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

Car is now sold, thank you for your interest

The local newspaper ran an article covering the local SCCA region, and chose one of Jane Quinn’s photos of my car for the article. Nothing big, but still pretty cool.

Waiting for the poured foam seat to cure

Been a long winter, but didn’t do much on the car.  For the spring I’ve found little that needed work, and just had to fill all the fluids and do a systems check.  I have done a couple upgrades however.

Last year I struggled with my driving position – namely I was working so hard to hold my self still that I couldn’t really concentrate on placing the car where I wanted it.  To combat this, this year I made a poured two-part foam seat insert (see picture).  With the insert and belts in place, I basically can’t move in the car, which should allow me to concentrate on the driving.  I still have a few details to work on with the seat (cutting belt holes, and covering it in duct tape to make it more durable), but the seat itself is now ready.

The other upgrade I did was to rebuild my wheels, and mount the “new” tires I got from Brian.  The tires themselves are actually a few years (and many events) old, but they’re still miles better than the 11 year old dry rotted ”tires” I had before.  Also my 2-piece wheels leaked horribly where the two parts were bolted together.  To fix this, I disassembled them, and put them back together with some aluminum-specific silicone caulk.  They look much better, and seem to be holding air better as well (although I just mounted the tires last night).

The first event for the new car this year will be Sunday – if the weather holds.  If it turns out to be a cold & rainy day, I may be tempted to trump the PAX and run the STI for the day.  More details to follow.

While it was hard to start, once started it ran great. Took a few laps to clean up the brakes to get much out of them, and a little running to bleed the cooling system. The current tires are worthless though.

I did get to do a nice 15-lap stint though, without any issues except my upper body strength.

A few weeks ago Jeff Colegrove and his brother Stephen stopped by to help me move forward with the car. They were a big help, and we were able to get the jack shaft, rear axle and clutches setup. There still is a bit to go (need a few small parts), but progress is progress.

Then, life pretty much got in the way. Between getting a new puppy, and playing 6 softball games a week, the project got pushed back.

This week I was able to move forward a bit more though. I now have the left radiator fully mounted, and just need to duplicate on the right. This should be easier as all the design and measurement work is done.

I’ve also did a little more work tonight, nearly finishing the drivetrain. Unfortunately I need one more bearing to finish. I have a ton of spares, but they all have either the wrong OD or ID.

I’ve made some more progress on the car. Not too much as I’ve been busy with other projects, but I’ve got the radiator ducts figured out. I just need to do some additional fab work to get them into place, and also need to figure out how to attach the radiators at the lower mount points. Digging through the boxes of spares I have, I think I found all the hoses and misc. items that I need to finish out the cooling system.

I’ve also got the sidepods on the car – well mostly. I’ve gotta source some short bolts to attach them at a few more points.

I also found a small 8″ tall 1-gallon fuel cell for really cheap, and should have it here in a few days.

Here’s some more pictures of the current state of the car

Last weekend Garrison and I campaigned the Porsche in the SCCA National Tour event at the Seneca Army Depot. Despite typically running in CSP, I decided to run the car in FP (for which it is also legal). This turned out to be a great idea as all of us in FP had a great time. We were all off the “pace” relative to other classes, yet we were all within a second of each other going into our last runs.

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.

Also a big thank you to Jeff Blumenthal and Brian Ciarlei (and crew) who were very helpful in letting me “poke around” their cars. I hoped to come home with a better understanding of how to put together my F440, and I feel I did. I’ve still got plenty of things to figure out, but I feel more confident now. I can’t wait to get my car on the road!!

Here’s some links to photo galleries:

My Photos
Rich Hutchinson’s Photos
FLR Region Photos
Mageep (?)’s Photos

First off, big thanks to Garrison for letting me borrow his chase cam setup for the weekend. I’ve got some great videos up on YouTube showing a dry and very wet run around Watkins Glen. The g-sensor data is what I was really looking for. It looks as though the Porsche will do ~1.2G peak and about ~.9G sustained in the corners. However, in the wet I couldn’t get much above .7G without spinning (check out the wet #1 video for some excitement).

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any data on g-loading under braking. I ran into brake issues pretty early in the first day (my pads are nearly done, and I was overcooking them pretty easily), so you’ll see that my braking points are VERY early.

They did do some passing exercises in the first day, which was pretty fun. They basically paired us off with “similar lap time” cars, and had us pass and re-pass every corner – with a focus on trying to do late passes under braking. I was paired up with with a 968 (basically my car + 100hp) the first time, an ’09 Evo the second time, and finally a ’06? 997 Turbo the last time. The run with the Turbo was interesting, I had to stop & wait for him in the 5/6/7 section of the track, while he couldn’t hit the gas on the two main straights. I have some good video of this (including flames out the Evo’s exhaust), but it won’t be up for another few days as I had to upload the card to a friends laptop to free up some space.

The two videos here are of just a “normal” session in the dry, and then from our final session on the last day (where it decided to rain). I was running my RA-1′s for the dry sessions, but I switched to my street tires (Kuhmo MX’s) for the wet session.

Pictures (Mine): https://home.scootin159.com/gallery/ind … 2009-05-25
Pictures (Rutch’s): http://www.flickr.com/photos/rutch/sets … 843411670/
Video (Dry 1 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbuKgGH6IuY
Video (Dry 2 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1nNhrHWA8
Video (Dry 3 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5EuTlpInBQ
Video (Wet 1 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnsvHAadt00 (watch @ 2:33)
Video (Wet 2 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9FtJtQhmbE
Video (Wet 3 of 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-d3itR_krw