ONCE BITTEN
Better known for modded GT3S and the like, Shark Werks have built a a neat 964 hot rod. We drive it in California
While the rest of the Porsche world obsesses over how to turn the dwindling stock of 964 Carreras into things they are not, how about this for an idea – just make them a little more fun to drive? Radical, right? Singer’s exquisitely reimagined 964s are, of course, an obvious and contrasting frame of reference here. Like Singer’s Rob Dickinson, Shark Werks’ man Alex Ross is another British ex-pat who drifted from another career (in his case PC gaming) and turned his Porsche hobby into a business. The 1993 964 he’s brought up to the Angeles Crest for a bit of a run couldn’t be more different to the ones being restored by his countryman down the road, though.
“Yeah, I guess you could say not everything is important!” he laughs in a good-natured counterpoint to Singer’s perfectionist creed, the patina of his car with its breaker’s yard tan Recaros and Magnus Walker wheels more real world than the obsessively finished aesthetic perfected by Singer. Each to their own but this fits with the Shark Werks mentality of tweaking cars to suit their hard-driving customers’ tastes, the performance enhancements crafted for 997 GT3 and RS models and carried through to newer cars like the Cayman GT4 intended to answer the few criticisms voiced by reviewers and owners alike. Namely that if you drive on roads like this they tend to feel over-geared and inaccessible of the real magic at the top of the rev-range a constant frustration in the kind of ‘fast road’ driving most of us enjoy.
It’s captured the imagination of Brits who’ve driven the cars, too, the Shark Werks ethos equally applicable to our B-roads as it is the Californian canyons. Anglesey is a long way from Angeles Crest but I’m reminded of an early morning drive across Snowdonia in the manual version of the latest 4.0-litre GT3. What should have been a dream run on empty roads was actually a lesson in frustration, the speeds unleashed in that incredible lunge for the 9K redline enough to land you in jail in second gear. Even on the track that car felt over-geared, the GT3 barely tickling fourth on Anglesey and leaving so much of the potential untapped. It’s
like being given an ice-cold beer at the end of a stressful week and being told you can only have a single sip, knowing you’re not allowed any more but forced to sit and stare at the bottle anyway.
For GT3 owners Shark Werks offers a range of options, including capacity bumps turning the 3.8 into a torquier, 500bhp-plus 4.1, revised gearing, exhausts and other tweaks intended to help owners get more out of their cars, more of the time. Alex jokes that where traditionalists write-off anything from beyond the air-cooled era as dumbed down and too modern he feels the same about anything newer than a 996 or 997, 991s generally leaving him a little cold. Having started out with an SC it’s possible as his tastes mature he’s looking further back, hence a return to air-cooled cars and the motivation to start fiddling with 964s. It’s certainly finding favour with his customers, many of whom are buying cars of this era to sit alongside their ‘Sharkafied’ GT3S.
Inspiration for this particular car was the idea to sprinkle a little bit of Rs-style fairy dust on regular 964 Carreras. There are two reasons this appeals, the first and obvious one being that the US only got the Diet Coke RS America, lacking the real thing’s full focus. The second being that, wherever you reside, the prices for RSS are now well into the collector/speculator realm. Those owners are not going to drive them hard while those of us who might want to have been priced out. Base Carreras are hardly cheap these days but the idea of putting a bit of money into one to give it a harder, Rs-like edge is very appealing. The more so if the looks remain unmolested by the backdater’s angle grinder.
We’ve been joined by Alex’s mate Stewart, another 964 owner and – guess what – also a Brit. Stewart’s the electronics whizz behind the programming of the plugin SCS Delta S400 ECU. Combined with an upgraded wiring harness, new injectors and a modern, less restrictive MAP sensor in place of the original ‘barn door’ set-up it releases around 35hp on its own, takes about a day to fit and costs around $5000. Little wonder they’ve done over a dozen already on everything from road cars to full race builds.
