Project Done - 71E Ex-Racer, RallyeInspired

[ruby911]

I was active on the forum a some years ago when I got my first 911 ('84 Carrera) and I needed to figure out what the hell I was doing. After a couple of years, I moved onto a '68 912 and was spending more time on the 912 BBS. Well, that 912 has found a new home across the pond, so I embarked on a new 911 project and am back to Pelican with more regularity.

Through the help of local friends and resources, I was able to pick up a 71E roller that had previously raced Sebring, Daytona, Road Atlanta and others in HSR and SVRA. The car had no motor or gearbox, but had a few nice suspension bits left over from the racing days. It also had a few scars as evidence of its weekends at the track. Once seeing the car in person, I decided on a vision of a used, privateer race/rallye car. I wanted to keep the oil smears, dings, chips etc and build the car without using new parts that would stand out. When I had to buy new, I did what I could to make the piece look like it had some age. I bought a new hood badge and used the acid method to age it. I bought new Cibie hood lights and H4 headlights and dulled the chrome with a scotchbrite pad....etc, etc.

Also through local sources, I was able to track down a 2.7 twinplug motor that had a short life on teh race track as well. The hopes were it would just be a plug and play, but ended having to pull the motor out and tearing it down to address some pulled case bolts and a busted oil cooler. So, we fixed that up, put new bearings in, resealed it and plugged it in.

Here are a couple of pics of the roller when I bought it.

[ruby911]

The car was very solid with the exception of the suspension pan and tank support so I sent it over to John Holt at Hot Wheels. If you are in or around Atlanta and need paint or body work done, I can not recommend John enough. He is a Porsche guy and knows his way around these cars. He also let me have access to the car to work on some stuff that I wanted to get done while he was working on the pan. While he had the car, I had him weld up some odd holes in the hood and paint the decklid and hood flat black. He also painted the driver side front fender to fix some paint taht peeled off when I removed some of the old decals.

[ruby911]

Once the body work was done, I had the car taken to Franz Blam Racing to mate up the 2.7 and the 915 LSD gearbox to the chassis. Those of us in Atlanta are very fortunate that Franz opted to set up his shop in Atlanta. If you dont know who Franz is, you cant read an article about Hurley Haywood and his Daytona 24 victories with the RSR without him mentioning Franz - he is a keystone to Porsche racing history.

Franz was amazing to work with. He is very patient, great at listening and an amazin encyclopedia of Porsche infromation. He was also quick with a story about Porsche racing history when ever I inquired.

Some pics of the car in his shop....

[ruby911]

Finally brought the car home this weekend. Having come from teh 912, the 2.7 twinplug is quite different. Franz said the cams are very aggressive, alomost as aggressive as the cams in the old RSRs he raced. So, the car does not like to be under 3k RPMs. At 3k, it wakes up and at 5k, it screams. Now it just needs little sorting and a lot of miles.

Now that it is done, soem of teh details include:
- 2.7 Litre Twin Plug
- 915 LSD
- PMOs
- Headers and straight pipes
- Vintageseats.com R Seats
- Vintage Momo Prototipo
- Vintage Britax 3 poiht harnesses
- Steelies widened to 7 inches
- upgraded torsion bars and weltmiester sway bars
- Strut brace
- fuel cell

Thanks to those that responded to my WTB ads as I built it. I couldn't have done it without this forum.

- Farrell

[vintagecarlover]

i love it. cant wait to see it in person. are you driving this one to the mitty? great great story.

[will hung]

I really like it.

[wayner]

That looks the part.

I like it!

[Craig_D]

That's fantastic! Congrats and enjoy. I love it.

[ruby911]

Originally Posted by vintagecarlover

i love it. cant wait to see it in person. are you driving this one to the mitty? great great story.

Yep, it will be there.

Thanks for the kind comments all.

[alterednines]

Great, love to see more photos!

[Doug E]

Looks great ... nice job !

[nickR]

Farrell, that is superb!!!! A great transformation. Nice work!

[Oh Haha]

Sweet!

I really dig the steelies versus Fuchs or mini-lites.

[kugelfischer]

VERY nice. Congrats.

[Unobtanium-inc]

Wow, nicely done! I miss the Mitty since we left Atlanta in 2002.

[GWP911T]

Very nice-- thanks for preserving and presenting Porsche racing heritage.

Cockpit photos please!

[Fishcop]

Looks great!

[oh snap]

Beautiful.

[cdrik915]

You have respected the initial sprite of this car.


Congrats mate.

[Rich Lambert]

Very cool...love the steelies.