Dino's 1987 4.0L G-Body Cup'ish Build Thread - My Dream Car

[Antonov]

I probably should've started one of these years ago when I began the build, better late than never I suppose. At this point the car is running, tuned, aligned so this this thread will move pretty quickly.

Taking inspiration from cars like the 964 N/GT, Joey Sealy's Project Nasty, and BRUMOS GA 997.2 GT3 Cup's which were more RSR's than Cup cars, I set out to build my dream car.

I wanted the lightest possible G50 car, so I set my eyes on a 1987-88 Carrera. I was living in NYC at the time, the search took several months, until I found the car for me.

She had a fresh single plug 3.4L, the chassis was as straight as could be, the bumpers had never even been off the car, no rust that I could find. The deal was made and she was mine. I flew to Long Beach to collect her, she was everything I wanted. My friend Ameer had just picked up an NA1 NSX the week prior from Sharkwerks Alex, he took me to collect her, we cruised the PCH, it was a great day.

The next day I went straight to Buttonwillow with a few friends. While the engine felt great, and the brakes were up to the task, the suspension not so much, none the less, it was a great baseline. I rang up Jae from Mirage Int'l, we discussed what I wanted to do with the car, and few weeks later I had ERP's full catalog along with a set of JRZ RS Pros. She was dialed.





I drove the car back to NYC, and enjoyed her, well as much as anyone could enjoy a car in NYC.

[Antonov]

Fast forward a bit, and I was living back in Cali. Shortly after arriving, the tear down began. I commissioned Josh Lucas to do all of fabrication. I had heard that he was slow, but his work was def up to snuff. Purists look away, yes we’re about cage a perfectly good 911.

For the cage I took inspiration from WRC cars. I love the fact that they were designed around two passengers and had torsional rigidity at the forefront of their design. I elected to go with 1.5” tubing because if it’s smaller form factor. We also strengthened the front sway bar mounting area, the rear spring plate, lowered and strengthened the seat mounts, made custom seat mounts and bunch of other stuff.

[Antonov]

With the fab work done, next up it was time for paint. While I loved Guards, I wanted to do something different. I love monochrome colors, and wanted to keep it within Porsche’s palette, so I was thinking GT Silver. Another part of me wanted to go with another bright color given the motorsport theme of the build. One of favorite colors was Maritime Blue. To tell you I lost sleep over decision would be a massive understatement. In the end, Maritime won out.

After many many months, my hoover craft was ready to be brought home and built back into a car. I had been dreaming of this moment for years, a shiny tub to bolt fresh parts onto.

[Antonov]

While the car was at paint & body, I worked on the underpinnings. I had all of the cast AL components vapor blasted, oil tank and cooler sent to Pacific Oil Cooler Service, pedals dis-assembled, stripped and recoated, hardware stripped and zinc coated, and then everything put back together in preparation for final assembly.

[Bill Verburg]

Very nice job so far!!

[Steve F]

Love it!! Well done!
Oh, and Hi neighbor

[Antonov]

While I worked on getting the car back together, I started to get progress photos of the engine, I needed to work faster!

I got the suspension back on the car, installed BBK from Doug at VCI, plumbed the dual masters, installed the oil system installed, plumbed new fuel lines from Len, installed the freshly gone though axles from Mark Kinninger, spent quite a bit of time getting the upper & lower dash, knee pads and door tops to fit around the cage, pretty happy with the result.

[3literpwr]

Looks good! Cage is similar to mine, which is built to current FIA 253 standards for rally. I've recently put about 200 miles on the carb'd 3.0 and feels great to get a car back on the road after such a big overhaul! Mine took 8 years I think.

First rally soon should be this summer.

https://youtu.be/b_SqdrpMuss

[Jonny042]

Great build - looking forward to the updates! I'd love to do a similarly track focused build one day.

I commend the choice to keep the impact bumpers/bellows/etc. as much as I understand the desire to shed weight with one piece fiberglass bumpers there is something so iconic about those parts, especially with the contrast of the black parts against a bright colour like that gorgeous blue!

[TurboTim14]

Very nice build so far. Looking forward to updates!

[Antonov]

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

Very nice job so far!!

Originally Posted by Steve F

Love it!! Well done!
Oh, and Hi neighbor

It's definitely a great feeling putting some miles on the car after being down for so many years.

Originally Posted by 3literpwr

Looks good! Cage is similar to mine, which is built to current FIA 253 standards for rally. I've recently put about 200 miles on the carb'd 3.0 and feels great to get a car back on the road after such a big overhaul! Mine took 8 years I think.

First rally soon should be this summer.

https://youtu.be/b_SqdrpMuss

Thank you! I agree, everyone is always so eager to ditch the impact bumpers, I think they can look great. I'm keeping the front bumper mostly stock, I did opt for a lightweight fiberglass rear. They're both still WIP, not entirely happy with how they turned out, we'll see how they end up.

Originally Posted by Jonny042

Great build - looking forward to the updates! I'd love to do a similarly track focused build one day.

I commend the choice to keep the impact bumpers/bellows/etc. as much as I understand the desire to shed weight with one piece fiberglass bumpers there is something so iconic about those parts, especially with the contrast of the black parts against a bright colour like that gorgeous blue!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by TurboTim14

Very nice build so far. Looking forward to updates!

[Antonov]

More assembly photos....

Shrink tubing applied to the OEM cable management tabs, shanking bolts that need shanking, fuel tank refinished and back in the car, checking tire clearance, brake lines flared such that no unions or soft line required (-4AN on master side, OEM on the other) and some assembly photos of the engine.

