Turbo Conversion

[bigfatbiffta]

Hi, I am looking to buy a 944 cabrio and id like a turbo. However its quite hard to get hold of a turbo model and i cant find any in black, how hard would it be to convert from the 3.0 to the 2.5 turbo? Bearing in mind id be having someone else do the work, what sort of cost would i be looking at?
The other advantage i can see over just buying a turbo is if i buy a turbo engine i can have it fully re-built before it goes into the car which would give me great piece of mind and i could possibly do some performance mods. How hard is it to achieve 300hp?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[zcacogp]

To quote a good American friend of mine, "Never build a car you can buy".

No idea on the expense, but it WILL be significantly much more than just finding and buying a turbo cab. They do exist. They do come up for sale. Buying one will be quicker and cheaper than building one, and you then have a proper car, not a 'special' (with associated reliability problems, insurance problems etc etc etc.)

Just my £0.02's worth.


Oli.

 

[Fen]

I agree with Oli, and I share your admiration for black Turbo cabs. They are rare and I sort of kick myself for buying a 964 rather than a nice triple black Turbo cab a couple of years ago when I had the chance.

Anyway that car has since had a cosmetic bump but happens to still be available via Jon Mitchell (indi9xx on here) http://www.jmgarage.com/carsales-jmg.htm

That'll be you sorted better than you ever dreamed is my guess []

Alternatively I could try to sell you the recently rebuilt Turbo engine I have that I don't want any more that makes 290bhp...

 

[bigfatbiffta]

aargh! why do i not have the money now!! That sounds sooo nice! i'm currently in the process of moving house at the mo so it wont be a few months yet till i can afford one! Was just considering my options, that car does sound immaculate too! Wonder if he'll do finance, haha.

It is kind of a toss up for me between one of those and a 964 actually, but i just think you get a bit more for your money with the 944. Thanks for the replies anyway, i kind of thought as much, conversions do tend to come with problems that are hard to track down sometimes, always best to buy an original if possible really.

 

[Fen]

Hopefully Jon won't mind me saying that if he has a fault it's that the sheer volume of work can push projects back to a slow pace of work (and the fact he's a nice guy who can't help but talk petrol when he meets a like-minded soul; I think 4 hours passed easily one Saturday I "popped in" to see him).

He's had the car for some time and I imagine unless someone starts to sound like they want to own it he will for some time still. I actually expected it would be gone by now, but in all seriousness after sleeping on it I'm half tempted to ask him to finish it and get it into a shipping container down to me after I sell my unused Mini. Race ya for the money []

 

[Diver944]

Definately buy a car that has already been built by Porsche. Convesrions can be great but will take some time and a lot more of your money in the long run.

I had a ride in Jons black Turbo Cab and can vouch how good it was before it had it's minor bump (and it was minor). It looked even better on the 18" black/silver split rims it wore at the time [8D]

 

[swright]

Totally agree with with the sentiment expressed here.

At the end of the day a 'conversion' will only ever be just that, a non original conversion and because of that will never demand the same price as a standard car if you ever come to sell it. And to make matters worse, it will cost you lots more to build than it would to find and buy an original car in the first place.


Stu