Anyone taking a 944 to Le Mans 05?

[Guest]

I'm going, but not in the 944, we've so much kit to take down now we take a discovery! However it would be nice to hook up with anyone who make the trip in their Porsche, We're all camping in 'Houx'

 

[Fen]

Not going this year, but we camped for a week with all our gear in a 944 cab last year and a couple of years before we went in a coupe with a family sized tent, cool box, 2 burner cooker, 2 mountain bikes etc. in the boot (well, the bikes didn't start out in the boot but they came home that way [8|]). How much stuff do you need? Half the fun is the trip and having a decent car there. I'm not sure I'd be half as keen to go if it was in a boring car.

 

[Guest]

It is tempting to take the 944 as well. There are about 20 of us in total, we have some massive tents, and 3 giant pull along coolers with wheels on (you may have spotted us over the years!) There's a separate cooking tent, gas burners, gas powered fridges etc.. etc.. If we get another person tagging along for the ride I may take the Porsch too

Your Turbo/ClubSport project sounds interesting... what's the plan with that one?

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: Jeremy Thain
Your Turbo/ClubSport project sounds interesting... what's the plan with that one?

The car has now been off the road for almost 3 years (will be on Sunday I think) after holing the sump. Immediately before that happened (well, 20-odd days before) it had a fairly expensive overhaul at Bob Watson's where it got a top end rebuild, turbo rebuild, Autothority MAF, TiAL wastegate and custom remap. That resulted in "comfortably over 300bhp" (the wheels kept spinning on the rollers so it didn't get an accurate figure) at 1.05bar and virtually no turbo latency/lag.

The plan is to put it back as was engine-wise for now but with a rebuilt bottom end with new bearings and rings. The crank just needed a polish but it has been balanced along with a brand new flywheel (which is lightened) and a Spec lightweight 6-puck paddle clutch. It's also having a Cometic head gasket and Raceware fasteners to hold the head on so that in future it can run a bit more boost. Ultimately I'd like to run a Link2 with some flavour of TO4E based turbo, bigger injectors, better IC etc. but for now it isn't anything special compared to many on here. 3 years ago is was one of the quicker '44s in the UK though I think.

The ClubSport bit is currently a single bucket seat (but I will fit a second), no rear wiper, no central locking, manual windows, no electric tailgate release, no electric mirrors, no headlight height adjustment and will be completed with air-con delete, manual steering and fog/driving lamps removed. I'd like to get rid of the sunroof too but that's some way off for now.

I haven't done anything with suspension or brakes yet but I'm leaning toward KW or Leda rather than M030 (but probably with 968 M030 ARBs) and I'll see how the "reasonably big blacks" cope before doing any braking beyond the existing Goodridge lines and some fancy fluid it will get. It has 18" Cup 2 replicas for the road (more bling than ClubSport to be honest) and I have a set of genuine 17" Cup 1's that will be shod with something more track orientated.

The intention is to use the car for trackdays primarily although I may take it to work on occasion, especially when it's being run-in. I'm hopeful it might be running and capable of passing an MoT by April at worst, but as it was orginally going to be ready for last Le Mans don't hold your breath.