Finally

[hpaull]

The other day I finally took delivery of my 87. Greatest feeling ever, went through 2 tanks of gas and drove around the mountains all day. Hopefully will be able to get some auto-x in in a couple of weeks too.

However, I can tell the modification bug has already bitten. I really want to strip out the interior go with RS carpet sets a nice set of seats, roll bar, and possibly remove and the sunroof and close up the hole properly with metal. Which of course if I remove the sun roof might as well do some more body work and go with the TRE bumpers. etc, etc, this all snowballs really quick.

My question to you all is this. Have you been more satisfied doing little by little over time to make your Porsche the way you want it, or do you like doing it all at once and seeing the immediate transformation. I am really thinking about doing everything at once, for the major projects. since I am sure there will always be some little things.

of course I will get pictures up a little later.

[wildcat077]

I hope you are aware of the $$$ involved with all these upgrades ... lol

Before you can run,you have to learn how to walk and since you want to do some spirited driving (auto-x ) or track days you have to start from the beginning !

1- suspensiobn upgrade (shocks,torsion bars )
2- brake upgrades (calipers,rotors,pads)
3- ride height,corner balance
4- better wheels,tires

Then you can start changing bumpers and cutting up your car if you still wish to do so,something which in my view is not necessary as you can purchase a used track car that has all that done already !
Carpets and new bumpers won`t make your car go any faster or handle better

Cheers !
Phil

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by hpaull

The other day I finally took delivery of my 87. Greatest feeling ever, went through 2 tanks of gas and drove around the mountains all day. Hopefully will be able to get some auto-x in in a couple of weeks too.

Great to hear that these cars are so much fun to drive the way they come from the factory.

Just keep in mind that whatever mods you do will have a tendency to devalue the car while, at the same time, you may end up with a ride that is no longer as fun to drive as there are always compromises in whatever you do that often result in unintended consequences.

I know the owner of a well respected Porsche repair shop who spends countle$$ hours undoing mods done by other shops and essentially, restoring them to factory spec. after their owners spent a fortune on suspension and engine mods that never delivered what was advertised.



Cheers,

Joe

[hpaull]

With the exception of the sunroof everything I would want to do is reverseable. Sunroof I would probably not worry about, although getting 40lbs off the top of the car would not be a bad thing.

The interior is pretty rough as is right now, and redoing it is not that expensive, and I like having the place I spend all my time clean. Also there is some weight to be saved here.

The bumpers are a big one for me, as this is where a lot of weight can be saved and is an allowable modification in STR.

Mechanically the engine is solid, as well as the suspension. I have 10k in receipts to document this.

As for autocross I have being doing it since 2004 once I was old enough to get my SCCA license. I also did time attacks, and before that raced karts both TaG and shifter. Def, is not my first rodeo (yes cliche I know). I think the SC body styles show real promise in STR, and I would like to be on the front end of the class to see if it goes anywhere. I bought the car to drive it not keep it in the garage and worry about how much money it is worth.

[kidrock]

honestly, if I had the $$$ and the time I would probably just dive in and make all the upgrades. But in light of the fact that I have neither, I enjoy driving the piss out of it and making the occasional upgrade when the $$$ is available.

[NY91184]

Congrats on the new car. When I got my 84, I had a vision of what I wanted to do with it, which still changes on a weekly basis. This forum is a valuable resource in selecting and executing modifications on these cars. My advice would be to drive it and enjoy it, while gathering all the parts you wish to change out. Finish the day projects so you can keep driving the car, and then do all the big stuff at once (bumpers, body work, paint, ect.) to minimize the amount of time the car is off the road. Get those pics up asap!

[hpaull]

Well this past Saturday I took the Porsche out for some auto-x action with the Rocky Mountain Solo region. It was great to get back behind the wheel. There was a nice 85 targa in my class, great car and drive and really well prepped for the event. I know I am going to need better tires,but I will burn off the crappy ones I have for now. I definitely have a lot of leeway to use in running in STR, but I am going to try to get more seat time before I really do too much. I started off really really slow with an 82 second run, but by the 4th and final run I was down to a clean 74 second run. Still very slow, but more seat time and the clock time will be back down. Probably will be going with some sway bars, corner balance, and alignment soon. Any advice is welcome, Pelican has been a great resource, thanks everyone!

[JeremyD]

ELEPHANT RACING Home


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I'm more in the camp of "making it your own" and while a stock carrera is more capable than 98% of the drivers out there - I also believe that you can utilize 25 years in suspension technology advancements to enhance and improve your carerra.

