My 1994 Riviera Blue Porsche 968 Club Sport Diary
Discussion
Autumn & SORN 2023
First year of ownership and it has been an absolute privilege attending a select amount of shows and events in and around East Anglia...
• Kimbolton 2023
• Porsche Club R24 @ Dove House Motor Company
Classics getting thin on the ground at any Porsche Club meet these days. I remember 2003 being littered with 928's, 964's, 3.2's......
She did some mundane stuff too, like shopping in Bury St. Edmunds, but only if strict parking requirements met...
Lets be honest, keeping a car dent free is a total ball ache!
However, the Kimbolton show was the final straw and I had to fix something really annoying. Back in the garage again...
Gear Selection
Every time you checked for neutral you'd get a horrific "squeak-squeak" left & right with the gearstick. Been there since I bought the car.
Exiting the Kimbolton display stand, it was so embarrassing checking neutral before a crowd that I had to do something.
It was dry ball joints on the shift stay bar, up on top of the gearbox....
They're quite fiddly; they are identical to gas strut ball joints that have a little micro-clip to prevent pop-offs.
I then had the bright idea, whilst I'm here, I might as well do the entire shift linkage.
I dropped the exhaust and heatshields (again) to reveal the shifter. Sure enough, it had some play too, so proceeded to crack on.
I wanted to get it all on the bench and do it there. However, that linkage was seized solid on the input shaft (arrowed below).
It just wouldn't budge.
This is my collection of pullers & breakers...
... and all completely useless for this particular task. Either too big, or not beefy enough. There's no clearance between the shifter and the fuel tank.
I didn't want to drop the gearbox for something so trivial.
So, I got some heavy gauge box section...
...and made my own...
... with extra beefyness...
... worked a treat ...
Now this is the stupid thing; Porsche don't list the actual wear item (in red)...
To replace the bit that's worn out, you can only buy the item "21" (i.e. the whole darn thing) from Mr. Porsche for an eye watering £300.
Thankfully, you can get a third party refurb kit which will do nicely...
All rebuilt.
The shift stay bar, the item which caused all this nonsense, was not looking pretty...
All replaced...
... and greased so this charade never happens again...
Again, I thought "whilst I'm in the mood", so I moved to the other end of the fore-aft shift tube (gearbox is at the back).
I removed the gear knob & gaiter and couldn't understand why I had found what looked like a mouse nest...
FULL of foam granules. I don't think it was a mouse obviously, I just think the H pattern action crumbles the sound insulation. Anyway, all vacuumed out.
I removed the T-bar bushes...
... and replaced with new ...
I'm pleased to report the squeak has gone.
Has it made my gear change razor sharp?
Not really, but it has made reverse gear selection much smoother and positive.
Personally I don't think the T-bar design on the gear stick is very good, because 0.1mm of play becomes a country mile at the top of the stick. Needs a rose joint really, but hey, I'm no Porsche engineer and its all well proven since 1976.
Porsche Club "Porsche East 2023"
A new PCGB event near Bury St. Edmunds (Rickinghall)...
This amazing 924 in beige, on brown velour, won my personal star of the show...
When I left college, the 944 was king with its fat arches. The 924 was uncool in comparison.
How times change (with mature eyes I guess). I swear the 924 gets better looking year on year. Such a pure design without the arches. The very early spoiler-less cars even more so...
It is my Grandfather car after all.
Met a fellow 968 forum member with his Speed Yellow CS.
It's an absolute treat getting a fellow CS together with colour matched wheels. They are just so visually offensive
Had me wondering...
Missed Opportunities?
Anyone remember the Volkswagen Colour Concept cars?
I can only but imagine that multi-coloured CS line-up photo.
I'd love to time warp back to 1994 and do a line up of all the CS primary colours. All with their coloured wheels, same graphics, hardbacks, no modifications.
Would be impossible to organise today. You'd have a mixture of ride heights, some with clear indicators, Cup 1 / Cup 2 alloy wheel mix..... my OCD would drive me nuts with the result.
