Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 15

We've made some great progress on the 996RR with the exterior almost complete. The arrival of the wheels/tires plus the completion of the bodywork allowed us to start bolting the car together. 

One of the more controversial ideas that we have is to use bed liner on the fascias and the rockers.  These areas get alot of stone impact and are prone to be damaged with canyon/track use.  This car's fascias/rockers were pretty rough and in need of paint so we chose to bed liner them instead!

I believe 'form follows function' and decided to add ventilation holes to the rear fascia where the exhaust/mufflers reside.  It allows heat to flush out the back more effectively.  I have not seen anyone in the Porsche community doing this so I suspect we may get some push back...

We first did this on the Elise by opening up the rear of the car to expose the exhaust.  This application is not as aggressive looking but still something that not all folks will like - we think over time, people will get on board with this idea.

Of course we decided to pull out the heat shielding as well to save some weight.  We lined the inner fascia with heat shielding that we have used over the years on our race car and Drakan builds.

Here are some graphics ideas that we rendered.  Final concept is TBD...

Yes, I like the Mobil Pegasus!

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 14

Yes, the front wheel styling is different from the rear  - a bit like our Drakan!

 The Braid wheels have arrived and they look amazing.  Of course we had to weigh them.  Our wheels are 102.2lbs (all 4 wheels) vs 108lbs for the stock 18" rims.  Our front wheels are considerably lighter but the rears are heavier.  

We chose two different wheel styles as discussed in a previously post. Our Drakan Spyder was the first car that I've used different wheels - front to rear.  We chose the light weight option that adds some additional machining to the face of the wheels to shave off more weight.  

Frankly I am happy that the fronts are so light as that will help with feel.  Braid are known to produce strong wheels - which is more important to me for a car that must negotiate broken road surfaces.

Since we went with the 'inch-down' on these wheels, we are looking at tire options that will work.  I've decided not to go with bigger diameter wheels as the additional tire sidewall height provided by the smaller wheels should be enough to meet our compliance needs.  I expect the turn-in to be a bit slower but thanks to the GT3 swaybars, we should have improved turn-in response anyhow.

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 13

 The 996RR received a few new upgrades including a new front tube bumper, fabric tow straps, mud flaps and a front fascia - with a special coating.  

We had the 'new' front fascia coated with bed liner used on trucks.  The front of most sportscars get hammered - especially when following other cars in the canyons or tracks.  Instead using clearbra, we thought we would try this textured coating.

The front tube bumper was refabbed and extended a bit from the original.  It will get powder coated black onced we finalize the mounts for the Baja Designs DOT legal lights arrive.  I'm excited about improving the lighting on the car as the stock headlights are now 26years old.  These older cars really benefit from updated LED lighting.  

The mudflaps we installed are pretty low.  They are scraping on even the slightest incline.  The noise is pretty annoying!  We will cut them back and then extend them with rubber sheet. 

 

The rear tube bumper is still a work in progress...

We also have Braid wheels on order:

• Front: Fullrace A = 17x8 ET40
• Rear : Winrace S = 17x10 ET40
• Lightweight machining on all wheels
• Lighter Gold

The offsets are 10mm pushed out from stock.  I plan to run stock diameter tires so these specs should work for our needs.  Note the different spoke count?  Influenced by the Drakan Spyder.  Yes, we like to be different!

front: Model Fullrace A

rear: Model Winrace S

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 9

 

We bought an inexpensive short shift kit from eBay to test out on this car as the shifter was really sloppy.  The kit arrived and appeared to be nice but after installation, we noticed the lever was oddly positioned.  We had a 996.2 in the shop and compared the two saw that ours way off.  Further scrutiny revealed the the shifter came to us incorrectly assembled.  We took it apart and reinstalled it.  The forward gears all worked, though a bit shorter than I like.  The Reverse is hard to engage.  We are contacting the Supplier to see if we missed anything on the install.

We are attempting to find wheels that will be an inch smaller diameter - from 18" down to 17".  My plan is to increase the tire aspect ratio so we could gain some additional sidewall height for more compliance.  Originally I was planning on increasing the overall diameter of the tire but have now decided to stick closer to the original tire diameter.  Regardless we will gain some more compliance if I can fit a 17" rim.

