Living the Legend

Real-world reports from our global collective of 911 owners

Poole, UK

@lee_sibs

That Nine Eleven Guy Road to Redline

Well, it has been quite the month of tinkering with the chassis on ‘Little Irish’! At last, the 996 is looking absolutely resplendent and handling like a new car thanks to an arsenal of toys being bestowed upon it.

You’ll remember last issue with the fitting of my new, genuine Fuchs wheels that the car’s ride height now looked safari-spec while it sat on factory suspension. I’d also come to realise those new wheels were tucked a little too far into the 996’s arches for my liking, despite the fact that my Fuchs are the same width, diameter and offset as the factory GT3 wheels which came off.

Wanting a little bit more poke, particularly from the rear wheels, I ordered some 7mm spacers from Porsche parts specialist Heritage Parts Centre. I thought that should give the rear Fuchs a bit more poke (and presence) without going too mad. While I was at it, I bagged myself a new set of black wheel bolts too – again, it wasn’t until my pristine new wheels were fitted did I notice how rusted my original wheel bolts were. I went for black to match the Fuchs petals.

Having added 7mm spacers to the back axle, I needed 7mm longer bolts, so I ordered a set of ten 37mm bolts alongside ten ‘normal’ 30mm bolts for the front wheels. The bolts and spacers all came in the same box as a next-day delivery from Heritage Parts Centre, and I whipped them all on in about half an hour. I’m so pleased with the results: those black bolts give the wheels a cleaner look, and the spacers really help with the 996’s presence, particularly from the rear, with more tyre visible poking out from under the body.

A week or so later, my 996 was collected by RPM Technik (as part of their contactless collection/drop-off service) for fitting of those KW V3 coilovers, which had been sitting patiently in my shed since the start of lockdown. I’d also bought new Porsche top mounts all round to go with the coilovers too.

Ollie there replaced the tired, 22-yearold factory dampers with those KW V3s, pulling the 996 out of the sky by adjusting the ride height, and giving the car a fresh geo. The 911 was handed back to me and I was tasked with putting at least 500 miles on the clock over the following week (no hardship, I can tell you!) to allow the suspension to settle, before some final tweaks could be made. As it happened, the car fell 17mm over that week at the rear, so the ride height was tweaked again (up slightly at the rear and down a bit at the nose) and the geo was fettled accordingly. Of the latter, I’ve gone for as near to 996 Gt3-spec as possible.

The result? Absolutely sublime. I now feel like I’ve got a new car: the nose is super pointy; the 996 feels nice and direct, and the chassis stays glued to the road and is reacting to bumps as they happen. There’s just so much more clarity and focus to the 996’s drive, but without the steering tramlining all over the road like a GT3 RS. Yes, new coilovers are a bit of an outlay, but I’d say it is absolutely worth it in giving you what really feels like a brandnew 996.

I’ve left the adjustable damping on

KW’S factory settings for the 996.1 C2, and am very happy with them so far. The ride is firmer than stock, possibly on par with factory MO30, but I aim to have a play in the coming weeks and months to get different settings nailed for both track days and also leisurely drives with my good lady beside me. For now though, I’m delighted – what a 911 this is turning into!

Adelaide, Australia @peterwilson_oz

Minneapolis, USA @auto.amateur Auto Amateur autoamateur. buzzsprout.com

I may not have mentioned it in previous columns, but I basically purchased my Porsche ‘by accident’. I had never especially lusted after the marque and was quite ignorant of its racing pedigree other than the legend of the 917. If I had been asked to nominate my dream car, it would have been either the Alfa Montreal or 246 Dino.

But about ten years ago I was looking for a classic GT car and stumbled on a 930 that I could afford and was immediately drawn in by the styling and performance mystique of ‘the Turbo’. This was fortunately before the market went berserk. It ticked all the boxes and suddenly I had a classic air-cooled Porsche with lots of problems to sort out and was reading every book and forum I could find.

