I envy the Anal clean types. Definately one of my character flaws. I can have my garage completely spic and span one day and a total mess for weeks. Luckily that can't cary over to my house or the Boss (wife) will have my ass.

I have a small printing company where I have to keep up apearances and can have someone else do the dirty work :) luckily theyv'e never seen my garage or they may not listen anymore. My older son has been bugging for exrta $$ and wants to clean the garage for it, and I am reminding myself of my grandpa and Eldorado's dad :)

I have actually tried to emulate people I have known and thier ways of doing things but it just doesn't stick. It's hard to say "no" to the kids when they get home and I'm in the middle of pulling the head gaket when they want to go ride :) so there is the first of many little messes .

I don't know about cups that doesn't seem to be the first or 20th :) thing to get hurt (ask my older son) he'broken so many bones it's ridiculous. The younger one (in pics) is very analitical and has seen very few injuries thankfully.

I don't have any car jumping photos but I do have some pretty good burnouts and wheels up launches. I'll have to scan them though they are developed photos. I am working on getting a bunch together of various cars and of the current stuff now. But those darn kids , just get in the way when I get home where everything is :)

You are extremely fortunate to have your kids "everywhere when you are home". You share common interests and aparantly give them the greatest thing a dad can possibly give them, your time. Ours are older,32 and 26, with my wife being 18 when our son was born. He is the oldest, she did not have one at 12. We might be corn fed here in Missouri but most of us wait a few years to breed. When they were really young we had no money but we did have time to spend with them As they got older we started to make a few bucks and put in a pool. After that our house was the neighborhood hangout. I am in the A/V business and I got them an old projector that could shine on the garage door and they could see the movies from the patio and pool. There were a lot of sleepovers here and we fortunately had no real issues. Most kids just want a place to hang out. It's the parents that don't spend the time that have problems. Our granddaughter is our obsession now. There will always be time for your projects later, the kids grow up fast. As soon as ours went to college we bought a smaller house and made the extra bedrooms more like hotel rooms. They visit now and then want to go back to their own houses, no basement dwellers here. Our son is a single dad w/ custody of a 2 1/2 year old and we try to help as much as possible. It's amazing how close he and Morgan are. I just need to get him laid so he relaxes a bit and starts to have a life also. Hopefully my wife doesn't read this, she thinks I'm "disgustiing".

Steve

Steve sounds like you provided a great life for them.

I grew up very poor and w/o a father around and I know exactly what you mean by having a place to hang. I had a couple of friends that had parents that provided what you did and it meant a lot to me. I actually used one of the fathers as a role model for myself for a long time and still do (he drove a pile, worked hard, had a nice house, wife, and he really went beyond the ordinary for his kids) He was similiar to the Sam Walton type read: could never judge a book by it's cover (or car driven) he is a very successful business man and honestly had a great impact on my life. Even when I had my powerstroke, 28' enclosed trailer, and a crazy street car. I drove a beater around :)

The car is now gone but I have a nice wife, house, lots of time for the kids and to be honest I have found that no matter whether it is tuning my auction bought Saab or Porsche I feel good to just be able to better the vehicle w/o spending a ton of $$. To sum it up I feel I've been there done that in regards to the faster, better more cool factor. Don't get me wrong I still appreciate anyones efforts but, I just don't feel the need to do it anymore. I am satisfied if I can make it better and be able to jump in it and have some fun. My old racer friends still don't quite get it unless they have kids then they do :)

No basement dwellers here either I have a daughter enrolled now at metro getting her core classes shes 18 and in her own apt. Against my advice. We have a his, hers, and ours situation 18y/o daughter, 14y/o son and 10 y/o son. I had custody of my daughter and yes I was very young I am 36 now so do the math :).

I really do love my life at this point.

I still am amazed by the net thing and this forum. I have gone from wanting to kill some hoser in Florida (those feelings are only supressed right now) to feeling all warm and fuzzy. I think it's great. Where else would you find people w/ similar interests in these weird little cars and also share some family values. My wife still insists that the internet is the devil but I definately think it's whatever you make it. I also feel I am pretty much past the having to drive the most expensive thing out there. It's all relative. Even after completing what I am going to do I will be about $10K under the new car average price and less than a new Hyundai, should be a lot more fun though. In 3 years I will be able to apply for historical plates in Missouri, no more inspections, I can only drive in parades (yeah right on that issue). Even the M3 was only $16.5K when I bought it w/ low mileage and it's almost perfect. I's also bad a... for a production car.