The larger diameter Girodisc is making the 17" wheel a challenge.  We bought a wheel measurement tool that allows us to simulate the wheel diameter, width and offsets.  Now that we have the Elephant dampers installed, we broke out the tool to confirm clearance.

It appears that a 17" wheel can work at an offset of ET45 vs ET55 (stock).  We plan to go with a wider rim from 7.5" to 8"  as the tire will be 225.

We bought some new tires to install on the stock rims so we can test while we wait for the wheels to be sourced/secured.  Though they will lack some of the compliance I was hoping for, they should work well enough for us to see if the suspension needs to be retuned.  The Yokohama Advan Sport A/S+ is an all season ultra high performance tire that should deliver good road manners in the dry or wet.  The treadwear rating is fairly soft (440AA A) so we should have decent life with acceptable grip.  As a comparison, the Lotus run on tires with approx 200 tread wear rating!

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 8

 IMS bearings are cited as a weak link of the 996 cars.  The market has punished their values significantly because of this issue.  These IMS failures, which will take out an engine, affects less than 10% of the cars.  We plan to offer this IMS replacement service as I feel the cars are great sportscars that can be had at a great value due this perceived, yet correctable, weakness,

We are testing out a rear chassis brace

Our car did not appear to have ever had an IMS change.  With over 100k miles on it, we decided to swap it out.  This also gave us a chance to inspect the Rear Main Seal and the clutch.

With the gearbox out you can see where the IMS resides.  We used a special puller tool to yank out the IMS bearing after setting the engine to top dead center.  This is not a job for a beginner as it requires some specialized tools and certainly some clear knowledge of these engines.

We inspected our bearing and found it was in good shape.  You can see it shown below with the seals off.  Ours was the dual row bearing that is known to be better than the single row.  You can also watch a bit of the removal and inspection process in our YouTube Video.

We have sourced a replacement bearing recommended to us that we will install soon.  The clutch and flywheel are worn so will get replaced when it all goes back together.  The rear Main Seal was not a source of any leaks but will get changed as it is old.

We are contemplating pulling the engine to fully inspect and clean it.  The dry ice cleaning took care of the underside but now that we can see the top of the gearnox and engine, the grime and gunk needs to be addressed!

Tomorrow we are hosting a Tech Seminar about this build at our shop.  You will be able to see all of these bits in person.  Come join us!

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 7

We have been playing around with bumper ideas for this build. Most of the Safari-style tube bumpers are more aggressive that we want - and heavy. 

stock bumper is hidden behind the rear fascia

 Our goal is to create smaller bumpers that are effective and can support lights and tow straps. We decided to build some bumpers that would attach to the factory pistons that the internal bumper bolt to. 

The stock internal extruded Al bumpers are pretty cool.  The rear, shown above, has additional extrusions that attach to the rubber bumperettes that are visible on either side of the license plate.  The front is a bit simpler and shown on the left.  Both have threaded bungs for the factory towing loop.  The rear requires license plate removal to access it.

too big!

We tried several ideas and landed on small bumpers that I think should do the trick.  The front bumper attaches to the factory pistons and deletes the internal Al bumper.  The rear attaches to the bumperette mounts and is a bolt on solution that requires no permanent modification to the car.  Our tube is easily as strong and since it is external to the fascias, we should be able to take a bump or two without damage to the body.

We want to mount two driving lights from the bumper and hang a fabric tow strap.

The rear bumper will get a rear fog lamp and also a two strap.  The final design is still in the works but I think we are getting there...

Project 996 Road Rallye: Part 5

Clean - Dirty

 Cleaning the underside of the car was high on our list as it was pretty nasty.  The results are pretty impressive.  Dry ice is sprayed onto the parts that needed cleaning.  The operator varies the pressure and other variables to dial in the spray.  Supposedly this system can remove the ink from a business card - so can also work very gently.  

Our car had a fair amount of grime and grease built up.  Cleaning it all makes for an easier car to diagnose (leaks) and for a tidier disassembly and reassembly.  Since the suspension and brakes are all coming out, along with the gearbox and possibly the engine, it made sense to invest in the thorough cleaning.

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.