One of the first things that struck me was the incredible international Porsche community and the many manufacturers, parts houses and specialists that support the community. I was soon ordering parts online, via ebay and locally to get my car back into shape and running reliably. The ability to choose parts with quality (and price) ranging from genuine Porsche to OEM, high-quality repro, right down to dodgy repro was amazing. I learned a lot about where it is safe to save a few $$

Last month I introduced ‘Project 996’ which is a joint venture between myself and two local friends, Pat and Steve, here in Minnesota, USA. We’re all Porsche owners and can’t wait to get stuck into this restoration project. This past month we’ve had a lot of fun dreaming and planning but most importantly, we found a car! We now have our hands on a 2002 996.2 C2, narrow body, manual, in silver with over 100K miles on the clock. It was delivered on the back of a flatbed truck, all the way from New Orleans, LA. The car has had several owners and seen better days, but my sense is that and where it is better to bite the price bullet and get Porsche or OEM. Even the most obscure part could be sourced from somewhere, or so I thought… A few years ago, I was stumped by the temperature sensor for the automatic heater, which is mounted between the sun visors. Mine was playing up and they are obviously made from pure Unobtanium. Fortunately, my problem was just a poor connection and once that was sorted I could move forward with fixing the heater. At about the same time, I found some plastic fragments on the carpet around the driver’s seat, which turned out to be from the seat tilt mechanism buffers which had disintegrated after 40 years. These simple parts (901.521.191.00 & 901.521.192.00 for left and right) are no longer available from Porsche or in reproduction. Sierra Madre Collection in the US have them on their website, but they’ve been “currently

it is a car that has been driven as opposed to thrashed.

Before we get into the jobs we have on our wish list, I have spent quite some time in my garage admiring the 996 sitting alongside my 991. It’s incredible to me how different the two generations are, but how obviously PORSCHE they are and both, quite clearly, 911s. Like father and son, sat together chewing the breeze. You can tell they’re from the same stock, of the same blood, yet both are unique. Even just sitting inside the 996 (it isn’t drivable at the moment) it feels like a different 911 experience. Everything is so familiar, yet different at the same time. The instrument cluster, the lines of the dashboard, the centre console, the door panels, the handles and pulls. Even the seats in the 996 are a little deceiving now, as their outlines look similar to me but their feel is very different to the newer generations that I have owned – the 997 and the 991.

We have a lot of ideas already and lots more coming in through social media. Interior leather restoration, removing the carpeting (oh man, I’ve never liked the 996/997 carpeting on the doors and in production” for the last 2+ years. It turns out the same Recaro sports seats are used in some models of BMW, and their forums have many threads about people hunting for this obscure part.

There had to be a solution to get my seats secure again, so I started down a novel but uncertain path… Firstly I measured up the broken parts and created a 3D model in CAD. Then a friend of my son 3D printed the model using PLA (Polylactic Acid) filament and I had my first prototype in plastic. Unfortunately, the PLA material is too brittle to serve as the actual seat buffer, so I need to follow this road a bit further yet. The next step is to smooth out the rough surfaces of the 3D-printed part and use it as a plug to make a silicone mould. Then I will cast the final parts from two-part polyurethane resin. We will find out next month how that all goes!

centre console), exhaust upgrade, new transmission, all the maintenance jobs you would expect (oil, filters, brakes etc) and then a custom paint job. While the majority of our ideas are still swirling around, we have decided upon the ‘Fister’ exhaust upgrade from FD Motorsports in California, which is a favourite of 996/997 enthusiasts. We’ll also be relying on parts suppliers of course, primarily LA Dismantler. The owner, Sara, has owned and operated this family business for over 20 years and has stacks of every kind of salvaged and sourced Porsche parts we could hope for. What you see on their website represents just about 1 (ONE) % of what they have at their yard. Sara is well known in the Porsche world too, with friends and neighbours like Magnus Walker and the Singer shop. With a new transmission on the way for starters, we’re now busy compiling a more comprehensive parts list and we’ll be well on our way.

