don't need no stink'n truck.....

[Peter Guldan]

[Talewinds]

That's pretty cool....
More info on the car please.

[sean m]

Wow......I'm at a loss for words.

Hey Peter, is it the picture, or is there a green tint on your windows?

Just curious.

[Peter Guldan]

Well howdy Chaps,

Early double digit VIN 77 930, brought in from France, My daily driver for 26 years now. Saved from Customs and the crusher in 83 when the importer sneaked it out of port of New Orleans impound without taking a PE or doing EPA/DOT. Traded my custom order 73 911s (sniff...) and cash for it. Built the original 3 litre in 84 on the floor of a friends garage back when NOBODY knew anything about these motors. One passenger later was quite smitten, so I sold him the 3litre to put in his SC and bought a brand new 81 3.3litre engine on a pallet from Allen Johnson Racing that was a theft recovery from their 930S program.

Converted it to a steel slant in 85, was doing a little touchup in 92 after the hood flipped up punching two holes in the cowl, got a little carried away, took it down to the bare white body in my garage, flipped the shell on its side and started over from the ground up. Unlike the machines in my sig, that was my first car paint job - pitifull - in disgust, waxed one time in 93 and not since, paint won't fall off to justify me doing a better job. Soldiered on with moderately mod'd CIS 3.3's in various states of tune over the years till Sept 03 when this became the shop mule for PWR EFI conversions. I could see the unbelievable potential in these just with this stock motor installed in my car. Never had anyone build me a motor in 37 years of this hobby, but I had Pat build the first package motor optimized to this conversion, and man was it over the top, click here for the particulars. This one has all the pieces from the very first conversion here still on it, done nothing but drive it and occasionally get a new map flashed as they learn something new. At 2,675lbs at the curb and 544rwhp on narrow tires it's very light on its feet but admittedly a handful when one wants to get busy.

Where I once equated performance with persnicketyness and general lack of usability, these days, my piece has to do whatever its called on to do, and as it takes 5 minutes to throw my Thule on the roof rather than wrestle the Mini out from behind a bunch of bikes, get the trailer all hooked up, I just throw stuff on the roof of the 930.

Thought nothing of it till today when these guys pulled up in an Excursion at Lowe's contractors door where I was parked loading up, looked over at my activities dismissively and then couldn't get what they'd bought into this huge machine and had go back in the store, buy a set of tie downs and a blanket so they could load it on their roof without scratching it. So I thought I'd shoot a pic of one of our good old warhorses demonstrating its versatility.

Sean......no window tint, that's the interior color, a one year only very subtle shade of green, don't you think? Kept as a reminder of my Kelley Green 73 S, Kermit.

[equality72521]

Whoa on the interior. That's...unique... but kind of cool. in a weird sort of way...

[Talewinds]

WOW! Thank you for sharing.

[Wavey]

That interior is... is... I'm speechless. Not sayin' I don't like the color though.

[KarlCarrera]

If that much hardware was that close to the Targa......I'd probably have a heart attack. :>)

Son-of-a-gun, sure looks like it works though, and by god your not afraid to use it! Good for you, your ingenuity, and the versatility of Porsche! Would've been great to see the looks on the other guys faces!

The interior color is different, gives a nice 'hue' to the windows :>)

Congrats on the engine

Most of all, good on you for using your Porsche. Un-like me who dam* near locks it up during the winter.

Karl
88 Targa

[jtfreels]

Peter,

Cool photo, and car. Is this this the car I seen in the WHQ parking lot from time to time?

Jay

[oregonmon]

544 hp? WOW, that's a handful I'm sure.

[Canada Kev]

Uhh, subtle...? Well, I'd never pick it on purpose, but it looks awesome. And I second the the comments blessing your 'use it for everything' attitude.

[canamfan]

Well that's just awesome, in sooo many ways!

[Hladun]

Those planks will cause lift and limit your top speed, but a properly attached wheelbarrow near the rear should give some added down force to help cornering.

[MT930]

Cool car,
Great story!

[dtw]

What an awesome car! Great story, and I love the interior. Thanks for sharing.

[CT944]

Wow, that is great.

[sancho]

I bet your face shines green when you drive down the street on a sunny day.....

[PcarPhil]

Peter,

I love that car! If you ever want to pass it on to it's next caregiver feel free to let me know!

Thanks for posting...

[Peter Guldan]

Howdy Jay,

Yes it is and I'm guessing that's your white Targa occassionally in the visitor's lot in front of E or more customarily in the North lot's? My apologies up front if you've had an "uncivil" experience on 385 in the past when in something other than that Targa which I would have naturally been more polite in the presence of....have been admonished by a few co-workers over the years for some exuberant motoring.

A PM had asked about that 2,675lbs on a seemingly (heavy) steel car and some other details. No great weight savings in any one area, just a little here and there: I used the much preferred short bell housing trans (gets weight off the rear wheels) DP plastic tail, no a/c, plastic front valance I made, no amenities whatsoever except a lever to provide heat, even took out most of the sound system to listen to the concert provided out back by the BOV, wastegate and Borla XR1. As everyone knows your wheels/brakes are like 4 flywheels and I wanted that agility of my early long hoods so both are small. Magnesium centered BBS's modulars, 15 inch front and 16 rear off an old European Groupe B racer and their old brake fans for a bit of 935 sentimentality. Carrera front/sc rear rotors on 944 Turbo calipers with a 1993 RS America 65 bar (forgotten setting but it replaces my adjustable one) rear bias on the m/c. Though I wouldn't race with these brakes, with hoses routed from those openings in the vallance to the rotor eyes, it'll easily do weekend DE's on Pagids with no distress.

For decent handling and all important weight transfer when making do with only 245's on the rear under accelleration, a la early RSR, moved my spindles up on the struts till the control arms just cleared the inside rims at full turning lock, rewelded with gussets, lowered, bump steered and then set the chassis up with a three degrees forward rake on gun drilled bars from and rear, Delrin and monoballs on the trailing arm inners but left the rubber bushings on the Bilsteins and on the front strut tops to keep it somewhat civilized for road use (as I got older). Pat likes to run them flatter with no rake on much larger rear torsion bars, but in the interest of street ride quality, I'm only running 30mm's and put a little more pitch in it to lesson squat and tendency for it to carry the front end (understeer) when accellerating out of lower speed corners. Nothing exotic on the bars, just red bushings on the slightly larger factory 930S sways available back in the day. Not a fan of caster - don't like corner jacking and it numbs steering feel because of such strong self cerntering tendencies so you'll note there's nearly none with the front wheels so far forward in the wheel wells at that low a ride height. Almost feels like my 73 S on old 70 series tires but will admit the trade off is you've got to "drive" it at all times, not that it wanders at speed, it's just very lively. Don't like chassis thrust either, hence almost no rear toe in, those mono balls help rear tracking accuracely immensely, camber no more that 2 degrees on either.

Makes a nice predictable tossable piece and with this stock small volume intake manifold with so much air movement, no turbo lag and instant response like a very strong natural. Closed our track locally so I pulled the motor in October and put a stock Euro .65 4th back in and am using stock first and short Gard 2nd & 3rd to take care of business when required. We'll see where it goes from here......

[khamul02]

I've seen this interior in person and it is unbelievable! Very cool and still in great shape!!