Another advantage of the modern ECU is processing power capable of keeping up with the motor’s lightweight internals and new-found response. “The stock ECU has a very slow sample rate and can’t deal with things like lightweight flywheels – it just doesn’t have the reaction time,” explains Alex. In practical terms even with a super light flywheel and pressure plate from a 4.0 RS and an unsprung clutch disc (a kilo saved on its own) you’re not battling a hairtrigger bite point and stalling it every time you pull away.
This spares me at least one embarrassment as I attempt to make a clean getaway from a steeply inclined filling station forecourt at the LA end of the Angeles Crest. Though I’m so chuffed not to stall I don’t account for the typically steep transition kerb and the Rsr-inspired front splitter makes an ugly scuffing sound as it digs into the concrete. Thankfully Alex turns out to be a pragmatic type and shrugs it off.
With the power steering stripped out, it’s a good job the compact, deeply dished Prototipo wheel is trimmed in grippy Alcantara because it needs a proper heave at lower speeds. This and the Recaros (an impulse buy based on the fact they matched the tan interior) are about the only real deviations from standard in terms of
Inspiration? To sprinkle a bit of RS style fairy dust on regular 964s
appearance, the Magnus Walker stickers and his signature fifteen52 Outlaw 003 wheels summing up the understated look. Walker – yet another Brit ex-pat – is another mate and has been running round in the car for the last few days; given his love for driving the Angeles Crest you can see how the Shark Werks mechanical mentality overlaps neatly with the light Urban Outlaw makeover.
Hand on heart I feel like I’m making a bit of a pig’s ear of the drive, though. Experience shows it always takes a while to dial into a tuned 911, but the combination of super-fast throttle response, reduced inertia in the engine and that racy clutch mean I’m struggling to shift smoothly through the close-ratio ’box. First to fourth are a lot tighter than standard, fifth reserved as a cruising gear. But the throttle is so sensitive and the engine so fast to gain or lose revs that it’s tricky to keep it on the boil between shifts, especially going cross-plane from second to third or back. We’re cruising and chatting as the Angeles Crest uncoils out of suburban LA and Alex seems happy enough but we’re thwacking into the seats hard enough on each gear change I fear we’ll have ‘Recaro’ branded across our shoulders before I slot one home smoothly.
I shouldn’t worry too much because at this kind of pace the engine’s muscular power delivery means you can let it haul ingear, Alex confessing he prefers the midrange shove to the more common peakiness found in naturally-aspirated Porsche engines. The gearing helps, Alex jokingly referring to the extra response as “fake torque” given how quickly you rip through the first four ratios, even on a steep uphill gradient like this.
While stroke has been kept stock the engine gains a lightweight 3.8-litre Mahle piston kit for a little extra displacement, Pauter conrods saving 100g apiece, too. A Clewett Engineering single-belt fan pulley helps response still further. There’s also a sturdier billet crankshaft and new cams with everything geared towards improving response in the engine, semi-solid Rs-style engine mounts further reducing any slop between input at the pedal and output through the wheels. All of this means it’s both more muscular and keener to rev for a best of both worlds performance boost, the mods and a 200rpm increase in the rev limit adding up to around 320hp and 300lb ft of
Experience shows it always takes a while to dial into a tuned 911
torque on standard US fuel. With a primary bypass pipe and a single-tipped Dansk side-exit system the sound is purposeful without being too intrusive or anti-social, while the stock look is preserved.
The rest of the mods are in keeping with the hard-driving ethos, front brakes uprated with competition-ready Brembo Club Race calipers and endurance-spec RE10 pads intended to give track power within 17-inch wheels for that stock look. Suspension uses Bilstein B16 coilovers with stiffer anti-roll bars and a set-up by nearby San Josebased race shop TC Design. Gold wheels aside the whole build puts the emphasis on go before show, in keeping with the Shark Werks mentality. All in all you’d be looking at about $60,000 for a build of this nature, one customer even using it as a basis for a full race build.