So now the summer is arriving and with our 996 project gaining momentum, my garage is heating up in more ways than one! Maybe the next job should be an air conditioner? The list keeps growing… Follow along via Youtube or at Autoamateur.com!

Aylesbury, UK @maxripcor

It looks likely now that the second, and final, Bicester Heritage Sunday Scramble meet of 2020 will be in October (Sunday 4th), following the cancellation of the

April and June fixtures. Everything has rightly paused, for the reasons we all know and understand, but I still feel a tinge of sadness because they are events I enjoy immensely and have attended without fail since I moved nearby in 2016.

Bicester Heritage is the most wonderful and atmospheric place for car enthusiasts. The Sunday Scrambles bring together an eclectic mix of cars and people – Porsche must be the most prevalent marque?

First held in April 2014 and attracting 80 visitors, the event doubled in size each time until they were drawing crowds of 1,500 and more. Then on a crisp, sunny Sunday in January 2019 a total of 7,500 people passed through the gates, and for the first time the site felt a little overwhelmed.

Now limited to 6,500 advance ticket holders, with the aim being to ensure everyone has a good Scramble experience, it’s more a case of ‘the right crowd and no crowding’, as they used to say at Brooklands in the roaring ‘20s.

The events are really well supported by PCGB and by TIPEC, as well as non-club affiliated Porscheophiles, Porsche Classic Life, and other businesses who make Bicester Heritage their home as the UK’S first centre for historic motoring. They store, trade, prepare and repair all manner of Porsche cars, which means there’s plenty to drop your jaw over, especially in the MT Yard where classic Porsche specialists ‘Sports Purpose’ always make a special effort.

I noticed perishing around the outside shoulder of both front tyres when I was walking around my 997 on the driveway recently. They’re N-rated Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 which have been on the car for five years and covered 10K miles, in all seasons. They had a bit of life left in them – I got 14K miles out of the last set – but reasoned I ought to replace them, and I should do all four.

The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S seems to be the performance tyre of the moment, and I’ve had good experiences with it on my BMW 335i Touring. I decided I’d like to try it on my 911, which is optioned with the larger 19” wheel, but quickly realised that Michelin don’t offer an N-rated version in my sizes. They still recommend the PS2, or the Cup 2.

I canvased opinions from friends, forums, and the wider Porsche network and have decided to fit the latest PS4, non N-rated but ‘Extra Load’ tyre, as many others have done successfully. They went on the car two days ago – I’ll let you know how I get on with them after eight years on PS2S.

Ashland, Oregon @ronlangsport

This month I’m wrestling with how to write the words that will best, or at least effectively, communicate to you the driving experience of the two 1991 964s in the garage. So here goes… both 964s have been driven regularly in the last few weeks. Both have offered such different experiences and yet the 911 DNA always shines through. More on that in a bit.

The 1991 Safari 4 is the kind of rugged, off-road, air-cooled car I was hoping for. The fettling has ended and now the joys come from exploring the many miles of mountain dirt roads that criss-cross the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges of southern Oregon state. That rugged feel starts once ensconced in the Recaro carbon buckets which, along with the Rs-style door cards, have been finished with blue/grey tartan cloth seat centres. Then it’s on to the fourpoint Sparco belts holding passenger and driver nice and snug. And maybe by now I’ll remember to close the driver’s door first before buckling the harness, or there’s no way to reach the door. However, four- and five-point belts connect the driver’s body to the car in ways that lap belts can’t, and it’s wonderful to feel the car’s movements so precisely by being so tightly attached to it.

The bolt-in half cage, painted to match the white exterior, further enhances the rugged, go-anywhere feel of the car. And peering over the carbon four-light nacelle on the front compartment lid adds some Paris-dakar fantasies to the drive. With 450hp and 425lb-ft of torque from the supercharged/intercooled 3.6-litre, the grunt the engine provides is just the ticket on the loose dirt and gravel that predominates our rural forest roads.

