Porsche, Injunears and project cars

[rdane]

With all the talk about suitable suspension set ups for earlier cars, I was trying to remember a conversation some where in the back of my mind about a engineer working in the car industry that had built himself an older Porsche to his personal tastes.

Like many of us, what he "wanted to do was create what a sports purpose customer would have recieved if he had gone to Porsche in 1969 (or fill in the year) for a triple purpose road/rally/race/ car. One that was street registered but still competitive on the weekends or might pre run the Monte.....with the emphasis on multi purpose."

Many incredible cars here on Pelican, Randy Jone's beautiful Iris, Jack's icon BBII or BBI that came before it or Matteos new, over the top Mexico Blue thunder wagon come to mind easily. They all started a s project cars and easily fill that "sports purpose" niche for their owners.

Thomas' project car started the same way as a '69E with 98,000 miles.

What a previous Porsche owner ('56 Speedster/'74 Carrera) and experienced automobile engineer picked as a model and then added and deleted for his personal dream Porsche I found interesting.

10.3:1 compression twin plug 2.8L with 46mm Webers @ 280 hp and 7300 red line
901 tranny with a 7:31, L/S, stock gearing
7x15 RSR finished Fuchs with 550x15 Dunlop vintage race rubber
open steel lug nuts
'69 S brakes
100L gas tank with a center fill
roll bar
rs door panels
period correct Ricaro race buckets
Bilstein competition shocks and struts
Factory front strut tower brace
Larger front t bars
Larger Weltmeister sway bars
slightly lowered with 1 to 2 degree rake
all at 2200#

Those are the details I remember or could find. No mention of larger rear torsion bars that most of us are using. Maybe I missed some details or the writer did.....since I didn't get the actual sizes of the Tbars or sway bars or the details on the shocks or struts. Or maybe the car was set up with larger front torsion bars and the stock rear for a '69.

(but I'd bet someone here has the rest of the details)

The engineer is still working in the automobile industry. He first started at Porsche in the early '80s, then VW/Audi and now Diammler Chrysler last I hear. He was involved in the design of the VW Beetle, the Audi TT and the D/C Crossfire. And by all accounts happy with the end result of his sports purpose built '69.

By now it is obvious to many that it is Freeman Thomas' car I was "remembering". The info from EXCELLENCE 10/04