My highly modified Porsche 951
Discussion
Hi guys... I haven't posted full detailed info on my car to this forum before, here is a post that I made some time ago on the PCGB forum. A little background on my ownership first. I bought this car in 1999, she was a standard 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo with 89k miles on the clock in very good condition with only two previous owners, in fact, the first owner, a lady from Hammersmith London, had owned her for most of the time before I bought her, the second owner only had her a very short while, perhaps it was a dealer? During my ownership, she has been pampered, I originally kept up the full Porsche service history but for some years now after a very bad experience from one indy, all work has since been carried out by my son who is a very talented/knowledgeable mechanic/technician. He owns/runs his own company, RSH Performance and his customer rating is excellent.
Anyway, back to the car, she had a full respray in 2000 and her seats recovered in leather using the original Porsche only patterned material, this work was done by Southbound, again in 2000. She is completely standard on the outside, the engine is a different matter entirely, details of which will be seen below. Today her paintwork is looking a little tired, just one of the problems with red, bodywork is in top condition, she just needs a fresh coat of paint. As my son's company also does bodywork, he will see to this when he has time, unfortunately for me, he's in high demand...lol
That just leaves me to copy/paste the details on the engine below, I can honestly say that no car could ever replace this, it's a true drivers car. It's also on record by Porsche as being one of the best cars ever to have been produced by the company. It's handling is second to none, so good in fact that Porsche after handicapping this car in the Porsche cup series for a number of seasons when it kept beating the then latest model 911 (996), that they then entered the new GT3 models which still were beaten by this then 25yr old model car, note that engines were not allowed to be tampered with for this race series. this should give you some idea of how capable my modified 944Turbo (often referred too as 951) is with over 400BHP ..
Below was originally written approx 7 years ago.
Building a 400bhp+ 2.5 ltr 944 Turbo
Good day all
Well, I've been threatening to do this for a while so about time I got started, I will give an advance warning here that this build will not be a quick build, as well as the car I'm also in the middle of major house renovation and garden landscaping, plus my main hobby of live steam model engineering, they all take up valuable time which when you get to my age ( 52) you start to realise that you just don't have enough years left to do all that you wish, so although I'm stating my planned route of build here things may and probably will change along the way. First, a little history of the car spec to date, I think most here know now that on a good day my car had a power output of 368 bhp and 382 lb torque at the flywheel, rear-wheel figure was 326 bhp. She did as some here will know, loose some power in more recent times which stumped me for a while but eventually, I found the cause which was due to a number of things which I can cover another time if people so wish
The car is a 1986 model that I've owned for over 14 years and like most started off with light mods that progressively grew.
First mod (1998) was a Lindsey boost Enhancer, not a real power gain but it felt quicker
Next (2000) was a Lindsey dual port wastegate with manual boost controller, this was then mapped on a dyno by Wayne Scofield, resulting power 282bhp/282torque.
Followed by (2005) 368bhp/382torque
So what do you need to make a reliable 368 bhp
Block remained standard, it's an 86 car that means forged internals and crank designed for over 500bhp, later cars used the same crank but not forged components.
Lindsey Stage 2 Head with ceramic exhaust coating and machined valves for greater flow, all ports polished and map flowed.
Cometic head gasket
Lindsey Super 61 Turbo
Siemens 55lb injectors
Lindsey Dual Port wastegate
New standard Hydraulic Tappets
Manual boost controller
NGK Iridium Plugs
Magnecor 8.5mm Red Leads
150mm K&N cone filter
Vitesse MAF with piggyback system
Intercooler: standard
Bailey Motorsport DV30 re-circulating valve
Exhaust: standard
silicone vac lines
Innovate Air Fuel Ratio meter/gauge
Adjustable fuel regulator
8 Hours mapping on a dyno at Chip Wizards Rochdale by the maestro himself Wayne Scofield. Car was set to run on 95 RON ( for safety) at 17psi. For those not in the know for every extra RON, grade used, you can safely increase the boost by 2 psi, so if I had requested the car set for 98 RON the boost could have been increased to 23psi and be just as safe, or so the theory goes, of course, the power would have been a lot higher, back then I was a little scared of going to far, so played safe, today I'm far more confident in the engine's capabilities although I still do not intend to use all of the boost available.