[group911@aol.co]

Great choice on the color

[junkman300SD]

I love when people take a car apart and actually get it finished and back together. I'm reminded of an English professor that daily drove a 50s era MGA. His son inherited it and started a "restoration.

After 35 years and moving from multiple houses, it's running and driving with most of the bodywork done. It just needs paint.

Many no longer have that much time. The professor grandson will likely get it just in time for an electric drivetrain transplant.

I'll have to be satisfied keeping mine as close to running as possible - not restored but good daileys.

[Antonov]

Originally Posted by group911@aol.co

Great choice on the color

Thank you.

Originally Posted by junkman300SD

I love when people take a car apart and actually get it finished and back together. I'm reminded of an English professor that daily drove a 50s era MGA. His son inherited it and started a "restoration.

After 35 years and moving from multiple houses, it's running and driving with most of the bodywork done. It just needs paint.

Many no longer have that much time. The professor grandson will likely get it just in time for an electric drivetrain transplant.

I'll have to be satisfied keeping mine as close to running as possible - not restored but good daileys.

I massively underestimated how much time this project would take. Now I understand why shops charge so much for full vehicle builds. While I love to tinker and fabricate, I'm certainly looking forward to spending more weekends behind the wheel rather than behind the work bench.

[junkman300SD]

I've seen perfectly good cars turned into parts cars because someone got the air tools out and took them apart. Putting them back together is the hard task.

Shops theoretically can allocate an area to the build and devote full time until finished. Even they take longer than estimated.

I'm to the point where I don't buy more parts until the last order is installed. I also repair to running before starting the next project. Those 2 requirements keep money in my pocket and enjoyment of running cars.

I added another restriction yesterday after getting a deal on some nice furniture. Now NOTHING comes in unless something equivalent goes out. Stuff accumulates and can become a burden instead of a blessing.

[Jonny042]

Originally Posted by junkman300SD

I've seen perfectly good cars turned into parts cars because someone got the air tools out and took them apart. Putting them back together is the hard task.

Shops theoretically can allocate an area to the build and devote full time until finished. Even they take longer than estimated.

I'm to the point where I don't buy more parts until the last order is installed. I also repair to running before starting the next project. Those 2 requirements keep money in my pocket and enjoyment of running cars.

I added another restriction yesterday after getting a deal on some nice furniture. Now NOTHING comes in unless something equivalent goes out. Stuff accumulates and can become a burden instead of a blessing.

These are all wonderful pieces of advice. Especially important if there are limits on your space, disposable income, and free time!

[Fly911]

Very impressing and interesting!

Can you elaborate more about technical specs, crank shaft, oil pump, connecting rods, pistons and cylinders, heads, camshafts, induction, gear box (ratios), suspension, brakes, just to mention a few...

[Antonov]

Originally Posted by Fly911

Very impressing and interesting!

Can you elaborate more about technical specs, crank shaft, oil pump, connecting rods, pistons and cylinders, heads, camshafts, induction, gear box (ratios), suspension, brakes, just to mention a few...

Of course.

The gearbox is for the most part standard aside from Guards 60/40 LSD, the ratio's are standard 1987 Carrera, for now. I'm running a Patrick MS G50 to GT3 conversion flywheel and a Kennedy Engineered Clutch package.

The engine started life as a 1995 model year, however very little of it is left.
- 80.4mm Crankshaft & Oil Pump from 997.2 GT3 RS4.0
- Pauter Rods
- Mahle machine-in 102mm Cylinders
- CP Pistons, measured at 11.4 C/R
- Heads are mildly reworked 993 original to the engine. I may upgrade to Xtreme heads down the road, there is about 25Hp and 7-800rpms on the table.
- Cams are pretty big, power comes on at 3500rpm and pulls hard to the redline which is conservatively set to 7100rpm,.
- 993 RS Solid Lifter Conversion.
- Rasant Products ITB System with GT3 intake manifold, Coil-on-plug.
- Car made 383hp measured at the hubs, and 318ft/tq. So with a very conservative 8% drivetrain loss should be 416hp crankshaft HP.
- Rothsport headers mated to a 997 GT3 muffler

The car weighed in at 2320 with half/tank of gas, that may go up slightly, maybe 2350 as there are still a few items that I need to add back into the car. At first I was a little disappointed with that weight, however now that I think about it, it's not bad considering its a G50 car, strut-to-strut roll-cage, relatively heavy wheel/tire package (BBS E88) and all factory body except for the rear bumper. I have a goal of getting the car down to 2200lbs which I think is achievable.

Its running 3 MoTeC ECU's, M130 for the engine and two PDM15's, along with full Vehicle Milspec harness, engine & chassis.

The suspension is basically ERP's catalog for the car. The car has been converted to coilover.

ERP 935 front suspension
ERP 935 spring plates
ERP rear banana arm spherical bearings
JRZ RS Pro dampers 450f/600r springs currently, but that will change
Front & Rear Smart Racing Products/JWE Anti-roll bars.

For the brakes I'm running VCI Big Reds, which are effectively Porsche 965. So Big Reds up front with 323 x32mm rotors, and 965 rear calipers (the wide ones) to clear factory 930 rear rotors. For the track I run Pagid yellow pads, on the street I run OEM. I may end up going to different track pads. The brake booster has been deleted in favor for dual master cylinders.

[Steve F]

Just Wow!!!!!