Steve

wow, I read up to about 7 or 8 full pages of comments and then scanned the rest for pictures... but all I have to say is wow, what a great collection of cars and what a great 944 project you have! I love the fiberwerks kit, especially the rear, I just have not come up with enough money to afford such things. Even though you can make more power out of the turbo kits, the supercharger kit is way cooler. There is a guy in my area that races autocross events that I attend who has a SC 944. He took the actual charger from an old Ford Thunderbird SC. I wish I had some pictures of it...

Anyway, good luck with all of your future projects and remember to continue updating with pictures!!

Hey Drift...if you get a chance to see that car again or if he has a web site or something, I would like to see what he did. I was thinking the same kind of thing would be perfect for a daily driver. IF I remember correctly, the SC had an electric clutch similar to an a/c compressor and the car ran w/o the SC until it needed some extra power, then the SC kicked in. This seems like a pretty cool design as the car would get good gas mileage until the SC kicked in and then you would have all the power without the spinup lag of a turbo. I haven't read anything yet on the new Shelby but I'm guessing they did a similar thing on it as it has a 330cid engine pulling 500 horses yet is still suppose to get 20mpg.

i tried looking up any website they might have but no luck. :( I'll have to ask him about it at the next event I see him, which might be November, granted he will be there...

the only picture I have of his car is from the outside, which doesnt really do much help, but it's a strange looking one:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/100_0104.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/100_0106.jpg

i know that he trailers it to all the events, and shares it with his his brother I think. I really only talked to him about the supercharger thing once, but it was a while back. Hopefully I'll be able to catch him before your project begins!

My 944 is for my 16 year old daughter...no supercharger for her. She drives way too fast already! Actually she doesn't drive fast but she will hold her foot on the floor until she reaches the speed limit. I call her on it constantly. She tells me that she really likes the feel of acceleration. I have no idea where she gets that! I would just like to see his setup, I think that's a pretty good setup for a supercharger on a daily driver if he used the Ford approach. Of course he may have bypassed that clutch providing it has a clutch but I'm pretty sure they did have.

If you do see him have him throw some stuff on here. If it is a clutch type setup more than likely it is a M62 off of a Mercedes. I saw a kid that did one on a subaru it was cool, the only thing was b/c 0f the size of the clutch type pulley, he had to machine a huge crank pulley to get any real boost. Myself I would have just went to the larger blower but he took it all the way with the little one. He used a boost control switch to add fuel at the same time then later even piggybacked a fuel controller to pulse an extra injector. If you get the time and the drive anything is possible.

Steve, so true " it's all relative" I imagine when I get done toting these boys all over the country I will not be driving...Oh I'm going to say it...MINIVAN anymore :)

What, you mean not everyone does that?


I have been involved in racing so long, and I'm just now getting semi-serious about it. I raced Karts as a kid, but ended up getting out of that before I went on have a go at any championships. It's one big regret that I didn't try moving up though different classes. Now in college I have my hands on Formula SAE cars, and after you have driven something like that, normal driving just seems like sitting still.

LOL...I suppose but I don't make their insurance payments! She actually drives pretty well...I just know that if I teach her to drive 20mph when I'm with her, then she'll drive 35 when I'm not.

Today was a great day
 

Today was awesome here in st Louis. Clear and a high around 50. I decided to clean the Garage attic for the first time since I built it 14 years ago. I was going to throw away or give away everything just to not be one of those weird f...... dudes that dies and everybody sees the bizarre stuff they accumulated in their life. I uncovered this box and opened it to find: my original sunroof top case for the car. The cool one w/ the zipper and ties downs in perfect condition sitting next to the thing that rolls out to hide the luggage. I made a kid that works in my office come over and get up there and hand stuff off to me. The way I put it to him (he is a Junior ME student) was I wanted his analysis of what he did. I think he was looking for effiiency, energy burned, or something. I informed him that the lesson was if he did not complete his degree he better get used to doing stuff like that for a living. I can't believe a fine young employee would flip me off. Kids these days have no respect.

