Car is now sold – congradulations and have fun Charles
The basics:
For sale is a 1987 Porsche 944, with approximately 150,000 miles on the clock. The car has been extensively modified (detailed below), and while having seen over 100 track events, has received the maintenance a proper race car should. The car is also still street legal, and would make a very fun and reliable weekend cruiser.
Also included with the car is a fairly extensive spares package, and a small trailer for hauling tools and racing tires.
History
November 1987 – The car was born in Zuffenhausen, Germany
1987 – 2001: The car had three prior owners, who all kept the car in a well-maintained condition. I have dealer service records outlining the bulk of the car’s early life (0 – 75,000 miles), including a new engine under warranty at approx. 50,000 miles.
July 2nd, 2001 – I purchased the car with 100,001 miles on it. As I received it, it was in largely stock condition. There were a few minor blemishes, but was in overall great condition for a 14 year old car.
At this point I worked on restoring the car into a wonderful daily driver. I replaced the stereo and speakers with more modern units, and replaced the windshield. There were also numerous minor fixes (new window regulator, new washer pump, etc.) along the way, but for the most part the car was kept in a nice stock condition.
In 2003 the car was involved in a minor accident (side-swiped a guard rail), but was fully repaired and repainted. Arguably the car was repaired to better than original condition, as it was fully repainted and had the front end replaced with a restyled fiberglass nose.
In 2004 I hit some road debris, which required replacing the front end with a second fiberglass nose. While in the bodyshop for this work, the car had an electrical short leading to an engine fire. The fire was promptly extinguished before any major damage, and all affected components were replaced with new.
In 2006 the car had an off at the track, which bent the passenger side rocker panel. This damage was purely cosmetic, is fairly subtle, and as it was not covered by insurance, it has remained unrepaired. This is the only unrepaired damage on the car, and is visible in the image to the left.
In the winter of 2006/2007 I replaced the bulk of the suspension, as well as various additional modifications to prepare the car for SCCA Street Prepared competition.
Racing History
SCCA Autocross
- 2009 – 1st place, SCCA Finger Lakes National Tour (F Prepared)
- 2005 – CNY SCCA Novice Champion, 3 class wins in 5 events
- 2006 – CNY SCCA E Stock Champion, 6 class wins in 7 events
- 2007 – CNY SCCA C Street Prepared Champion, 5 class wins in 6 events
- 2008 – CNY SCCA C Street Prepared Champion, 6 class wins in 7 events
- 2009 – CNY SCCA C Street Prepared Champion, 5 class wins in 6 events
- 2005 – 2009 : A few dozen class and overall wins in various other SCCA regions, and smaller clubs.
HPDE
- The car has completed over 12 track days, having toured at Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and Nelson Ledges Road Course
Modifications
Engine:
- K&N Air Filter
- Timing belt replaced in May 2008, water pump replaced in 2005
- Valvoline VR-1 racing oil with Mahle oil filters
- Dynoed to within 1% of factory specs in 2007
Transmission:
- Swapped the transmission for a rebuilt 944 Turbo transmission with oil cooler for improved durability
- Freshly rebuilt 944 Turbo halfshafts
- Installed the Schnell short shift kit. This kits replaces some of the rubber-bushings on the transmission with spherical joints, reducing play in the gear shift
- Swepco gear oil
Suspension:
- Lowered 2.5″ front & rear
- Adjustable Koni Yellow front shocks
- Adjustable front spring perches w/ 2.5″ Hypercoil springs (325# springs)
- Adjustable Kolkein front sway bar
- Monoball adjustable camber plates (up to 0 to 7 degrees front camber possible)
- KLA front strut brace
- Rennbay “race” ball joints with geometry-correction
- Adjustable Koni Yellow rear shocks
- 30mm rear torsion bars, reindexed to equalize ride height
- Adjustable Weltmeister rear sway bar
- All bushings replaced with poly bushings
- Aggressive street/track alignment with corner-weighting (weight at all four corners within 5# of each other with 170# driver and 1/4 tank of fuel).
Brakes / Tires:
- Rebuilt stock calipers
- Hawk HP+ brake pads
- Zimmerman drilled front & rear rotors
- 1-set 16×7 & 16×8 white “phone dial” street wheels w/ Kuhmo MX tires (nearly full tread)
- 1-set 15×7 & 15×7 white “phone dial” track wheels w/ Toyo RA1 tires (2/32″ tread left, good for probably 3-4 more track days)
- 1-set 15×7 & 15×7 silver “phone dial” track wheels w/ Hoosier A6 tires (corded)
Weight Savings:
- A/C delete
- Cruise Control delete
- Fuel vapor purge delete
- Rear wiper delete (factory plug)
- Rear carpets and soundproofing removed (included for re-install if desired)
- Rear seat delete (included for re-install if desired)
Safety:
- Redline bolt-in roll bar
- 5-point quick-release harnesses for both driver & passenger for track usage
- Factory 3-point seat belts functional for street usage
- Fire extinguisher
Comfort / Cosmetic:
- Fiberwerks front end (similar appearance to the Porsche 944 GTR which competed in the 1981 24 heures du mans)
- An original “IceShark” full-boat lighting upgrade. This kit includes upgrades to all the major components in the car’s electrical system with mil-spec components. It also upgrades the headlights to H4 Cibie lenses with Hella 130/90w bulbs.
- Small lightweight removable trailer hitch
- Momo steering wheel (not sure the model, but this is the only other car I’ve ever seen it on)
- All decals/stickers on the car are removable
Spares Package
- All removed original parts
- Factory leather seats (power drivers, manual passenger, upper & lower rear seats)
- Stock front bumper w/ headlight washers
- 4′x4′ lightweight trailer which holds up to four tires with toolbox. Useful for carrying racing tires to events.
- Numerous spare parts I’ve collected over the years
- Used Power Steering rack
- Used Radiator w/ fans
- Brand-new wheel bearing sets (1 front, 2 rear)
- Brand-new rear hatch seal
- Three large totes of additional parts, plus probably additional parts that I can’t even remember I have
Garrison picked up pace VERY quickly in the Porsche, taking off several seconds on each of his first three runs. Unfortunately he only had three runs on the first day, which wasn’t quite enough for him to “come up to pace” in the car. By the end of the first day he was within 0.5 seconds of me however. He improved even more the second day, and took home 2nd in the class.
My Saturday runs were much more consistent, but not astonishing. I coned my last two runs, effectively making my first “bank” run my best run of the day. On the second day I had two solid first runs, which were very close to each other on times (and also very close to Garrison). However, on my last run of the second day, I was able to take off a solid 3 seconds! This was enough to secure 1st place within the class, taking my first national-level win.
