooled engine to pass they would kill it off. ever since the passing of the legendary '73RS the cras had become heavier with the introduction of the impact bumper cars though to compund the problem, the cars became less powerful as the engines were strangled by emmisions regulations in porsches incredibly important american market.
the writing was on the wall, the 911 would have to go & the future was in the water cooled models that were coming in with the 924 & 928 series cars. all of this would have come true had the porsche family not had an about turn & got rid of the then current ceo. replacing him with the american Peter Schultz. this guy knew the 911 & knew it held the key to the companies future. a rapid redevelopment then resulted in the my1981 B series high compression 3.0 SC. at last the car had it's legs again. 204 bhp & the first volume production 911 to get under 6 seconds to 60 & knock on to 150mph.
still based around the motorsport derrived flat 6 the car has what i consider to be the best of both worlds, the impact body design, the quick revving 3.0 engine & best of all the legendary build quality that became porsche hallmark ever since.
so what of this car? well after being owned by a solicater for the previous 20 years & looked after by one garge over that period it came in to the hands of the last owner as his project. we'll get on to the mechanicals later & concentrate on the body for now. the colour is the limited edition porsche colour 8C6, more commonly known as the colour of the 997.1 gt3RS. as well as replacing any rotten panels (surprisingly few) the car has been taken back to bare metal & the following replaced
Stripping down and removing all old, rusty or tired panels, seals and body parts. Car has been garaged most of it life – impressively sound bodywork
Replacing all parts with Porsche original parts including:
Full bare metal respray to all metal bodywork and parts
New front wing.
New engine lid as per original
New sill covers
New torsion bar cover panels
New impact bellows, rubber impact strips, headlight seals, headlight surrounds
New indicator lenses front and rear
New windscreen wipers
New flag mirror cams and washers
New sunroof seals, door seals
New drivers door electric window cradle
New carpet grip strips and threshold plates
New rear window metal insert
New body panel seals all round
New front bumper side inserts
New front valance (to balance without spoiler on rear)
New rear quarter window rubber seals and cover plates
Replacing all seals, rubbers, trim and mounts to as-new condition.
Restored and renewed sunroof components to 964 stronger spec.
Car fully under sealed and all nuts and bolts, clips, etc renewed
pictures to follow
basically it's a 911SC, more specifically a B series high compression engine from the 1981 production year.
back in the late 70's porsche had a wonderful idea, essentially as noise & emmisions regulations were becoming ever harder for the air cooled engine to pass they would kill it off. ever since the passing of the legendary '73RS the cras had become heavier with the introduction of the impact bumper cars though to compund the problem, the cars became less powerful as the engines were strangled by emmisions regulations in porsches incredibly important american market.
the writing was on the wall, the 911 would have to go & the future was in the water cooled models that were coming in with the 924 & 928 series cars. all of this would have come true had the porsche family not had an about turn & got rid of the then current ceo. replacing him with the american Peter Schultz. this guy knew the 911 & knew it held the key to the companies future. a rapid redevelopment then resulted in the my1981 B series high compression 3.0 SC. at last the car had it's legs again. 204 bhp & the first volume production 911 to get under 6 seconds to 60 & knock on to 150mph.
still based around the motorsport derrived flat 6 the car has what i consider to be the best of both worlds, the impact body design, the quick revving 3.0 engine & best of all the legendary build quality that became porsche hallmark ever since.
so what of this car? well after being owned by a solicater for the previous 20 years & looked after by one garge over that period it came in to the hands of the last owner as his project. we'll get on to the mechanicals later & concentrate on the body for now. the colour is the limited edition porsche colour 8C6, more commonly known as the colour of the 997.1 gt3RS. as well as replacing any rotten panels (surprisingly few) the car has been taken back to bare metal & the following replaced
Stripping down and removing all old, rusty or tired panels, seals and body parts. Car has been garaged most of it life – impressively sound bodywork
Replacing all parts with Porsche original parts including:
Full bare metal respray to all metal bodywork and parts
New front wing.