Enjoy the fall driving everyone

Awesome find. I then had to tak a drive to the grocery. I managed to forget a couple things so I could drive back. I am finding myself looking for errands to run more than I did with any of the 911's. 40 degrees with the heater on and top off (zipped up in it's bag) flying around is great.

Stevehttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160697571.jpg

Wow you have a beautifal car. I dont understand why cups a re so underrated, they are one of my favourites, and look awesome on your car. Good work Steve, you have a really cool car!

Thanks a lot. The wheels are actually Mille Miglia 17" from Tire Rack and are a great deal. They are deep offset and don't require spacers for the early cars. I got them w/ 235X45X17 and 255X40X17 mounted balanced delivered for $1300. I only really had a choice between twists and cups. It seems there are a ton of twists out there so I went the other way. It's lowered a bit and a lot of fun.

Steve

How much are just the wheels? They look fantastic.

Beautiful car!

They were'nt bad at all. I think around $800 (for 4). I bought 17" Mille Miglia Alpina knock offs for my 5 series BMW and they looked great and held up really well. Call Tire Rack, they are extremely helpful and knowledgable. I did not want any type of spacers and these were one of only a couple choices.

With the Ground Control springs, 951 sway bars, lowering the back w/ the concentric bolt, and Koni Yellows it makes a great package. I also replaced all the little BS stuff, ball joints, wheel bearings, bushings, rotors, etc. It was amazing what a difference it made doing everything at once rather than one at a time as they wore out. The car had 73K on it when I did the work. All the mileage was by me or 90% by my wife since new so it was never abused. I know most people don't like it but I love the Fiberwerks front and rear body kit. Karl is a cool dude and makes a first class product. It takes a little work to fit right but it's worth it when done. His stuff is definately geared more to the street than track. It actually looks like the fit and finish is right rather than the usual racer stuff that looks great from 10 feet.

I am now devoting my time to go fast stuff. It really is kind of crazy spending this much time and money to basicly get something that will run with a stock 951 but I really don't care. For around $20K (plus the $19K we spent for it new) when done I will have pretty cool car that is definately different from anybody elses. It also has tremendous sentimental value.

Steve

Who doesnt like your car? I love Fiberwerks stuff, looks great.

I love the look of the fiberwerks, especially from the side like in that pic. It just makes the car look so new and fresh, like it's a 2000-something model. I think the front end is somewhat rice-ish sometimes, but other times I absolutely love it. It's a hard thing to judge when you are so used to looking at the normal production run cars for so long.

I wish FW made some 924 parts. I have been looking into doing something like you have done with your car Steve- suspension all redone, little lowered, with new style front bumper and even some side rockers. AIR is the only place I know to get a good looking updated style 924 front end.

Once spring or summer rolls around again I will have to make a trip up there. If I were to ever get some body panel reworking or upgrading done, we would definately have to do a photo op.

50 Degrees up there? Walking to class today I swear it could have been 30. I'm just not a fan of the cold :-/

Mike:

This is the best time of year in Mid-Missouri. Nice cool mornings, low humidity, smell of fall. I am going to enjoy the car for a month or so and then stick it on jack stands to complete the engine over the winter. I just have to get a few dollars together so that I can do what I want and do it once. I tell you it gets tempting seeing some of the Ebay adds for 300+ HP low mileage 951s but I want to finish what I started out doing. You down @ UMR? Really good school. My brother went there for Chem E before he went into the workforce @ Mallinckrodt and then decided to go to SLU for law school. He ran the heroin manufacturing for them. He has some really cool stuff that they found while cooking down the opium. DEA would escort a couple tons of raw opium at a time in 10 kilo lumps wrapped up in newspaper all the way from the source and they would cook it all down in a giant slurry prior to refinement. They found hatchets, knives, bullets, etc that came from the mix. Give me a shout when you are back up this way. maybe you can give me some pointers on the car.

Steve

Schumi....you know who actually DOES make a really sharp front end for the 924? PORSCHE! Check out the picture of the Porsche front end for the 924 pictured on this page. Well, at least I think it looks pretty decent.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=307568&perpage=20&pagen umber=3

Check out the red one about half way down page 2 for a full picture of what the 924 CGT front end looks like.

