The daily-driver Porsche

Having sold my daily driver back in the summer, and having been without a replacement for quite some time, I’ve been using the Porsche rain or shine. It has performed well too, but since acquiring this car I have never been particularly impressed with the gearchange, which can be occasionally recalcitrant, especially when cold. So I decided to do an oil change to see if that improved matters, and although the oil hadn’t been in there for that long, it was still surprisingly dirty. The new oil, which came highly recommended, is 75/ 90 fully synthetic, and I checked with the manufacturer that it was suitable.

Although the 944 sits low to the ground, with a little bit of gymnastics it is possible to access the transaxle drain and fill plugs without having to resort to jacking the car up and levelling it. However, it’s imperative to check that the fill plug can be removed before you drain the oil, otherwise you might find yourself with an oil-free transaxle and no way of replenishing its lubrication. The plugs require a 17mm hexheaded socket.

The job went well. However, I did need to bend the heat shield slightly in order to garner room for the ratchet. What I also did, prior to the refill, was stand the bottles of oil in a bucket of hot water. With the bottles warmed, the oil flowed more easily, although some invariably ran down my arm! It’s early days yet, but the gearchange is much smoother and has an altogether nicer feel. The transaxle is quiet too, even after a long run.

Whilst scrabbling around beneath the Porsche, I noticed that the rear tyres were quite worn. I’m a stickler for only running tyres with well above the legal 1.6mm minimum – my self-imposed limit is 3mm. Even so, did you know that at 3mm the tread depth is 78% worn? Fortunately, I have a pair of 245/45/16 Continental tyres in the garage, so I’ll be getting them fitted soon. The front tyres have around 5.5mm

of tread depth remaining, so will be good for a quite a few more miles. The wheels also needed my attention, as they were covered in brake dust, so I took the opportunity to give them a thorough clean using Bilt Hamber Auto-Wheel cleaner. This is a non-acid, non-alkaline product and works superbly.

I’ve been looking at what needs doing on the Davrian, too. Because I’ve bolted the driver’s seat directly to the floor, there’s no fore and aft adjustment. As it’s only me who’ll be driving, this isn’t too much of an issue, although I have been pondering bringing the steering wheel a tad closer and making it less of a stretch. The quickest way for me to achieve this was to resurrect the Moto- Lita steering wheel, complete with its aluminium boss extension. After a good rummage, I found the splined boss, boss extension and mounting ring. The steering wheel was on the rear of my garage door, doing service as a display item! Some of the mounting bolts had gone missing, which meant a trip to Metalwork Supplies in Hereford for replacements, complete with washers and Nyloc nuts.

However, when I came to refit the wheel, I was dismayed to discover that the splined boss fouled on the outer column. This is most odd, seeing as how the column has never been moved and the boss fitted perfectly when it was last on the car. After quite a lot of investigation, and having found no reason for the fouling, I asked my good friend Glyn Jones if he could machine the base of the boss in order to create the required clearance. He duly obliged and, thankfully, it now fits perfectly.

A little while back, I drove my friend Derek to collect his MGB from The Smallest Cog in Hereford. As some of you may know, this is Richard Hammond’s’ new venture, and the team behind the stunning restoration work are father

“I’ve been looking at what needs doing on the Davrian, too”

and son Neil and Anthony Greenhouse, along with Neil’s brother Andrew. I’ve been very lucky in being able to visit the workshop on a number of occasions and follow the progress of this restoration from start to finish; Derek’s MGB certainly bears testament to the outstanding workmanship, but what is particularly interesting is how much better the car drives. It feels so taut, and is much quieter too. To be honest, I’ve long held a candle for the MGB, the GT in particular. I’ve mentioned this fact to my wife, saying that an MGB GT would be a nice addition to the fleet. Sadly, despite presenting a very good case, she wasn’t to be persuaded.

ABOVE: The Porsche 944’s gearchange is much improved thanks to a recent oil change using a premium 75/90 fully synthetic, API- GL4 oil. The drain and filler plugs need a 17mm hex-headed adaptor to undo them.

ABOVE: Getting ready to reassemble the Moto- Lita steering wheel, complete with new bolts and a new centre cap, original boss, and aluminium boss extension. RIGHT: Quite why the splined boss fouled on the steering column remains a mystery to Martyn. However, since being machined, it now fits perfectly.

ABOVE: Martyn’s good friend, Derek Brown, has had his MGB Roadster restored by the very talented team at The Smallest Cog. It not only looks immaculate, its drives so much better too.

ABOVE: The Porsche’s wheels were a tad grubby thanks to brake dust, so Martyn cleaned them using a non-alkaline, non-acid cleaner which won’t eat into alloy.

ABOVE: The Moto- Lita wheel is back in residence and the driving position is now perfect, thanks to the aluminium extension moving the wheel closer to the driver.