Note: If I've forgotten anything I'll add it later
Now before I get started on the new build some things were added to the old spec but never put on a dyno to remap.
Janspeed twin rear exhaust section
Piper Ram intake system, custom install
Apex-i AVC-R electronic boost controller
Engine loom fully rewired using Lindsey components and covered in 1200 degree sheaving.
All sensors renewed
Dump to atmosphere Cosworth type dump valve
Stepper motor boost gauge with record
89' Turbo gearbox with LSD
I think that's covered most of it, I haven't gone into brakes and suspension, I think this intro is long enough I don't want to bore you guy's on the first page now do I... I will add though that as far as bodywork is concerned the car remains standard.
Ok, so plans for this build, first stage, items marked with the star already acquired
Block: bored/skimmed out to 101mm *
Con-rods to remain unchanged although will be checked for balance, whilst researching the options the general consensus is that you can't beat the original Porsche forged items as used for the Turbo cup cars. As a point of interest I've read that the 83 N/A 944 has the same rods, strange.*
Pistons: IASA 101mm full race spec forged pistons with extra machined grove below the first ring, this allows a far higher boost without risk of blow by past the rings.*
IASA gudgeon pins*
Crankshaft machined undersize 0.25mm , both main and rod journals*
Raceware Head stud kit*
Raceware Main stud kit*
Raceware rod stud kit*
Genuine Porsche 0.25mm oversize Main/rod bearings*
Crankshaft scraper*
replace, oil pump/water pump/belts/tensioners/pulley's
Lindsey lightweight billet flywheel
Lindsey stage 2 clutch, 6 paddle
Speed Force Racing Stage 2 large intercooler
Speed Force racing oil cooler
Lindsey stage 2 head, rework valves to F1 spec hemisphere profile
Lindsey Turbo super 61 rebuilt
Vitesse + V-flex MAF for ignition timing
3" custom made Magnaflow free-flow exhaust including the all-important turbo downpipe*
Of course, a lot of what is already on the car will be reused after a good clean or rebuild where needed
last but not least the all-important remap, by Wayne of course '
the above was written 8 years ago... gulp!
Has this journey reached it's a goal yet?... I doubt it, after all 'modifying is in my soul' although these days I let me son do all of the work. It was he who fitted the new injectors, a 60th present to me from my 5 children. He also fitted a new performance fuel pump with an extra relay, new fuel lines over the exhaust manifold, replaced all belts, complete service, rebuilt the power steering pump ( the car has never felt so good in the steering), smoothed all the boost pipework and inlet manifold which were then painted in an epoxy chrome finish paint. As mentioned he switched the jumpers on the ECU and also remapped the car to remove a slight low down flat spot that it had developed recently. Evidently this involved some redlining to check he was happy with it, 7k rpm gear changes is not something that I usually do, he seemed to love though, as did the car...
Anyway, hope some of you find this of interest, a few pictures
Pete
Anyway, back to the car, she had a full respray in 2000 and her seats recovered in leather using the original Porsche only patterned material, this work was done by Southbound, again in 2000. She is completely standard on the outside, the engine is a different matter entirely, details of which will be seen below. Today her paintwork is looking a little tired, just one of the problems with red, bodywork is in top condition, she just needs a fresh coat of paint. As my son's company also does bodywork, he will see to this when he has time, unfortunately for me, he's in high demand...lol
That just leaves me to copy/paste the details on the engine below, I can honestly say that no car could ever replace this, it's a true drivers car. It's also on record by Porsche as being one of the best cars ever to have been produced by the company. It's handling is second to none, so good in fact that Porsche after handicapping this car in the Porsche cup series for a number of seasons when it kept beating the then latest model 911 (996), that they then entered the new GT3 models which still were beaten by this then 25yr old model car, note that engines were not allowed to be tampered with for this race series. this should give you some idea of how capable my modified 944Turbo (often referred too as 951) is with over 400BHP ..
Below was originally written approx 7 years ago.