New engine lid as per original
New sill covers
New torsion bar cover panels
New impact bellows, rubber impact strips, headlight seals, headlight surrounds
New indicator lenses front and rear
New windscreen wipers
New flag mirror cams and washers
New sunroof seals, door seals
New drivers door electric window cradle
New carpet grip strips and threshold plates
New rear window metal insert
New body panel seals all round
New front bumper side inserts
New front valance (to balance without spoiler on rear)
New rear quarter window rubber seals and cover plates
Replacing all seals, rubbers, trim and mounts to as-new condition.
Restored and renewed sunroof components to 964 stronger spec.
Car fully under sealed and all nuts and bolts, clips, etc renewed
pictures to follow
|http://thumbsnap.com/Yo5uFC3S[/url
thanks for all the kind comments
i'm currently sat on the train to london en route to picking it up so i thought i'd upload some more of the shots. they were all taken for the article in the previous issue of classic porsche magazine, issue #7 i think?
i can't wait to see what it looks like with the ducktail & front lip fitted, i haven't seen any photos yet so it's going to be the first time i see it this afternoon.
next job will probably be a slight lowering & corner weight/geo set up, at present i think the car sits just a little too high. then we're into the interior, with recaro's (trimmed in the orig pascha material of course), rear seat delete, rear rsr replica cage etc etc
oh & probably something a little more advanced that the 1980's cassette steroe that's currently fitted! looking at options for that but it seems to be hard to find a retro style radio that also does DAB & ipod connection, any ideas greatly recieved!
i'm currently sat on the train to london en route to picking it up so i thought i'd upload some more of the shots. they were all taken for the article in the previous issue of classic porsche magazine, issue #7 i think?
i can't wait to see what it looks like with the ducktail & front lip fitted, i haven't seen any photos yet so it's going to be the first time i see it this afternoon.
next job will probably be a slight lowering & corner weight/geo set up, at present i think the car sits just a little too high. then we're into the interior, with recaro's (trimmed in the orig pascha material of course), rear seat delete, rear rsr replica cage etc etc
oh & probably something a little more advanced that the 1980's cassette steroe that's currently fitted! looking at options for that but it seems to be hard to find a retro style radio that also does DAB & ipod connection, any ideas greatly recieved!
I was thinking how perfect the stance was!
Be careful lowering, my 1st 3.2 carrera was on the larger fuchs and lowered and the rear used to rub a little. The supersport was better.
ref retro radio, http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/22/porsche-stuffs-...
No dab but im sure could retro fit as an external input. I had a great custom setup on my supersport, looked standard but sounded great.
Be careful lowering, my 1st 3.2 carrera was on the larger fuchs and lowered and the rear used to rub a little. The supersport was better.
ref retro radio, http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/22/porsche-stuffs-...
No dab but im sure could retro fit as an external input. I had a great custom setup on my supersport, looked standard but sounded great.
melvster said:
Superb write up, love the speed yellow 993.
You mention about the R26.R, any pics?? love those.
Here you go Melv You mention about the R26.R, any pics?? love those.
http://www.auto-journals.com/journals/Renault?mode...
I think there are some pro shots on one of the reports, if not I'll post some up later-fantastic cars
cragswinter said:
melvster said:
Superb write up, love the speed yellow 993.
You mention about the R26.R, any pics?? love those.
Here you go Melv You mention about the R26.R, any pics?? love those.
http://www.auto-journals.com/journals/Renault?mode...
I think there are some pro shots on one of the reports, if not I'll post some up later-fantastic cars
melvster said:
wow that is nice, only 4 in Blue i believe, did this go to Japan? i know of a Blue one which ended up there.
Cheers, no it ended up at the ring, I took a couple of Irish lads out on pax laps their who were learning the track in their 911. They saw what the car could do & offered to buy it off me, so it lives out there in Germany now & they fly over & drive it when they can.But I digress! The car is back in Carlisle now, made it without missing a beat. I'll post up some pics of the ducktail tomorrow when I get a chance-swmbo is demanding we celebrate our new arrival & who am I to disagree!
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