If the intention was to gift a standard Carrera a little bit of RS attitude the reality would be the Canyon Bomber has exceeded its brief and feels and sounds rather more exotic. The fact the engine is both bigger and more torquey but also revs more freely gives it an edge lacking in even the factory car. Alex reckons they’ve chopped about 55kg out, which isn’t as significant as a factory lightweight RS but a step in the right direction without stripping out all the creature comforts.
With photos out of the way and a bit of time to go and play I head out on my own to try and find out what it all adds up to. In that way the Shark Werks 964 gets better the harder you drive it and, as I get more comfortable and my inputs become more decisive, the car seems to come towards me somewhat.
Even with all the internal mods the engine isn’t a high-rev screamer in the modern GT Porsche mould. The extra torque, helped by the gearing, just helps alleviate the flat spots lower in the range, giving you the ability to haul from a high gear, enjoy the change in tone and then ready yourself for the decisive kick at about 5000rpm where things really start to get exciting.
Timing the interplay between throttle pedal, clutch and shifting both up and down the ’box takes full concentration but I’m actually finding it easier to be smooth now that I’m pressing on a bit. The section of the Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road we’re using is quieter, faster and more flowy than the main Angeles Crest and the 964 is absolutely singing. The response to the accelerator is such the car seems to tense like a coiled spring the moment your foot rests on it, ready to deliver an instantaneous snap of acceleration as soon as you get on it. The combination of long travel and a crisp return spring to work against means makes it easier to be precise when you’re pressing on, the fact you’re working the throttle rather than tickling it making it easier to keep the revs on the boil on upshifts and match them successfully on the way back down.
I’m still struggling with the shift from third
to second and back but, frankly, the gearing is such that you only really need to flick the shifter backwards and forwards between third and fourth. The engine feels so strong and eager in both you’re happy loading the chassis and enjoying that traditional 911 slingshot sensation out of the corners, the heft of the steering giving you something meaningful to lean against and a very clear sense of how much grip there is at the front end. Which is to say plenty.
The reassuring bite and solid feel to the brake pedal meanwhile gives you huge confidence on corner approach, those competition spec Brembos both trick looking and immensely powerful despite their relatively small size. In a standard RS you approach corners, downshift and slow the car methodically, letting it settle before committing to the turn. In this car you can stand it on its nose, trusting it’s not going to push on and compressing a process that would usually require a hundred yards into a couple of car lengths. And it feels compact, agile and absolutely bulletproof.
It’s not an easy car to drive fast. But that’s exactly the point. It’s a car you need to apply yourself to and commit to in order to really appreciate its strengths. From the weight of the steering to the track-car style pressures required on the brake pedal and stiff, mechanical shift action there’s a physicality to driving this 964 you simply don’t get in more modern Porsches and I can understand why Alex is looking further back than the water-cooled cars to get his kicks. It sounds like a back-handed compliment to say all this can be enjoyed at relatively modest speeds but, for a road car, that’s what you want – an immersive and intense driving experience at speeds that won’t get you locked up. To get the same kind of thrill in a modern Porsche you’d be scoring much bigger numbers on the speedo. Or the Highway Patrol’s speed gun. Worth considering, given the cops of course carry real ones, too.
Advances in engine management, braking and suspension, not to mention the expert set-up, also mean you can drive it way harder than a contemporary RS, too. Imagine if that car had been developed further by the factory and that’s what you have here – a 964 faithful to the look, sound and sensations of its era. But sympathetically sharpened and improved to stand scrutiny in the modern one. Whether you choose to garnish it with a little Magnus Walker attitude or, like Stewart’s car, maintain a more stock look, you’re getting a proper machine built for driving rather than posing.
This unpretentious, fit for purpose vibe is both refreshing and satisfying. The real effort in this car is in the unglamorous stuff underneath, the geeky fixations with brake compounds, chassis set-up, throttle response and making it work properly out here in the real world all highly appealing.
There are plenty of attention-seeking ways to customise a 964 Carrera. That the Shark Werks approach is more focused on the driver than onlookers is a breath of fresh air and gives any humble Carrera new-found relevance. All power to them, that’s what we say. PW