Building a 400bhp+ 2.5 ltr 944 Turbo
Good day all
Well, I've been threatening to do this for a while so about time I got started, I will give an advance warning here that this build will not be a quick build, as well as the car I'm also in the middle of major house renovation and garden landscaping, plus my main hobby of live steam model engineering, they all take up valuable time which when you get to my age ( 52) you start to realise that you just don't have enough years left to do all that you wish, so although I'm stating my planned route of build here things may and probably will change along the way. First, a little history of the car spec to date, I think most here know now that on a good day my car had a power output of 368 bhp and 382 lb torque at the flywheel, rear-wheel figure was 326 bhp. She did as some here will know, loose some power in more recent times which stumped me for a while but eventually, I found the cause which was due to a number of things which I can cover another time if people so wish
The car is a 1986 model that I've owned for over 14 years and like most started off with light mods that progressively grew.
First mod (1998) was a Lindsey boost Enhancer, not a real power gain but it felt quicker
Next (2000) was a Lindsey dual port wastegate with manual boost controller, this was then mapped on a dyno by Wayne Scofield, resulting power 282bhp/282torque.
Followed by (2005) 368bhp/382torque
So what do you need to make a reliable 368 bhp
Block remained standard, it's an 86 car that means forged internals and crank designed for over 500bhp, later cars used the same crank but not forged components.
Lindsey Stage 2 Head with ceramic exhaust coating and machined valves for greater flow, all ports polished and map flowed.
Cometic head gasket
Lindsey Super 61 Turbo
Siemens 55lb injectors
Lindsey Dual Port wastegate
New standard Hydraulic Tappets
Manual boost controller
NGK Iridium Plugs
Magnecor 8.5mm Red Leads
150mm K&N cone filter
Vitesse MAF with piggyback system
Intercooler: standard
Bailey Motorsport DV30 re-circulating valve
Exhaust: standard
silicone vac lines
Innovate Air Fuel Ratio meter/gauge
Adjustable fuel regulator
8 Hours mapping on a dyno at Chip Wizards Rochdale by the maestro himself Wayne Scofield. Car was set to run on 95 RON ( for safety) at 17psi. For those not in the know for every extra RON, grade used, you can safely increase the boost by 2 psi, so if I had requested the car set for 98 RON the boost could have been increased to 23psi and be just as safe, or so the theory goes, of course, the power would have been a lot higher, back then I was a little scared of going to far, so played safe, today I'm far more confident in the engine's capabilities although I still do not intend to use all of the boost available.
Note: If I've forgotten anything I'll add it later
Now before I get started on the new build some things were added to the old spec but never put on a dyno to remap.
Janspeed twin rear exhaust section
Piper Ram intake system, custom install
Apex-i AVC-R electronic boost controller
Engine loom fully rewired using Lindsey components and covered in 1200 degree sheaving.
All sensors renewed
Dump to atmosphere Cosworth type dump valve
Stepper motor boost gauge with record
89' Turbo gearbox with LSD
I think that's covered most of it, I haven't gone into brakes and suspension, I think this intro is long enough I don't want to bore you guy's on the first page now do I...
I will add though that as far as bodywork is concerned the car remains standard.Ok, so plans for this build, first stage, items marked with the star already acquired
Block: bored/skimmed out to 101mm *
Con-rods to remain unchanged although will be checked for balance, whilst researching the options the general consensus is that you can't beat the original Porsche forged items as used for the Turbo cup cars. As a point of interest I've read that the 83 N/A 944 has the same rods, strange.*
Pistons: IASA 101mm full race spec forged pistons with extra machined grove below the first ring, this allows a far higher boost without risk of blow by past the rings.*
IASA gudgeon pins*
Crankshaft machined undersize 0.25mm , both main and rod journals*
Raceware Head stud kit*
Raceware Main stud kit*
Raceware rod stud kit*
Genuine Porsche 0.25mm oversize Main/rod bearings*
Crankshaft scraper*
replace, oil pump/water pump/belts/tensioners/pulley's
Lindsey lightweight billet flywheel
Lindsey stage 2 clutch, 6 paddle
Speed Force Racing Stage 2 large intercooler
Speed Force racing oil cooler
Lindsey stage 2 head, rework valves to F1 spec hemisphere profile
Lindsey Turbo super 61 rebuilt
Vitesse + V-flex MAF for ignition timing
3" custom made Magnaflow free-flow exhaust including the all-important turbo downpipe*
Of course, a lot of what is already on the car will be reused after a good clean or rebuild where needed
last but not least the all-important remap, by Wayne of course '
the above was written 8 years ago... gulp!
