So I bought an old banger

[964Cup]

I've been out of the Porsche world for a while; I sold my last road Porsche almost a decade ago, and the race car from which I took my forum name went about five years back. But with a significant birthday coming up, and despite all the hassle of living with any half-decent car in London, the ownership itch needed scratching. I was looking for a 993 cabrio for a variety of nostalgic reasons, but then my eye caught something else. Something older, considerably dearer, and distinctly more louche.

I present my unashamed boulevardier:









It's a 964 C2 WTL (works turbo-look) cabriolet. One of either 24 or 32 (depending who you ask) made in RHD, and slightly rarer for being a manual. Polar over blue. 26 years young, 102k miles. The Speedlines and steering wheel aren't original, but I like them both, so although I'll pick up the factory-correct items over time, I'll probably not fit them.

The car had a full body restoration five years ago, and seems in very good shape cosmetically and structurally. It's not really been driven since then, so it's got the usual 964 foibles from underuse. Tomorrow's 460-mile drive home plus a service should fix that. There are a few minor issues - the RH mirror motor is dying, the blower fan rattles, there's a squeak from the rear suspension on occasion and it probably needs a geo and some fresh discs, but all in all I think I've done OK, despite the slightly gulp-inducing price tag. It certainly drives well enough. They're not really fast or even fast-ish by modern standards, but part of the fun is that they feel like they're being stretched at relatively legal speeds. I remember deciding to sell my 997.1 turbo cab when I realised that it only got interesting to drive once you got past 150mph. This thing feels decidedly interesting at half that.

Once I get it home and have recovered from the withering looks I anticipate from wife and bank manager, I'll go over it with a fine tooth comb. The current list of jobs is:

Full service
Air-con regas (just on principle, not that 964 klima ever works all that well)
Suspension check (might well need bushes and/or dampers) and geo
Fix/replace blower motor
Replace RH mirror motor
Skim or (more likely) replace discs and pads
Upgrade headlamps with LED units
Upgrade head unit with Porsche period-look single-DIN satnav
Tidy up the under-dash wiring (usual 90s rats' nest where the immobiliser and so on have been wired in)
Buy (but not fit) correct 7 & 9J 17" Cup 1s
Buy (but not fit) correct 4-spoke airbag wheel
Replace pointless cassette-holder with useful oddments/phone tray
Consider, but probably reject, having the motor mildly breathed upon
Buy and install the missing emergency triangle
Replace/refit a few errant trim fasteners

So, not really much to do then...

If anyone's interested, I'll post an occasional update to this thread as I get through the list. In the meantime, enjoy the scenery where I picked it up:

[mr pg]

Looks lovely. Club sport steering wheel a definite bonus, as are the sports seats. Are they heated? My targa had all of that, but as you say, the AC never works!

[Frrair]

Absolutely DISGUSTING... please don’t post information like this again :-)

[964Cup]

mr pg said:

Looks lovely. Club sport steering wheel a definite bonus, as are the sports seats. Are they heated? My targa had all of that, but as you say, the AC never works!

The 964 widebo(d)y cab was ludicrously expensive when new, so they threw everything at it - heated, electric full leather seats, "climate control", electric mirrors, etc etc. What this mainly means apart from there being more to go wrong (and the thing being somewhat of a lardarse) is that there are switches quite literally everywhere. Normal 964 ergonomics are already "special"; this is just daft. I still like it, though, tart's car that it is.

[supersport]

I thought all of these were a purple co,our, clearly not.

Very nice.

[964Cup]

supersport said:

I thought all of these were a purple co,our, clearly not.

Very nice.

You're thinking of the "celebration" widebody 964 C4 coupé; they were all a metallic violet, I think. I nearly bought one more than 20 years ago, but ended up in a narrow-body car.

[Chubbyross]

That’s a thing of sheer beauty. Such a simple, elegant and classic design. As a 911 should be.

[boxsey]

964Cup said:

You're thinking of the "celebration" widebody 964 C4 coupé; they were all a metallic violet, I think. I nearly bought one more than 20 years ago, but ended up in a narrow-body car.

C4 celebration was also made in polar silver and there is ONE factory car in guards red.

Your WTL looks lovely.

BTW before stripping apart your rear blower motor, check the fuse in the rear fuse box. They were originally fitted with 25 amp which always blows so Porsche issued a technical bulletin a few years later to replace it with a 30 amp fuse.

[supersport]

964Cup said:

supersport said:

I thought all of these were a purple co,our, clearly not.

Very nice.

You're thinking of the "celebration" widebody 964 C4 coupé; they were all a metallic violet, I think. I nearly bought one more than 20 years ago, but ended up in a narrow-body car.

Yep that’s the one

Wide body 964s are a pretty rare beast.

[964Cup]

Well, today I drove it back from north of Glasgow to London and it's safe at the storage company for now. The drive down was initially uneventful - and rather pleasant, tooling along Scots back roads with the top down. The first 100 miles of motorway were also OK. Then things became a little more tiresome; the car has an intermittent electrical fault, it turns out, that results in a very slight misfire and a momentary loss of accessory power (you see the OBD display dim and the stereo resets itself). Didn't stop the car driving, but was irritating and meant I couldn't listen to the stereo. I say intermittent because after about an hour or so the problem went away again, and didn't reappear until I was struggling through London traffic to the storage compound.