It made me realise just how little Porsche did re. marketing the car. To think they had a pool of cars sat at the factory to achieve this amazing photo, yet did nothing that I know of.
Probably because the marketing budget for 1994 was about DM50.
The UK brochure publications were lifted from Germany, so there is no brochure that depicts the (UK only) Club Sport decals.
It's really hard to research original features when so few period photos exist.
There are only two "Cup2" press and/or factory photos that I know of...
#1
#2
Of course, neither with side graphics because the factory didn't recognise they existed.
What a load of kids has to do with your lightweight special god only knows. Because German.
Other Ramblings
I went to Porsche Centre Cambridge to pick up those shift bushes and they are building a brand new showroom next door.
In the "old" building was a display stand, detailing the new build, along with this amazing photo dated December 1994...
It's amazing (for me at least) for two reasons...
i) Seeing what is now considered classic exotica (964, 993) lined up as just a commodity. Not only that, but they display all their East Anglia registrations... EW... FL... GV.... what amazing sight.
ii) Tucked at the back are a cheeky pair of 968's in Speed Yellow and Riviera Blue. I'd love to see the registrations. It's such a small community of cars you get to recognise actual plates and where they ended up. Well, geeks like me do anyway.
2023
A selection of photo's to bow out the year...
Late summer evenings with friends... can't beat it...
Some favourite pictures from the year...
SORN
That's it, all done and SORN'd...
When you can park it up for winter and everything's working, that's a bit of a result in my world.
Here's to 2024. Looking forward to it already.
Kind Regards,
JKM
First year of ownership and it has been an absolute privilege attending a select amount of shows and events in and around East Anglia...
• Kimbolton 2023
• Porsche Club R24 @ Dove House Motor Company
Classics getting thin on the ground at any Porsche Club meet these days. I remember 2003 being littered with 928's, 964's, 3.2's......
She did some mundane stuff too, like shopping in Bury St. Edmunds, but only if strict parking requirements met...
Lets be honest, keeping a car dent free is a total ball ache!
However, the Kimbolton show was the final straw and I had to fix something really annoying. Back in the garage again...
Gear Selection
Every time you checked for neutral you'd get a horrific "squeak-squeak" left & right with the gearstick. Been there since I bought the car.
Exiting the Kimbolton display stand, it was so embarrassing checking neutral before a crowd that I had to do something.
It was dry ball joints on the shift stay bar, up on top of the gearbox....
They're quite fiddly; they are identical to gas strut ball joints that have a little micro-clip to prevent pop-offs.
I then had the bright idea, whilst I'm here, I might as well do the entire shift linkage.
I dropped the exhaust and heatshields (again) to reveal the shifter. Sure enough, it had some play too, so proceeded to crack on.
I wanted to get it all on the bench and do it there. However, that linkage was seized solid on the input shaft (arrowed below).
It just wouldn't budge.
This is my collection of pullers & breakers...
... and all completely useless for this particular task. Either too big, or not beefy enough. There's no clearance between the shifter and the fuel tank.
I didn't want to drop the gearbox for something so trivial.
So, I got some heavy gauge box section...
...and made my own...
... with extra beefyness...
... worked a treat ...
Now this is the stupid thing; Porsche don't list the actual wear item (in red)...
To replace the bit that's worn out, you can only buy the item "21" (i.e. the whole darn thing) from Mr. Porsche for an eye watering £300.
Thankfully, you can get a third party refurb kit which will do nicely...
All rebuilt.
The shift stay bar, the item which caused all this nonsense, was not looking pretty...
All replaced...
... and greased so this charade never happens again...
Again, I thought "whilst I'm in the mood", so I moved to the other end of the fore-aft shift tube (gearbox is at the back).
I removed the gear knob & gaiter and couldn't understand why I had found what looked like a mouse nest...
FULL of foam granules. I don't think it was a mouse obviously, I just think the H pattern action crumbles the sound insulation. Anyway, all vacuumed out.
I removed the T-bar bushes...
... and replaced with new ...
I'm pleased to report the squeak has gone.
Has it made my gear change razor sharp?