And then there is the 911 DNA. And in this case, it is the car’s balance and precision of throttle/brake/clutch that is the DNA most cherished. With its ten inches of travel from the Rieger WRC coilovers, there is seemingly no dip, rut or mound too big to just power through. Is the Safari 4 a heavily modified 964? Yes, but in the most positive way imaginable for me.

And the 964 bookend in the garage is the 1991 964 Carrera 2 reimagined by Singer Vehicle Design. The car was completed in April 2018, so this is the third year I’m getting to enjoy it through the driving season. I’ve sung the car’s praises before in previous Living the Legend articles. So this update is about the car’s 911 DNA as well.

The car by Singer remains the most visceral 911 in the garage. We all love the way air-cooled 911s sound. The aural elements of this car maximise the ‘aircooled-ness’. From cold start, one can literally hear the fluids gurgling as they move through what sounds to me coming from the piping connecting the frontmounted oil cooler back to the engine bay. Then the sound of the gears rattling at idle, as a result of the light (very light) flywheel and single disc clutch. And all the engine and exhaust sounds, fairly loud but wellorchestrated music for a 911 enthusiast.

The all carbon-fibre body acts like a sound chamber, passing along without muting every noise the machine makes while going down the road.

While the car is superbly finished down to the most minute details, it exudes what I imagine something like a 3.0 RSR must have been like way back in the mid- to late-70s. Sitting on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and with Singer’s version of carbon ceramic brake rotors encased in 993 Turbo brake calipers, this car clings to the tarmac and slows so fast that I’m virtually always breaking too early when entering a bend at a speed significantly slower than the car is capable of producing.

That 911 Rsr-type DNA dominates the driving experience. I often wonder how a car so raw in its communication with the driver can at the same time be so composed when attacking apexes at speed. Much of the credit must go the Ohlins suspension, but more to how Porsche must have thought about how to take a production car and evolve it into a winning road racer. This car won’t be raced nor tracked, but the exhilaration of the drive feels like the best of 911 character exposed. It took considerable customisation to make this 911 a reality, so kudos to Singer Vehicle Design for their brash creativity and consummate attention to 911 DNA.

My 1978 Backdated mongrel known as Pebbles typically hangs out at Rswerks in Pennsylvania where it highlights the handy work of the chaps at the shop (as a test mule).

Before COVID-19 turned the world upside down, normally I would spend a week every month visiting Rs-werks and enjoying Pebbles on the sensational Chester county back roads. But as things are far from normal, Pebbles has been hanging with me in Houston, Texas. This has allowed me to spend more time using it in different conditions, and it has been really illuminating.

Originally conceived as a hard charging backroad weapon with just enough creature comforts, it delivers the goods every time: the performance, sound, smell and feel provide endless fun when you get out in the open roads. It is just comfortable enough with the square weave carpeting and electric air conditioning, keeping things tolerable.

Pairing Pebbles with the urban driving environment of Houston, Texas, has been getting me thinking, what would I change? Every time I fire up the 3.45-litre, the lack of creature comforts is forgiven after the initial burst of relentless acceleration, but there are times that I wonder, how could I make the urban driving experience more bearable?

Four things come to mind. First I would refresh the suspension. It’s really well set up, but it’s had a lot of miles on it and struggles with the terrible Houston road surfaces, so I think it’s time for a full rebuild. I would keep the upgrades to a minimum, as I want to feel like I’m driving a period air-cooled performance car with torsion bar suspension.

Second on the agenda was some sound deadening; the roar of the flat six is glorious but it can still become tiresome in stop-go traffic, and to take the edge off the ambient noise that is created if you are sitting inside a giant tin can. After a recent 1.5-hour, stop-go jaunt around town, I felt like my brain had been rattled (which is a little odd, as I sometimes spend the whole day driving Pebbles at the Hill Country Rallye without a similar sensation).

