Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 4

Wheels, Tires and Brakes are proving to be the biggest challenge in this build.  Since our goal is to create a car that will work 90% on broken pavement and 10% groomed dirt roads, we are sticking with tire sizes that favor the road.  But we are looking to add compliance through larger side walls as well overall larger diameter to gain some ground clearance.  

Most of the Safari builds run the same size wheel and tire on all four corners and the fifth which they keep as the spare.  On dirt, this can work, as grip is usually minimal.  But our car is going to run on the road so tire size will defer to weight bias.  We wrote about tire selection on a previous Blog: HERE  Since these are rear biased cars, larger tires are needed at the rear.  We will follow what is typically used for the road cars with more sidewall.  Plus our tire should be quieter than one that favors dirt.

We started with tires and then are attempting to find rims that will fit.  I used a resource on the web that will compare wheel/tire sizes and visually shows the potential impact.  The rear option is shown below.  I linked the image to the website.

We have contacted several of our favorite wheel suppliers including: Braid, HRE, BBS and TireRack to see what options we can find.  Ultimately determing clearance with the new Elephant Racing suspension will be key.  We have a tool that should help us make that determination on rim width and offset.  We will post up pix of this tool in action when we get to this stage.

One of my friends, who is Ride & Handling engineer at Toyota, and races 911s, has suggested the Conti Extreme Contact Sport 2 tires.  These seem like a great solution that come in the sizes that I am after: 225/50R17 front and 285/40R17.  

The Girodisc brakes that we have ordered are slightly larger in diameter than stock.  This is due to the fact that  the 996 has a rear (in hat) drum brake for the handbrake.  Giro needed to make the rotor larger to clear the drum and up sized the front to match the rear  - to keep brake bias the same as stock.

We ordered their caliper rebuild kit as well since these have over 100k miles on them.  We will vapor blast the calipers and replace the seals and rubber boots.  New Stainless Steel brake lines are ordered as well as 25 yr old rubber lines don't instill confidence!

We are hosting a Tech Seminar on Nov 8th to show off the build.  We plan to have the tire/wheels selected and have the brakes installed by then.

IMS and engine upgrades related to reliability are also on deck once the car returns from dry-ice cleaning of the under-carriage and suspension area.

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 3

We've decided to have some fun with the car while in the build phase.  My other company, BrandXTR, is a local marketing company that is also a 3M Preffered Installer - so vehicle graphics are in our wheel house.  We have plenty of scrap film that we can slap onto the car to give it a unique look while we work on the important bits.  We plan to remove these graphics once the car is finished mechanically and is ready for cosmetics.  We will be designing a new livery for the car that will be more sedate...

I was inspired by a Brumos Porsche graphic and decided to take some creative liberties.  We chose a medium blue metallic film and a white CF-look film.  Dave got to work and installed the film.  Some of the tools that are available now are pretty cool.  The knife-less tape that he used to cut the edge was really handy.  Dave was certified by 3M after attending their workshop years ago so is very qualified to do these installs.  He was able to apply the stripes across the rear wing/vents and results are pretty amazing - even for a temporary stripe!

We created a new logo for the 996RR so decided to apply it to the sides.

We figured this would be a fun graphic on the side that is sure to elicit questions!

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 2

The car is in rough cosmetic condition.  It needs quite a bit of things inside and out.  The old window tint was bad and the windshield was cracked.  We got those sorted as we waited for additional parts that we ordered from Elephant and Girodisc.

We pulled the front and rear fascias off the car.  This gave us a peek at what we would secure tube bumpers to.  Our fabricator, Danny, came by to assess the possibilities.  We plan to create a fair discrete bumper that will allow us to hang driving lights while also providing some protection from parallel parking.

Overall the car appears to be in decent mechanical condition. There appears to be an oil leak coming from the engine that we will need to investigate. We have the car scheduled for a dry ice cleaning of the underbody.

While under the car, we noticed some opportunities for improvements.  Expect some new ideas from us soon.

The front facia was pretty bad and I managed to find a good used one along with a front DS fender.  The front headlights have washer nozzels - one of which is broken.  We are deleting these along with the pumps and associated hoses.  That'll save a bit a weight.

Wheel and tire considerations are proving to be a bigger challenge.  The suspension will sit 1" higher and ideally we would like to go with taller sidewalls.  We are working closing with Paul at Braid USA on solutions.  Two wheels I like include the Rallycross and the Dakar.

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 1

 We kicked off a partial restoration and build of a 2000 Porsche 911.  We have secured this car for a client who is keen to have us build a car that will work on the rough CA canyons and ocassional dirt road use.  Read more about our thinking: HERE  

I am really excited about this build as I fell in love with Ariel Nomads after putting a few thousand miles on them.  This 996RR will be a worthy alternative.  I blogged about the Nomads: HERE  

These 996.1 cars are a bit of a 'red-headed stepchild' in the Porsche community.  The stigma of being the first water-cooled car coupled with the 'fried egg' headlights make it a real point of contention for many Porschiles.  But in reality, the car drives really well and is a true 911.

We placed the car on the lift and began inspecting it.  Overall the mechanical condition was good.  We've found a few things that will need to be addressed but for a car with 120k miles, she was in good shape.  

Cosmetically, she is a mess!  The paint is bad and so is the interior.  We will need to replace at least one panel (driver front fender) and repaint at least one panel.  Ultimately we will install a cool livery on the car with the help of our colleagues at BrandXTR.

We decided to work with Elephant Racing to sort out the suspension.  These guys are well loved in the Porsche world with their Safari kits (and more).  We talked at length with them about this build and making adjustments to suit our specific needs.  This car is a C2 (rear wheel drive) so is lighter and more in line with what we want for tarmac use.  

Of course we had to put her onto scales = 3219lbs

I drove the car and it drives very well.  I am amazed at how tight she remains even after 120k miles.  Porsche's are built to be endurance race cars so longevity is engineered in.  The steering was good and the shift action not bad - though we discovered one of the shift cables was ready to let loose!  Brakes are solid feeling and the handling good - though I did not really push it beyond 6/10s.

The magic of AI renders...

We are getting the car cleaned up, first by Lee with an exterior/interior detail.  Then it will go to Rolando for an underbody dry ice cleaning process.  Then we will start the disassembly and build process.  I am hoping we can deliver a car that is as light, if not lighter, than the stock car - 3219lbs.

Ultimately, we will leverage the relationships we have built with so many of our excellent suppliers including: Girodisc, Scarbo Performance, G-loc, Expert Upholstery, Xclusive Tuning, Champion Motorsport, ReVerie, Nitron and more.  Plus we are developing new partnerships with Porsche specialist companies like Elephant and Slakker.