nickson motorsport porsche 944 turbo track car build thread

[nickson]

hi my name is nick, i run and own nickson motorsport ltd and im currently building a 944 turbo track day car for myself.

the car in question is a 1986 220 turbo in metallic black. 180k on the clock, but full service history under the care of afn, la rose porsche and northway. the history with the car is one of the most comprehensive i have ever seen, with hundreds of pages of invoices and receipts for work carried out. the car has also had a full engine rebuild, head gasket, belts, and turbocharger within the last few years.

the car came with a few extras including an amd chipset increasing power to 270bhp and 310ft lb of torque.
mille miglia 17inch turbo twist style wheels and goodyear eagle f1 tyres
full black leather sports interior
boost enhancer
m030 front 968 cs calipers and m030 front hubs, braided brake lines on the front
brake ducts

all in all a great base car which i picked up at a good price as the owner suspected a head gasket failure, which turned out to be leaking radiator.

a few pics of the car before it came apart (in a bit of a dirty state) cleans up really well !
[image][/image]



i then set to work stripping the interior ready for a nickson motorsport custom weld in cage, welded seat rails, interior seam welding etc.




i also stripped the front end down, and removed all the inlet system to check the turbo and i intend to replace all the turbo vacum lines


i have also been stripping many smaller items from the car such as the sunroof trim, cruise control, air con, large washer bottle, and the sunroof mech will be removed and the panel bonded in place

i removed the dash and cut the whole bottom section off to save weight, only the dash top section survives and will house the clocks etc. i will fabricate a new centre console to house switches, pull chords guages etc

my current job is removing all the floorpan sound mat, and the huge amounts of interior seam sealer ready for seam welding the interior and adding seat rails and rollcage. this really is a horrid job and very time consuming. once the mat and sealer is removed i will then have to wire brush all the remnants away, and use thinners to get rid of all the glue and left overs from the mat. ready for paint once the cage is installed. pics to come

i have been prepping the rear bumper which i have removed the rubber trim from. just needs primer and then ready to paint.



in the meantime i have been collecting parts for the build

sparco evo bucket seats


azev wheels 8j front, 10j rear !



fibreglass front wings


fibreglass 292r front bumper with carbon look splitter


extinguishers, braided rear lines, racing blue brake fluid, battery cut off, window film, toggle switches, sparco seat mounts, flush bonnet catches,


and some inspiration !!


im currently sourcing many other parts and have a few goodies on there way to me now so will have more updates in the near future. hopefully the build will progress at a reasonable rate as i would love to have this on track this year!

next step is finish the interior cleanup, and fabricate the cage and seat rails. i have 3 944 customer shells coming in for race prep within the next week or 2, so i will make 4 cage kits and 4 seat rail kits, along with harness points.

thanks for your time and interest, i will hopefully see you on track in the very near future. keep an eye out for updates to the thread.
you can also follow the build and see other customer projects here

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nickson-Motorspor...

nick

[Another Fluffer]

Looking good so far, keep it up!

[Penguinracer]

Are you going to dry sump, newer turbo techonology, big-valve head, stand alone engine management?

Any plans for rose-jointing the suspension, camber plates, arbs, coilovers, Big Blacks etc?

[Watchman]

I like this. I very nearly bought a 944 turbo once. Although I ended-up in Caterham ownership for a decade, I still think the 944 has the best driving position of any car.

[Max M4X WW]

Looks great Nick, hadn't realised so much progress had been made with it.

Hope you are fitting some new tyres!

[nickson]

for the minute the engine will be staying reasonably as it is, just going to make sure everything is in order. i have a tial 38mm wastegate coming to replace the rubbish std wg, and will be fabricating a 3'' exhaust from the turbo back, but concentrating on chassis prep for this season. engine may receive some treatment next winter. i have a 3 litre crank i may use to stroke it to 2.8,, along with bigger turbo etc.

coilovers on the way soon, as well as camber top plates, m030 turbo cup rear adjustable arb, and m030 968 front bar. we may develop some custom front adjustable rosejointed wishbones at some point. this season im concentrating on getting it on track, next winter will be where the posh stuff happens.

of course new tyres will be used, nankangs on 300hp rwd porsche is never a great idea. i have a set of goodyear eagle f1 which i will use up, and then replace with some proper track tyres.

[nickson]

with regards to the brakes, its already running 968cs m030 front calipers on m030 hubs. (same as 928 s4 brakes)and have a set of carbone lorraine pads on the way.

[nickson]

small update from a huge amount of work!

been spending a few hours each eve removing the sound matting from the floor, and then removing the huge amounts of seam sealer used, so the interior can be seam welded. this is the near finished result on the passenger side, the result of a lot of heating, scraping, wire brushing, nitromoors, and thinners, and a whole load of elbow grease. literally one of the worst jobs in the world!




now to start with the drivers side! ready for cage installation, seat rails, seam welding, then paint!