Third, the performance race clutch does its job splendidly, but in stop-go traffic and Houston’s plentiful traffic lights and stop signs, it quickly becomes tiresome (but a good one-leg workout). I have not spent much time researching it, but something less aggressive is a must.

Fourth, a high-performance heat and UV rejecting clear window tint. Yes, the electric air conditioning blows cold, but the lack of insulation and greenhouse effect of the glass, combined with the 40-degree heat and 90% humidity, can make things a bit more sticky than I’d like. I installed 3M’s clear window tint in my black ’77 Turbo and the heat and UV rejection were really surprising, and an essential part of any plan to keep your old car cool while preserving that classic look (unless you prefer the dark window tint, typically seen on Porsche of the ’80s that lived in Miami).

Or do I leave it as is and save it for feisty back road blasts? If I want compatible and sensible, I have a Taycan for that.

Disclaimer: I have my own spectrum of what I consider comfortable and some, – maybe all – of my preferences may not suit you… I have a very high tolerance for noise and ride quality.

Leeds, UK @chris_wallbank @chrisjwallbank

Still haven’t managed to get the 997 out this month as I’m still trying my best to not make any nonessential trips and follow government advice and guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is booked in for its major service in two weeks’ time, so that will be a good excuse to get it out on the road and blow the cobwebs off!

Meanwhile, photo and video shoots are slowly coming back in now that guidelines say you can travel to work if you are unable to work from home. I must admit though, I never dreamed that my first shoot back after nearly three months in isolation would involve me hanging out of the boot of a brand-new ’20 plate Porsche Taycan 4S!

Okay, so the subject I was filming wasn’t a Porsche but a tuned Mclaren 720S, but it was still an absolute pleasure to be able to have a nosey round the Porsche Taycan for the first time in person and also have a quick drive… I mean, the

Taycan is next-level fast and although it doesn’t make any sound, which just doesn’t seem right for a Porsche, it still handles like a Porsche. I just didn’t expect it to be an ideal camera tracking vehicle for me to film out of! With the suspension set to ‘Normal’ and back seats down, it really was the ideal tracking vehicle, giving me the ability to get super-low dynamic shots! Maybe I can get away with leasing one for my next company vehicle?! Oh, if only… I can always dream I guess.

But on a serious note, the results we achieved with the footage were simply stunning! Watch out for the finished video on my Instagram feed!

@harrisclassics

With the lockdown restrictions starting to lift and the world wanting to get going again (me included) I was itching to buy a new car for the summer. I started to look at the usual classifieds in the hope of finding something, and within 30 minutes I’d found a lovely 1989 Porsche 3.2 Targa with Sports equipment and the desirable G50 gear box in Baltic blue with black leather, showing 99K miles on the clock!

I was in my car within minutes, as it turned out this car was only 15 minutes from my house. The Targa wasn’t advertised very well and it was priced sensibly, the bodywork was almost perfect and I could see it had all-new brake lines, recently refurbished calipers, new period-correct tyres and was a very nice, cared-for example. Normally at this point I would take the car for a test drive and look at the service history, so this is when things turn interesting. Whilst

I’m dealing with the seller, his phone is ringing and ringing with traders trying to buy the car there and then. I can hear the conversations and the thought of not owning this car made me want it even more, so the deal was done there and then for the full asking price without me being able to test drive (due to COVID) or fully inspect the service history.

The next day I paid for the car and collected it, and on my drive home I noticed a vibration on the clutch pedal, but didn’t think much of it. As I arrived back at my house and stopped the car, there was a large amount of smoke and again I just thought it hadn’t been run for a long time – as it turns out it needs a new clutch and a top-end rebuild!

In a normal world I would have taken my time with the purchase, driven the car, inspected the history and seen advisories of blowing blue smoke and even got the car inspected, however with the rush to buy, his phone ringing off the hook and it being a lovely sunny day, my heart got the better of me.

