996.1 cab C2 manual

Thats a result .. the missing parts bugged me , i had a search to see what we had but couldn,t find anything in our junk loft im afraid .

Good find. I got a replacement for my Boxster when I took out the CD changer on it. Poverty spec 2.5s with no HiFi and no changer is perfect, I think Douglas Valley supplied the part..

Shot down to see my parents yesterday, C55 is in the garage so 911 was used - I may not have taken the most direct route:



Although for some reason I got there significantly faster than the Google estimate (including stopping for a coffee en-route).

It's nice to have another fast car to compare the 911 with - the C55 has ~380 bhp - as it points out just how good the 996 is. The drive yesterday, in the rain, was just tremendous fun - even getting stuck behind a 4x4 simply meant another opportunity to make a nice clean over-take had presented itself.

The new shifter is a really nice, tactile and efficient part of the car, I was laughing at how much enjoyment blipping the throttle whilst slotting the lever into second ahead of a corner was bringing.

On the stereo front I bought one of these:



It's a bluetooth transmitter/receiver (use the selector switch on the side to determine which) that plugs into the AUX socket of the stereo via an extension cable - the unit lives in the cubby behind the handbrake. It works perfectly, and with the phone held by my adapted coffee holder to the right of the steering wheel you can select what album you want very easily (and legally).

The 272 is an epic road for blasting down! Good route...

Nice getting out for a blast isn't it.

That little unit is interesting, I'll look into that.

I'm going with a Megamounts windscreen one for mine later on. Mainly to see my maps and things whilst on my trip, whatever car that may be in.

Considering your car is nothing to do with me .. that part actually makes me happy !

It bugged me every time i looked at it .... and i looked at it a lot .

Might be interesting fitting it though .. the amp bracket kinda sits on top of the rear lip on it .

I think it's a small change that makes a big difference, £12.95 well spent.

This was (slightly more than) twice as much:




One on the left, as you look at it, was bust - one on the right was still hanging on. Until, that is, I mercilessly attacked it with a chisel.



This is where the Bluetooth receiver lives, I need to add some switched power but an interim solution will be a small power bank in the cubby.



Eight of these:



And the top is off and you have all the access you need:



Post chisel:



Initially I scribed the holes on the console, removed the bracket and then drilled the first one - however, that wasn't as accurate as I'd have liked, for the second one I just held the bracket in place and used it to locate the drill which worked much better.



Hugely stronger:



Hopefully good for another 21 years!



This post bought to you by my new (Christmas present from my parents) torque-drivers.

Chasing the noise.

I was 22-23 when the Porsche GT3 was announced, and at the time I read all of the car magazines from cover to cover - this was before the Internet changed the publishing landscape and there was a wealth of tests, driving stories and reviews.

I read them all, and from the standpoint of an alcoholic architecture student who never opened a letter if it had a window in the front they were as relevant to my life as the space ships in the science fiction novels that I also devoured. However, the stories stuck with me over the years as my situation changed, and a series of seemingly impossible challenges fell one after another - I gave up smoking, then drinking, both things that an earlier me had considered to be literally impossible.

I did better at work, life became more stable and then at the age of 40, reviews of that first GT3 still in my mind, I bought a 911 of my own.

Percy was not the car I intended on buying, nor was he the car that would ever win favor with the inchoate but inescapable quorum of car enthusiasts - as despite his manual gearbox, LSD, hard-shell seats and sports exhaust he also featured the ultimate accessory of hair-dressers the world over, the convertible roof.

I didn't care, he was a tremendous little car and accomplished a life goal, and I concentrated on bringing his condition up to a point that was arguably better than new - challenging given that he was 20 years old and had clearly had a number of owners who were less committed than I was to attending to squeaky bushes, worn coffin arms and so forth.

I also worked on how I fit into the car - changing the wheel, removing the lower console, having the seat modified until we gelled together in a way that I simply could not with a standard car. This was to become something of a theme - and soon Percy was riding on significantly upgraded suspension, newer, larger wheels, was resplendent in a new coat of paint and had a new mohair roof with a heated glass window replacing the original, and largely opaque plastic one.

By this point I'd been thinking about the engine - a sea change for Porsche in that it was their first water cooled engine for the 911, and like all most initial offerings whilst it had it's strengths it also had it's weaknesses. I decided on a prophylactic rebuild that would remove the weaknesses (which by this point, 20 years in, were quite well understood) whilst building on its strengths.

