My 74 RS Inspired Project

[lindbhr]

Background
After having driven an ’83 SC for 11 years, and a ’92 C2 for almost 4 years, I found myself without a Porsche and in search of inspiration. After subscribing to “Excellence”, I saw that people were re-building earlier 911’s with 3.6L engines, 17” Fuchs wheels, fiberglass bumpers, etc. and some even had A/C! After seeing Larry Ratcliff’s awesome white ’74 IROC clone in Excellence, I started to think about building my own car. About that time, I found the Pelican website and Matteo’s and others IROC and RSR threads which helped push me over the edge. Thank you Wayne!

So, after several months of monitoring Pelican, I started looking for someone to build my 74 RS inspired car. After discussing my project with several shops, I hooked up Don Ramsay at Air Cooled Classics in Knoxville. Don helped me solidify my vision for the car and assisted me in evaluating many “donor cars” until we found one that met the criteria and budget.

Thank you all for sharing your insights and experiences. I hope I can return the favor. Now that the work on my car is well on the way, I’d like to share my experience.

My 74 RS Inspired Car Story:

The goal is to have a car which looks similiar to a 74 RS, but takes advantage of newer technology to improve performance and be capable of being driven daily.

The donor car was purchased in NJ in July 2007 and is a ’78 SC 3.6 conversion originally done by fellow Pelican Jim Williams in Alabama. The car came with the following equipment:

Grand Prix White with cork interior, sunroof, heat, A/C, low mileage ’92 3.6 engine, ’80 915 trans, B&B exhaust and muffler, 993TT/ C2T brakes, SS brake lines, Cool Brakes, nose oil cooler and front bumper Carrera cooler w/ fan, 23mm/31mm torsion bars, Smart Racing sway bars, Elephant racing poly bronze bushings, monoballs, and offset strut mounts, Brey Krause strut brace, ERP bump steer kit, Autopower roll bar, Momo steering wheel, H5 headlights, Sureshifter, Yellow Bird bumpers, factory turbo tail, Sparco and Recaro seats.

Here are a few pictures before the car went to Air Cooled Classics:





[img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads12/DSCF0158
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Hugh Lindberg

[Kemo]

nice project... Im subscribing now

[HelmetHead]

Sub'd

[lindbhr]

The first order of business it to sand the car to bare metal and and get ready to graft on the turbo flares. It looked like there had been one re-spray at some point. Body panels looked very good, so far. I had really wanted to strip the car entirely down to the tub and soda blast everything, but the budget would not allow for that. As long as we don't do a color change, this should be fine.

[lindbhr]

So, while Don's guys are preping the car, we ordered 9" and 11" steel fender flares from Dansk, as well as Lindsey 9X17 / 11X17 wheels. The front and rear bumpers will be IROC from GT Racing.

Although I like the IROC tail on a race car, I wanted something smaller for the street. A fellow PCA member sold me this original '75 Carrera tail.

[CarlP]

Subscribed

[Porsche Doc]

Here i a few more pics after thr flares are on
We have been having funn on this build.

[Porsche Doc]

Few on the sunroof delete.

[JV911SYDNEY]

cool project!

subscribed

[WOLVERINE]

Subscribed..................also wondering how much work went into fitting that rear bumper.

[oregonmon]

Exciting project.

[POORSH]

subscribed...

[Todd Simpson]

Here's that car in it's former life at Summit Point, chasing me in T6.




Don built my car too...not only does he do nice work, he's a helluva good guy who sends pictures all the way through the build.

Good luck, that's gonna be a nice car!

[RichF]

are those 16 up front and 17 in the rear? or other different sizes

[Walko]

nice project

[88 Club Sport]

Looks great and I like the S/R delete but, I'm curious why you did not take the glass out for the respray.....it's not that much more work.

[Porsche Doc]

Originally Posted by 88 Club Sport

Looks great and I like the S/R delete but, I'm curious why you did not take the glass out for the respray.....it's not that much more work.

We did after all the really dirty work was done.
It helps to keep all that bondo and primer dust out of the inside of the car.

[Todd Simpson]

bump for an update?

[lindbhr]

Sorry I have not kept up with this as intended. I picked up the car from Don in Knoxille a few weeks ago and drove 950 miles in 15 hours (10 in rain) to Houston. I had planned on stopping overnight, but my adrenaline was so high that I drove striaght through. Before leaving we dynoed the car at 247 hp at the rear wheels and corner balanced it too. The car weights 2660# with A/C, spare tire, etc.

Now that the hard work is done, (thanks again Don & Co.) I'm working on all the little details to get the car to my liking. The list includes:

- replace seats with black leather 80-84 sport seats
- get black knee pads
- install factory shift knob
- refresh gauge faces
- update A/C with better technolgy
- hide speakers
- install Momo steering wheels
- detail boot and engine compartment
- many other small items....which will take months I'm sure, but that's OK.

So the bad news is that my steet has been under construction such that I have on put 50 miles on the car in the last 4 weeks. Still, looks great in my garage!

Hugh




The attached pics are before installing the PMS sport exhaust.

[SCWDP911]

Bummer, would love to have seen that thing on your way through west Tennessee - that is, if you took I-40