Now I have had time to think about this, it’s not actually a bad thing, as it’s a car I plan to keep, and will end up with a near-perfect rare Sports Targa with G50 ‘box, with a fully detailed rebuilt engine with great reliability and a new clutch. It’s a shame I will lose, like so many, a large part of the summer to spend driving my cars this year, but it gives me time to plan some European road trips in this one, especially after its rebuild, for next year!

Cheshire, UK @mllx8pjf

It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I finished my previous piece. As much fun as getting to grips with online racing was, I was conscious that the realworld auto horizon was looking increasingly sparse, both in terms of things to enjoy with the 996 and also therefore with content to, hopefully, keep readers entertained with. In fact, at that time I had zero – nothing – planned and with the current state of affairs in the UK being lockdown for the foreseeable future, it didn’t look like it was about to improve any time soon.

The car was clean, MOTED, running (the last time I checked), had a properly fitted windscreen, so all it needed was an excuse to drive. But, rightly, the local crowd had collectively decided to play by the rules with a completely straight bat and there was nothing going on.

A few months ago, in my first piece I think, I talked about schoolboy errors in relation to not keeping your battery in tiptop condition when not using your car for a long period. I guess perhaps my battery is on its way out as after just one week since its last run I found it completely dead, to the point that not even the frunk/bonnet would pop. This was potentially a big problem as I needed to access the battery to get it started again.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, within ten minutes a chap from Texas had explained to me exactly how to get round the problem. The engineers at Porsche had clearly thought about idiot owners who never learn and had built in a solution using a pull-out from the fuse box and the door hinge of all things. Literally within ten minutes of logging into Youtube I was back on the road, but admittedly a little annoyed with myself for not having learnt the first time!

Being required to stay in as much as possible had really got me thinking of things to do around the house. I was told by my beloved that there is lots that needs doing. I agreed. I realised that I still needed to rebuild my Lego GT3 RS after I dismantled it for safe passage to our new house last year. So I set about that with gusto and I’ve done exactly what I did last time and not finish it. I get to the point where it’s time to put the lid on and I just can’t. It’s such a lovely thing to look at and it really reminds me what awesome engineering lies underneath the skin of our cars, much of which I for one never really even think about. It’s just there and it just works. However, I did enjoy a good number of hours building it to the point it’s at and I think it’ll stay there, unfinished – much like the curtain pole Lyndsey really meant when she said there was lots to do.

Things did pick up towards the end of the month and a group of us finally got together for a socially distanced drive down to the coast for a coffee and a croissant. It was a super morning and great to catch up on how the group had been passing the time during lockdown. There were stories of new Fuchs wheels (two pairs of), purchases of new cars and garage lift systems as milestone birthday presents. The chaps had been a busy bunch and thankfully, and mostly importantly, healthy.

Part of the chat (much to the boredom of those listening, I’m sure) came round to me chatting about my next Porsche. It was clear I was told that I should move on and get the car I really want (918 aside!). Never one to ignore learned advice, I’ve decided to put the 996 up for sale. It’s been a terrific experience and one that’s taught me a lot about Porsche ownership and the fun you can have with a 911 without spending the earth. And the next time I hear someone bemoaning the 996, I shall be certain to put them straight and will continue to come along to Lee’s Fried-egg meets. But, for me, I want something of the more recent generations again. It’ll be 991, as the 992 has gotten too bulbous in my opinion. I’d really like a GT car again but I think the 991.2 GT3 market will be continuing to fall for the next 18 months or so towards the £100,000 mark, so I don’t see now as a good time to buy one.

I think I’m going to have a look for a widebodied form of the 991, as I wish I’d gone 4S with the 996. Most likely a GTS, definitely manual, and hopefully (if I can find a good one) a generation 1 so that I don’t need to lug those turbos around. I shall keep you posted. Until then…