At the back of my mind, as ever, was the mighty GT3 and it's Mezger engine - a unit forged in the Porsche Motorsport program, a direct relation of the Le Mans unit from the GT1 and famously carrying part numbers that demonstrated it's heart was shared with the 964 (at least for the earliest units). 3.6 litres, 360 horsepower and 8,000 rpm in the gears, all accompanied by a spine tingling shriek that sounded like nothing else on four wheels.

For me the sensations of Motorsport always started with the noise - the rising intonation followed by a brief pause, then a further escalating shriek of the cars running on the straight followed by what to me was always the most intoxicating sound - the driver prepares the car for a corner, engine barking in repeated short bursts whilst they change down through the gears. That whap-whap-whap almost like a super-bike engine revving on the starting grid. It was the first thing that struck you as you walked into a racing circuit, then the smell of hot motor-oil competing with that of the doughnut stands, and finally the sight of the cars themselves, primary colours of sponsors logos, flaring brake discs and flaming exhausts. But ever present, the noise- spine tingling howls punctuated by staccato barks, the defining aural signature of the sport.

How could I miss the opportunity to bring some of that to Percy, the little silver bath-tub with his hairdressers roof?

Enter Mike, a man who has been involved in Motorsport for his entire life, with multiple championship winning engines having emerged from his modest workshop.

What started out as a project that wished simply to lose none of the spark and zing of the 3.4 M96 engine soon spiraled, the replacement of weak parts meant, of course, an opportunity to do better - we took the Porsche X51 version of the same engine as an inspiration as much as we did the Mezger, but what soon emerged was wholly our own. Then Martin joined the project, a fellow enthusiast who shared our passion for making the ill-favored M96 what it could have been, if the 996 Cup had been run with X51 engines rather than the race-derived Mezger.

In creating our alternate history we soon accrued a great deal of knowledge, much of it directly in proportion to the expertise and inclusive nature of the Porsche community, and the engines themselves began to take shape.

Mike was forever the voice of sanity, reining back some of our more 'because race-car" thoughts, whilst giving full approval to our more sensible suggestions.

We steadily designed and made parts, sometimes multiple takes on a single unit - three intake cams, two exhaust, two different tappet chests, modern iterations on once-produced X51 specific parts such as the engines iconic additional scavenge pump and 'towel rail" return line. I was particularly entertained by the repurposing of a bearing that normally sees duty in a helicopters main rotating assembly, which was soon followed by parts appropriated from the E60 V10 engine.

Through it all ran the desire for that noise, to me the epitome of racing, the sound of an engine born to rev, a weightless, effortless bark twinned with a basso growl that rapidly becomes a searing howl before dropping down to do it all again.

We're still a long way from the finish line, two short blocks wait on the shelf at Hartech with their new cylinders fitted whilst we finish off the critical aspects of the intake system, pistons and exhaust. But we've crossed the mid-point now, the design is finalized as a strategy, with only tactical decisions to be made as we make progress to the engine dyno.

What will our pair of engines make, in the end? My 3.7 and Martins 3.9 will ultimately have to tell that story in Mikes dyno room, but whatever the final figures, they'll both make the noise.

Brilliant, heres hoping you get what you want. Noise is very important to me as well, the right noise. Im still not happy with mine, its good but could be better.
The revving out of the Gt3 or similar engine to 9krpm is just such a great noise.

Lovely update, your passion really shines through. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's looking forwards to seeing how this develops.

:worship: :thumbs:

8) write up :thumb:

When you write it down like that it seems so sensible. :grin:

MC

Lovely piece there Neil, I enjoyed that. :thumbs:

You and Mike are creating something awesome, no doubt about it.

I think it's great, this melting pot of a forum where we all have our own little takes on things.
The very reason that drives you on with your project is probably the very thing that makes me think I've taken mine as far as I want... the engine.

Whereas you're getting a lot of enjoyment learning about the foibles, designing one off parts to correct them etc, I'm thinking with mine that if I were to put another £12k in for an engine rebuild (hopefully in the distant future) would I be happy?
And my conclusion is no, unfortunately.
I'd have £40k in the car then, so I'm at crossroads of, £40k (possibly) in a C2 or buy a £50+K GT3 and for me, having owned both, there is no contest.

So while I think I have my answer, I don't know when to make the jump.

Meanwhile though I'll enjoy watching what you're creating and I'll spectate from the fringes. It will be epic and you'll have such a sense of achievement when you've nailed your ideal spec in a 911.

As ever I salute your thinking and your project. :thumb:

Nicely written piece there Neil.

Sometimes it's about the journey rather than the destination. Not every decision has to weighed and measured. I'm intrigued to see the results.