Up until the late summer of 2010 the "Rat" had been a pleasure to drive except for one little annoyance. One of the previous owners had cut holes for speakers through the package shelf and into the engine bay. Needless to say driving the "Rat" was quite loud. An afternoon spent out at Obi Wan's was just the ticket to fix this horrible PO modification. Obi Wan can be seen welding in the following pictures

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The next step for the "Rat" was getting the rebuilt Zenith carbs installed. Up until the fall of 2009 it had been running on Obi Wan's Webers. Installing the newly rebuilt carbs involved adding a fuel pressure regulator. Many thanks to AlKosmal and other Zenith gurrus out there for helping me along in the rebuild and in fine tuning the carbs and getting the correct idle jets. Zeniths are truly amazing when tuned correctly!

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The "Rat" also recieved new hood and engine lid struts in the fall of 2009.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1330230630.jpg

During the fall of 2009 I was wrapping up my Ph.D. research in New Mexico and had already started applying for professor positions for the fall of 2010. I left for Fort Collins at the end of October not sure when I would see the "Rat" again or where I would end up. Below is one of the last pictures of the "Rat" on a data collection mission in the Bosque:(

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Over the winter I was able to finish my dissertation and ended up landing a job as an engineering professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. The Rat was living happily at Obi Wan's with plenty of exercise. My girlfriend and I spent the summer of 2010 in Europe, and in the mountains of Colorado and moved to Fort Myers, FL at the end of the July. We found a nice little apartment and I started to settle into the job of being a professor. Looking back I don't know how I survived that first semester. One day in August I got a call from Obi Wan asking if I wanted to go to the HSR Race at Sebring in October. I said of course! He then mentioned that it would be the perfect time for him to deliver the Rat to the land of newly weds and nearly deads. I didn't know what to say:) In October Obi Wan made sure the Rat was running well and headed out for the three day road trip from Albuquerque to Fort Myers which is about 2000 miles. The Rat made the trip without a hiccup and Obi Wan arrived at 10:00 pm on the evening of the third day. It was so wonderful to see him drive up in the Rat. I almost didn't recognize it as he had modified it a little bit by putting new tires and Fuchs on it as well as H1 headlights.

Here are a few shots from Sebring. I have no pictures of the Rat at Sebring because we took the A4 as the Rat needed a well deserved break after the 2000 mile trek across the country

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Here is Obi Wan watching an R8!

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Is that blue car really the "Rat"? Wow

I wish!! That is a SWB car that I took a picture of for inspiration. The 356 I took a picture of because I want to paint the Rat slate grey.

One of the reasons I started this thread is to try and find some history on the car. I know that it has had 6 owners including me since the mid 1990s. One was the farmer in Costilla (Demecio Duran), who got the car from a real estate agent in Taos New Mexico (Dennis Santistevan). Previous to that the car belonged to a Brian Woodson in Pojoaque - El Calde (he had a child and needed to sell the car). Around 1999 the car belonged to Gary Smith in Espanola and previously it had been in the hands of Russ Kelso of Performance Motor Cars in Corrales. If anyone has any information on the car or remembers the Rat in New Mexico please let me know.

Once in Florida I was able to complete several improvements to the Rat. One of the first was installing RS door panels. Getting the door pockets fixed would have been prohibitivly expensive and I have always liked the minimalist look of the RS panels. Here is a picture of my nephew and I getting ready to install the panels over Thanksgiving in 2010.

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During the winter of 2010-2011 we were in the procress of buying a house so I didn't get much time to work on the Rat. We finally closed on a house on January 28th after having 3 other offers fall through. The house is three miles from the beach but even better than that was built in 1985 which means the garage is huge! I was really happy that the Rat now had a garage to stay dry in and a place where I could properly begin restoring it.

During the spring my girlfriends family visited (they are now my in-laws - and please don't all shoot me at once; my mother in-law shops at Pelican for Christmas presents:):D;)

During their visit they wanted to drive in the Rat so the four of us went to the grocery store! It was quite the squeeze - kind of like a clown car moment but fun nonetheless

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Right after buying our house I met my friend Peter through our wonderful crazy Cajun neighbor. Peter is a Porsche Nut as well and currently has 2 914s in his garage. One is a beautiful white 74 that he restored several years ago and he is currently working on a 914-6 creation which will have a 2.5 with Zeniths! Peter is another one of the awesome Porsche people that loves to help and together we were able to replace the horsehair sound pad in the engine bay and replace the leaking speedometer angle drive (What a PITA that was:mad:) and refill the transmission with new SWEPCO 201. This time there was no metallic residue on the magnet! I am guessing this means I know how to drive or syncros like new shifter bushings

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I was also able to do a radio delete as the beautiful sound of the engine is all I will ever need when driving the Rat. I used JB weld to attach the aluminum piece in the picture but after sanding it came out perfect! I also put in fog lights. My overall theme is to try and replicate the car from Lemans and I have always liked the look of the fog lights


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Russ is still around, as is Gary, and both are very involved in the Porsche community in NM.

I contacted both of them but they could did not specifically remember the car. Must be nice to have owned and sold that many P cars;)

Great discovery and DIY thread!

Thanks! I have almost updated everything to the current status of the Rat being in a million pieces in the garage!

Next up for the Rat was the installation of a hot start relay. I was driving the Rat around almost every other day and more often than not I would have an issue starting the car after it was hot. Generally, I could wait 30 minutes and then the starter would crank no problem. After going to get special cat food (our cat has issues peeing:rolleyes:) I got stranded in the vet parking lot. The requisite 30 minute cool down period did not do anything and the car would not start. Enter my valiant fiance to tow me home in the A4:D I immediately ordered a Bosch hot start relay kit from Zims (Don't kill me Wayne, I don't think you offer this product and I wanted it as soon as possible - Texas is much closer to me than CA;)) After the install the car has not let me down a single time and I am just guessing here but I think I have started it over 300 times since then. The reason I went with the hot start relay was that 69 is a one year only electrical system and ignition switch is very expensive. Someday I will pull the ignition apart and clean it and find the root of the problem but for now the hot start relay is a good fix