£40k 944 in PH classifieds.

[vulture_venturer]

blade7 said:

It also had a bigger turbo fitted. Is the engine you referred to, his old engine?

Not Paul’s old engine no.

[GC8]

All running L-Motronic?

[GC8]

They must have been, because there wasnt anything else.

[GC8]

There were several other options, but they were all spectacularly expensive and definitely werent part of the spec of the car.

[vulture_venturer]

Plenty of other budget standalone options available at the time but not really necessary. It was just a big bore 944 turbo engine, really nothing special apart from the cylinder capacity.

They just got the turbo wrong. Why build a 3.2 and then fit a 2.5 turbo. The engine was trying to blow through a straw. The exhaust was a red herring.

[vulture_venturer]

blade7 said:

How long did it take to dial in your standalone, and how many turbos have you used? I don't know if Jon recommended the uprated turbo Paul fitted, or told him to turn up the boost?

Plenty of time and I just installed a third turbo the other day….I realised long before I got my car to the point of mapping it that I would be going my own way.

[vulture_venturer]

blade7 said:

Will you need a fourth turbo, if you fit a 16v head?

Possibly….but if I did I would just use the same one as Tim.

[sgl1966]

It costs a lot less to put a 16v turbo engine together than the £20,000 mentioned as long as you can weld or no a man that can .

[sgl1966]

No one would be foolish enough to pay £50 an hour for me to work on their cars Paul !
Even then I struggle to get to £10,000 allowing a solid week to measure clearances and assemble an engine , which is what is being charged for as things like fitting liners ,cylinder head work is farmed out .
I appreciate you do have to add in garage overheads and warranty but even so .

[vulture_venturer]

Given what 944 turbos are worth these days anyone with any sense would start with an S2 with a good shell and then do the engine work yourself. Unfortunately nice that it is, Tim’s car will struggle to make that money even though it would probably cost a similar amount to replicate given all the little custom bits he did along the way plus all the Dyno time, suspension and brake mods etc. We all know spending money modifying cars is a dead end road as nowadays more than ever it is original unmolested examples that make the money,

On the numbers side, 25 to 30 hours to rebuild a 944 engine, plus time to take it out and refit, plus pistons, rods, any head work. Then a new turbo, injectors, mapping and then while you are in there you might want to address the intake, downpipe, exhaust, clutch, flywheel, ecu…..etc. Not to mention suspension and brakes!

The 3.2’s (8v) were about £10k back in my day but I would spend that extra going 16v and just use a regular 3.0 block as that is where they really open up. Tim’s car and others have shown this really is the best use of a big bore block.

Edited by vulture_venturer on Monday 29th November 20:13

[julian987R]

I think we have all come to the conclusion this £40k 944 is 100% overpriced and until he lists it at £20k nobody is picking up the phone.
It’s a dud of a car to sell. Mechanically epic yet valuation tragic.

[Penguinracer]

Did Tim sell his car?

[sgl1966]

I bought the quick rack from him a few months ago and yes, he has sold the car .

[Penguinracer]

While I doubt it realised £40K - do you know what he got for it - did it break £30K?

As has been mentioned - its ultimate value was capped by being a turbocharged S2 rather than being highly tuned Turbo with its original motor.