Not really, but it has made reverse gear selection much smoother and positive.
Personally I don't think the T-bar design on the gear stick is very good, because 0.1mm of play becomes a country mile at the top of the stick. Needs a rose joint really, but hey, I'm no Porsche engineer and its all well proven since 1976.
Porsche Club "Porsche East 2023"
A new PCGB event near Bury St. Edmunds (Rickinghall)...
This amazing 924 in beige, on brown velour, won my personal star of the show...
When I left college, the 944 was king with its fat arches. The 924 was uncool in comparison.
How times change (with mature eyes I guess). I swear the 924 gets better looking year on year. Such a pure design without the arches. The very early spoiler-less cars even more so...
It is my Grandfather car after all.
Met a fellow 968 forum member with his Speed Yellow CS.
It's an absolute treat getting a fellow CS together with colour matched wheels. They are just so visually offensive
Had me wondering...
Missed Opportunities?
Anyone remember the Volkswagen Colour Concept cars?
I can only but imagine that multi-coloured CS line-up photo.
I'd love to time warp back to 1994 and do a line up of all the CS primary colours. All with their coloured wheels, same graphics, hardbacks, no modifications.
Would be impossible to organise today. You'd have a mixture of ride heights, some with clear indicators, Cup 1 / Cup 2 alloy wheel mix..... my OCD would drive me nuts with the result.
It made me realise just how little Porsche did re. marketing the car. To think they had a pool of cars sat at the factory to achieve this amazing photo, yet did nothing that I know of.
Probably because the marketing budget for 1994 was about DM50.
The UK brochure publications were lifted from Germany, so there is no brochure that depicts the (UK only) Club Sport decals.
It's really hard to research original features when so few period photos exist.
There are only two "Cup2" press and/or factory photos that I know of...
#1
#2
Of course, neither with side graphics because the factory didn't recognise they existed.
What a load of kids has to do with your lightweight special god only knows. Because German.
Other Ramblings
I went to Porsche Centre Cambridge to pick up those shift bushes and they are building a brand new showroom next door.
In the "old" building was a display stand, detailing the new build, along with this amazing photo dated December 1994...
It's amazing (for me at least) for two reasons...
i) Seeing what is now considered classic exotica (964, 993) lined up as just a commodity. Not only that, but they display all their East Anglia registrations... EW... FL... GV.... what amazing sight.
ii) Tucked at the back are a cheeky pair of 968's in Speed Yellow and Riviera Blue. I'd love to see the registrations. It's such a small community of cars you get to recognise actual plates and where they ended up. Well, geeks like me do anyway.
2023
A selection of photo's to bow out the year...
Late summer evenings with friends... can't beat it...
Some favourite pictures from the year...
SORN
That's it, all done and SORN'd...
When you can park it up for winter and everything's working, that's a bit of a result in my world.
Here's to 2024. Looking forward to it already.
Kind Regards,
JKM
Thank you Helix; TV.
CarlosSainz100 said:
How true is it that the Police up in the north east of England had a few of these as pursuit cars in the early 90's? I swear I saw a news story about this at the time but I could just be going mad....
Sorry CS100, all I know about is the Met car L323JMO - see page one of this thread. You're not the first to raise this which makes me wonder it isn't a myth - but you'd think there'd be photos . Any evidence of other cars, please post!Edited by jay-kay-em on Monday 20th November 09:14
Thank you TR4, Boom78, Leins.
1994 BTCC Laguna style...
The following publications specifically state a Club Sport has body colour wheels (as in has, not optional)
• My 1992 CS Press Pack
• My 1992 CS Dealer Training
• My 1992 CS Brochure
• My 1994 CS/Sport Combined Brochure (aka the Cup2 brochure)
• My March 1994 price list
This is true for all standard CS body colours except a) black cars and b) paint to sample cars - Amaranth for example. They got standard silver wheels and are the exceptions to the rule.
What was so offensive with black on black wheels I don't know, but Porsche didn't allow it.
Silver wheels were optional, hence it has an option code M346. This will be on the luggage compartment sticker if ordered as a silver wheel car.