Has this journey reached it's a goal yet?... I doubt it, after all 'modifying is in my soul' although these days I let me son do all of the work. It was he who fitted the new injectors, a 60th present to me from my 5 children. He also fitted a new performance fuel pump with an extra relay, new fuel lines over the exhaust manifold, replaced all belts, complete service, rebuilt the power steering pump ( the car has never felt so good in the steering), smoothed all the boost pipework and inlet manifold which were then painted in an epoxy chrome finish paint. As mentioned he switched the jumpers on the ECU and also remapped the car to remove a slight low down flat spot that it had developed recently. Evidently this involved some redlining to check he was happy with it, 7k rpm gear changes is not something that I usually do, he seemed to love though, as did the car...
Anyway, hope some of you find this of interest, a few pictures
Pete
Fantastic! Looks great too, those wheels are perfect for the car.
The 944/968 were always really highly rated for their chassis, and now yours has the appropriate amount of power to go with it, too.
I'm impressed that the standard intercooler worked for up to the 368hp, on the Japanese cars I'm used to it's normally a fairly early upgrade to have to jam in a big FMIC, I guess Porsche were anticipating Autobahnen whereas the Japanese cars were specified for limited 100 km/h roads.
The 944/968 were always really highly rated for their chassis, and now yours has the appropriate amount of power to go with it, too.
I'm impressed that the standard intercooler worked for up to the 368hp, on the Japanese cars I'm used to it's normally a fairly early upgrade to have to jam in a big FMIC, I guess Porsche were anticipating Autobahnen whereas the Japanese cars were specified for limited 100 km/h roads.
samoht said:
Fantastic! Looks great too, those wheels are perfect for the car.
The 944/968 were always really highly rated for their chassis, and now yours has the appropriate amount of power to go with it, too.
I'm impressed that the standard intercooler worked for up to the 368hp, on the Japanese cars I'm used to it's normally a fairly early upgrade to have to jam in a big FMIC, I guess Porsche were anticipating Autobahnen whereas the Japanese cars were specified for limited 100 km/h roads.
thanks, in general, Porsche's from this era were very much overengineered...the '86' model year in particular 951 is a classic example. Today modern Porsche's are modelled by computer and thus parts are very much built to a cost. The standard IC is very capable of dealing with much more boost than standard. As is the exhaust capable of getting rid of that extra pressure within reason. Also, there was a lot of wind tunnel research on this car, for example, it was the first car to have a rear diffuser and holds the pattern for this. Due to the wind tunnel R&D the lowest pressure point on the body is just above the inlet for the intercooler, the air doesn't just get rammed into the inlet, which BTW is fully ducted, it gets sucked in.The 944/968 were always really highly rated for their chassis, and now yours has the appropriate amount of power to go with it, too.
I'm impressed that the standard intercooler worked for up to the 368hp, on the Japanese cars I'm used to it's normally a fairly early upgrade to have to jam in a big FMIC, I guess Porsche were anticipating Autobahnen whereas the Japanese cars were specified for limited 100 km/h roads.
cheers
Pete
Bobberoo99 said:
Watching, looking forward to the updates!!
The engine has been fully rebuilt and back on the road for 5 years now, covered just over 20k miles with no issues.. all running very well... idles perfectly and roars when asked to do so. It's a real head-turner, the car makes a lovely sound at any rpm, burbles when coasting through town, roars when pushing hard, pops on down change and the dump valve makes plenty of whooshing sounds as it dumps to atmosphere during each gear change. A couple of weeks ago I drove down to lands end for the weekend, the car loved it and knocked up another 772 miles over the two days.Pete
Lovely, lovely car.
In my personal opinion it just needs some gentle spacing on the rear wheels, they are gorgeous but just lost in the arches a little after the lowering.
Had a late model with M030 option. Standard engine but KWv3, buckets and a half cage. Such a well-balanced car and great to look at.
In my personal opinion it just needs some gentle spacing on the rear wheels, they are gorgeous but just lost in the arches a little after the lowering.
Had a late model with M030 option. Standard engine but KWv3, buckets and a half cage. Such a well-balanced car and great to look at.