By which time other problems had become more pressing. A car that won't idle - at all - is no fun in London, where you have to stop every five metres. You either sound like a complete tit, having to rev the thing the whole time to keep it running, or you look like a tit as it stalls every time you depress the clutch. This problem also comes and goes, but having it come rather than go as I crawled towards the centre of town was unamusing.

It was made doubly unamusing by the increasing unwillingness of the gearbox to allow me to select first. I think this has two possible causes: firstly, I suspect the clutch needs bleeding (and it'll be getting a complete fluid change anyway). This means that the initial bite point is about 0.1mm from the floor, so unless you apply the strength of Hercules to the pedal every time the gearbox isn't completely decoupled from the engine. The other possibility (which doesn't exclude the first) is an alignment problem - it's a long linkage. I'm really hoping there's not a selector fork or synchro problem, because I'd prefer not to have to get the box rebuilt at this point.

There is also at least one of the usual 964 oil leaks - it was smoking quietly when I stopped at journey's end. That's hardly a surprise; I just hope it's one of the easier-to-fix leaks.

A mixed bag then: it pulls well, temps and pressures are good, it turns and stops, almost all of the electrical goodies work and the body, hood and interior are all superb. We'll see what a complete fluid change, a service and the attentions of a good automotive electrician can accomplish. I'll report back when I've had the first of what I suspect will be a number of meaningful invoices...

[Chris Stott]

Wife body 964... in polar... lovely!

964Cup said:

I'll report back when I've had the first of what I suspect will be a number of meaningful invoices...

[mr pg]

'By which time other problems had become more pressing. A car that won't idle - at all - is no fun in London, where you have to stop every five metres. You either sound like a complete tit, having to rev the thing the whole time to keep it running, or you look like a tit as it stalls every time you depress the clutch. This problem also comes and goes, but having it come rather than go as I crawled towards the centre of town was unamusing.'

Try replacing the DME relay as it's a common fault on 964's and can lead to the problems you had. It's recommended to carry a spare too, something I always did, but never required after the original failing just after I bought the car.

[964Cup]

mr pg said:

'By which time other problems had become more pressing. A car that won't idle - at all - is no fun in London, where you have to stop every five metres. You either sound like a complete tit, having to rev the thing the whole time to keep it running, or you look like a tit as it stalls every time you depress the clutch. This problem also comes and goes, but having it come rather than go as I crawled towards the centre of town was unamusing.'

Try replacing the DME relay as it's a common fault on 964's and can lead to the problems you had. It's recommended to carry a spare too, something I always did, but never required after the original failing just after I bought the car.

Thanks. DME and ISV are on the list, as is a thorough wiring check (like all these cars, it's doubtless had several alarms and stereos at different times). I'm hoping the oil leak is the sump, not the crankcase, but we'll find out. Frustratingly my garage is presently full of bikes and boxes, so the car's in storage, which means I can't play with it straight away. I shall have to learn patience.

[boxsey]

In my time with 964s I came across lots of reasons for owners having idling/stalling problems, from simple ones like DME relay and simple reset with a hammer after battery going flat, to leaks on the inlet manifold or oil in it, to failed ISV or faulty worn out board in the air flow meter. The problem with my own car (constant stalling) was due to a faulty hall sensor in the distributor which was solved by refurbishing the distributor.

[kingroon]

Look forward to the photos of this, lovely example..

964 Cabrio and Targa are on my Bucket List..

[Gio G]

Lovely looking thing OP! Enjoy it and look forward to updates.

G

[Als911]

It’s a cracking looking car Ben, but hey I would say that.
Was going to say it not just a boulevard cruiser as Andre Lotterer
Drives a 964 Wide boy cab. But on looking at his Instagram pic maybe your right 😁

Enjoy the new machine Ben, it does look fab.

[964Cup]

Work progresses on the 964. So far we've fixed:

• the ropy idle - a combination of things including reconnecting an oxygen sensor, replacing the DME relay and other fiddling yet to be detailed to me;
• at least one oil leak - from the filter;
• the perished rubber hood that connects the main fan to the heater blower;
• the intermittent electrical fault, traced to a failing earth strap on the battery;
• the gear shift (apparently - the car's still up on the ramp with its wheels off, so it's hard to tell).[/ul]

We've also changed the oil, brake fluid and plugs. Still to come:

• fit replacement Porsche classic stereo with satnav;
• replace exterior bulbs with LED;
• tidy up under-dash wiring;
• sort out noisy blower (which we think/hope is just something rubbing on the fan);
• change the steering wheel for an RS item (I don't like the Club Sport wheel, the rim's too thick, and this is not *an OEM Porsche wheel anyway, as far as I know);
• replace the wheelnuts - to include some locking nuts;
• find and resolve the squeak from the rear suspension;
• fix various small electrical niggles (seat heaters, mirror motor, courtesy light).

I've sourced the correct 7J and 9J Cup 1 wheels, but won't fit them - I like the Speedlines, and the Cups are too rare now to use anyway. I'm also waiting for a proper four-spoke steering wheel (I found a NOS one in the right colour, amazingly) - again that won't be fitted, but will be kept to hand for a putative concours future.

There's some small chance I might get to drive the blasted thing after the weekend. We'll see. In the meantime, because I'm not wasting enough money on Porsches, I bought another one.



You can read about that adventure in future bankruptcy here.