Note that a "Sport" will also have this silver wheel option code as part of the Porsche Cars Great Britain spec of what a CS was ordered as to be a Sport.
Many things 968CS don't make sense because you'd think to make it £6+k cheaper, there needs to be less hassle making it, not more. The body colour rear spoiler a great example of this inverse logic..... standard on the cheaper CS, but a £165 cost option for the much much more expensive coupe.
Perhaps that's why they skirted with bankruptcy so much
Who knows what dealers said to get them out the door. I can imagine a few dealers painting some wheels silver themselves just to be less offensive if an order was cancelled. I have heard this story for the Rover 200 BRM guppy mouth just to get them gone......!
Its always the most niche (read unpopular) things at the time that come round full circle to being cool.
Bright Halo said:
I reckon you should swap wheels with the yellow one!
1994 BTCC Laguna style...944 Man said:
Wheels to body colour was a cost option. My car came on Cup1s and they were left silver.
Sorry 944 Man, beg to differ with the information I have. The following publications specifically state a Club Sport has body colour wheels (as in has, not optional)
• My 1992 CS Press Pack
• My 1992 CS Dealer Training
• My 1992 CS Brochure
• My 1994 CS/Sport Combined Brochure (aka the Cup2 brochure)
• My March 1994 price list
This is true for all standard CS body colours except a) black cars and b) paint to sample cars - Amaranth for example. They got standard silver wheels and are the exceptions to the rule.
What was so offensive with black on black wheels I don't know, but Porsche didn't allow it.
Silver wheels were optional, hence it has an option code M346. This will be on the luggage compartment sticker if ordered as a silver wheel car.
Note that a "Sport" will also have this silver wheel option code as part of the Porsche Cars Great Britain spec of what a CS was ordered as to be a Sport.
Many things 968CS don't make sense because you'd think to make it £6+k cheaper, there needs to be less hassle making it, not more. The body colour rear spoiler a great example of this inverse logic..... standard on the cheaper CS, but a £165 cost option for the much much more expensive coupe.
Perhaps that's why they skirted with bankruptcy so much
Who knows what dealers said to get them out the door. I can imagine a few dealers painting some wheels silver themselves just to be less offensive if an order was cancelled. I have heard this story for the Rover 200 BRM guppy mouth just to get them gone......!
Its always the most niche (read unpopular) things at the time that come round full circle to being cool.
Buzzzen said:
Hi Jay-Kay-Em
Not sure how PM works, but have you tried to make contact? Keen to meet.
Hi Buzzzen. PM’s are sent to your email address you have in your settings. You must have ticked the box that allows emails from members. Be sure to check your spam folder too. Not sure how PM works, but have you tried to make contact? Keen to meet.
If all that fails, try sending me one.
Best Regards,
Jay.
Edited by jay-kay-em on Tuesday 16th January 22:41
Cheers all.
Blue 7 said:
Thanks Blue 7.... Holy cow.. Thanks Tin Hat, SJ.
Kind words DB. I remember my first 2.5 944 fondly. D355GCD. From late teens growing up with with disposable Fords and Vauxhalls, it felt something really special. Like i'd truly climbed a rung.
Thanks for the video BM. Not a great fan of Tyrell Workshop, but the video is complimentary. He comes across as an "educator" with white boards, yet says working out a real Club Sport is too complicated and merely snooty to try and do so. We'll agree to disagree on that one.
Looking forward to 2024 and there's at least 2 968's in Readers Cars I plan to meet up with this year, so that's cool.
Kind words DB. I remember my first 2.5 944 fondly. D355GCD. From late teens growing up with with disposable Fords and Vauxhalls, it felt something really special. Like i'd truly climbed a rung.
Thanks for the video BM. Not a great fan of Tyrell Workshop, but the video is complimentary. He comes across as an "educator" with white boards, yet says working out a real Club Sport is too complicated and merely snooty to try and do so. We'll agree to disagree on that one.
Looking forward to 2024 and there's at least 2 968's in Readers Cars I plan to meet up with this year, so that's cool.
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