Suspension and rubber (wheels and tires) first.

Steve Wong Chip, euro premuffler and sport exhaust next.

Depending on events - decent racings buckets and a rollbar.

Then spend your money on driving events to improve the nut behind the wheel.

Depends on the scope of the project - but sometimes I like to bite off small increments - just lately I bit off a big chunk and decided to do a bunch at one time.

That includes:

New suspension bushings (elephant PB) front and rear
Front thru body sway bar (tarrett)
New monoballs/integrated strut brace
relocate the battery and go small (odessey)
Elephant racing oil lines
front AND fender oil coolers
replaced engine and transmission mounts
new bursch sport muffler
new alternator
Wide body IROC front and Rear fenders (with trick mounting)
Removed rocker panels
New ball joints/wedgepins/etc
rebuilt gauges
Seine Shifter
New 17" Alton fuchs (9x11)
New 17" True Design Fuchs from 7 and 8" 951 wheels
TRE IROC Roll Bar
993 Brake conversions with Steve Weiner Hats and rotors, VCI adapters - 930 rears/965 calipers
23.3 master cylinder
Slowly getting things knocked off my list

[hpaull]

Thought I would throw a little update on here, it has been awhile. I ran my last autocross at the end of May before leaving for africa for a month. Now that I am back took the car to get some work done. I have been using Eurosport in Denver and I have nothing but positive feedback for them.

However, the whole reason for my little excursion to Eurosport was because my front left suspension started making this awful creaking noise. Got it diagnosed and well lets say the wallet got emptied quickly. My front suspension was shot and that is putting it nicely. the struts were toast so replaced them with some Bilstein HD's. The top mounts were toast so what better time than to put in some Tarrett camber plates with monoballs. Figured turbo tie rods and new ball joints couldn't hurt either. Then decided well hey might as well get the fluids changed out since an oil line started leaking on me, and the oil pressure sender went out (got those parts all squared away as well). All in the name of chipping off a few more seconds from the clock. of course it never seems to be that easy, one of the rear adjusters was all chewed up so that had to be fixed as well. However the car will now be good to go this coming weekend, and I can't wait to report back with the results.

Here are some pics of the old beat up parts that were sent to me from Eurosport. That is how great this shop is, they send me pics of the work as it is happening. ***I need to resize these first***


Now I just really need convincing out of going to fiberglass bumpers and the GT3 tail with wing from GT-Racing. They are only 20 mins away from me so no crazy shipping costs. Also the AC will be coming out shortly since it is not working and I am seriously debating pulling out the heater as well since the blower motor is shot and I only drive this thing to track days. Plus that'll be an extra excuse to justify the purschase of headers sooner rather than later

[Jim Richards]

You might as well flush your brake fluid, too. And get more aggressive brake pads. And you're gonna need harnesses, and good track seats. And a fire extinguisher. And R-compound tires. And (front) brake cooling kit. And Big Reds. And...

I like Eurosport, too.

[hpaull]

Well, after a long time of not posting, finally a little update. The car is in the body shop getting the finishing touches.

I put in all new bushings and 22 and 28 torsion bars to freshen things up and get this thing handling better. Also went with a set of George's headers and their stinger exhaust.

Hopefully it will be all done and ready to go by mid December. Not the best time for no heat in a car that resides in Colorado, but whatever I can't wait to get back on the road and to the autocross, there is a winter season here with RM SCCA.

Anyway here is a little teaser shot

[Winter]

Hpaull - keep in mind the Boulder/Denver coffee and cars (search this forum). It would be cool to see your car there. It's a good event, and every once and a while we try to do a "canyon run" prior to the event up Boulder Canyon and across to Ward and then back down. good times.

[hpaull]

Thought I would update this post since it has been a while. Unfortunately I only have camera phone pics so the quality is not the greatest. Anyway onto the car. The total weight pulled out was about 230lbs with the removal of all the AC components, Bumper swap, headers, exhaust, and cruise control. The next step will be redoing the interior, it needs it pretty bad and I figure there is about 70lbs or so I can save there as well. Anyway the car is amazing now. Most probably think the sound is too loud with the George's headers and stinger, but I love it! It really comes alive over 5000rpm too, where it's a noticeable power increase. Probably helps that some weight was cut out too.

The brakes are just about gone so those are next on the list with track season coming this way soon, and I'll just burn off the crappy all seasons and upgrade to something better as needed.