StuntmanMike said:
Didn’t have a clue what a 951 was.
Oh well.
It’s a beautiful car op, always had a soft spot for these.
Thanks.. actually being right-hand drive I should call her a 952, that's what is stamped on the Porsche factory label in the boot and on the handbook... but most know the 944 Turbo as the 951 even though that's only for left-hand drive cars...Oh well.
It’s a beautiful car op, always had a soft spot for these.
Cheers
Pete
Sf_Manta said:
That is a real wolf in sheeps clothing.
OK it's a Porsche, but it's something that doesn't shout that it's got nearly 370bhp. I can imagine it's suprised some far more modern machinery.
370bhp was before the rebuild, back then she was running 17PSi.. today she is running 23 PSI and had another £12k in parts alone put into her. She is a long way north of 400bhp today...OK it's a Porsche, but it's something that doesn't shout that it's got nearly 370bhp. I can imagine it's suprised some far more modern machinery.
It will surprise much of what's on the road today, with 400+BHP and weighing in at only 1280KG she truly is a quick car, quicker still in the bends.Pete
SVX said:
Wow! I bet that goes like a scalded cat - I once had part ownership of a 924, a late 944 or 968 has always been on my to do list.... Enjoy!
Press the pedal to the metal and you need to be hanging on, not only will she embarrass most cars to 60, she will embarrass them in top speed too. These cars when new were faster than a Ferrari Testarossa to 60. I don't drive too fast these days, fastest I've driven her some years ago was on the continent when she had only 280BHP and recorded a top speed of 174, this was measured by the GPS, the speedo itself was bouncing off its stop at 170MPH. Today with well over another 100BHP and a redline set at 7200 she will outrun most things out there. Oh and she will redline in top...missed a gear once when playing with an RS3, datalog recorded the rpm at 7134 and the throttle at 92%, IIRC the boost was 21PSI....put that into gear calc with the cars final drive ratio and that came out at 196MPH in 5th.. Ok, there's wind resistance to take into account but this car has a good drag coefficient, probably lower still now that she's lowered. She is a very fast car with handling to die for, I have no doubt that she will easily do a conservative 185mph. Das speck said:
So this is the car Pete goes on about 
looks nice.
Richi has done a really nice job on the pipe work and metal polishing.
Pete also tells me about your train!
Ah... I've been caught by a friend of my son... looks nice. Richi has done a really nice job on the pipe work and metal polishing.
Pete also tells me about your train!
Pete still reckons his escort Cossie is faster.. not a chance but I'll give him that he will drive faster than I, I'm getting too old and I've lost that 'mad' syndrome of a younger driver... yes Rich does great work, he is the best car tech that I know...he does all of the maintenance on this car today. He helped in rebuilding the engine, as put in my opening post, he recently gave the car a full service, including those all-important belts, plus the extra 'go faster' goodies that he fitted as a surprise. I'm just hoping now that he finds the time to get the car in for that full respray that he promised...fingers crossed...Pete
Beautiful motor! Love it! I have a pal with a 1990 black one in immaculate and original condition but with, I think, about 320bhp? His wife has a 928 GTS, again immaculate and original and with only 35k on the clock. He swears by the handling of the 944 and is searching for a 968 CS at the moment. A car which I have had the pleasure of driving many years ago when a pal bought one new. I am still not sure if I have ever driven a better handling car than the 968. If I have, I've forgotten what it was!
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Trophy Husband said:
Beautiful motor! Love it! I have a pal with a 1990 black one in immaculate and original condition but with, I think, about 320bhp? His wife has a 928 GTS, again immaculate and original and with only 35k on the clock. He swears by the handling of the 944 and is searching for a 968 CS at the moment. A car which I have had the pleasure of driving many years ago when a pal bought one new. I am still not sure if I have ever driven a better handling car than the 968. If I have, I've forgotten what it was!
Enjoy.
yes, the 968 was voted the best handling car in the world, the chassis is more or less the same as the 944... add a few later direct bolt-on parts from the 968 and you have the same handling although today with a KW3 fitted it is probably better still. My own car has the 968 front wishbone supports, later antiroll bar, Koni adjustable all round and the later rear sway bar.Enjoy.
Pete
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