Yep, I'm down here at UMR. I do like it down here. The fall colors are going to be beautiful.

I would love to have a GT kit but it would be too much work and run my bill up a bt too much I believe. I love the looks of them but doing the while front end/ front fenders plus doing rear wheel arch addons would be a lot. I am on a student budget :).

I think AIR's front end is uniquie and classic looking. I don't know about their sideskirts, but I think having skirts would be nessecary to go with their front end beause of the flow of the lines from the corners of hte front spoiler lip. The 924's had the panel under the doors curled under significantly, and painted black instead of the body color.

....I'll post more on my plans after class maybe :-) It's 8:50... :-(

I remember the college budget problems and totally understand. I think the estimate I heard was around a grand.

UMR is a great school, you don't have to worry about too many girls being around to distract you. Just kidding, that was always the knock on Rolla. You guys had some wild St Patrick Day parties that I attended in the late 70s.

Well the Cards blew it last night. I don't know if Weaver has another game that good in him. The Wardon and I are meeting @ Pujol's resturant after work for dinner and to watch the game. Hopefully the bats come to life tonight. Besides being a geat player he is a really nice guy and he does a tremendous amount of things for the community. You probably will never hear much more than his stats as the press only seems to pick up on the negative.

Steve

Tom:

The front of that 924 is killer. Is that a factory nose or aftermarket?

Steve

From what everyone is telling me, that was a special edition of the 924 from the factory. It is a one piece that fits over the bumper and it's called the CGT front end. If you look at the second page of that thread:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=307568&perpage=20&pagen umber=2

just before the blue one, there is a picture of a red one at a race track somewhere and I think that front end looks pretty sharp. Apparently, you can still buy this piece from Porsche or a place called Sunset which I haven't checked out yet. Pretty decent alternative to the normal front end of a NA 944...although it seems to be pretty expensive. I am going to do that or switch mine to a turbo front end. I just like those two looks better but I don't want my daughter to have a real turbo. Until she gets a few more years of driving experience, I don't want her having a car with too much power....she has a really heavy foot but doesn't have the driving experience to support that yet.

Gt-Racing has the Euro CGT front end just like that for $435. It's a simple bolt up. Finding the fog lights and all would probably be the tough part.

I have been looking at their catalog again and you could make a pretty wicked car using different combinations of their stuff.
For about 500$ you can get a pair or widebody 944 rear quaterpanels. I would love to see a 944 with the rear widebody, with teh stock front fenders.

As far a Rolla goes, it's... Rolla. I could have landed an nice heftilly paid internship a few weeks ago for next summer if I really wanted, but I figured I would rather move back to the Desloge area and enjoy taking the 924S on some road trips, and maybe try to scavenge some cash to upgrade to a 944. I need the money to enjoy the ride, but to enjoy the ride I need the time. And time = money.

You have your priorities in the right place.

Steve

I have been following this post for a while, never thought I could get sucked in to reading every single post in this thread …anyway that front piece bumper is one of the kind , its actually what my car is missing, too bad that even the aftermarket pieces are so expensive.
Speaking of 944gt-racing wide q. panels if someone is interested I have a set here for pick up, almost free
:)

It did not start out to be a marathon post but a lot of folks have joined in w/ various topics. I have received a lot of good information and advise and very little if any negative. Are you involved w/ the Porsche club thing here in St Louis? I have only been to 1 event and I did not even get out of the parking lot for long. The 944s here don't seem to be regarded as real Porsches. Too bad, I have had 5 real ones and they were cool in their own way just as the 944 is.

Steve

Additional Car Pics
 

I just found these other pics from The Imperial Palace Cars.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160791166.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160791190.jpg

I wonder how this thing handles w/ a single back wheel?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160791250.jpg

I still just like looking at my wife.

Steve

Old Morgans:) wondering too how the handling was on those cars back there. Imagine going over 100mph in this car!!! Who ever were behind the wheel was on suicide mission. Anyway, beautiful craftsmanship. I think they still manufacture some cool rides...

p.s. beautiful lady , looks like you 2 are enjoying the life together pretty good:)

Steve, the car is looking great! I'm happy that you are finally having a chance to enjoy it.

dorsche- they are the wide body 944 rear quarter panels? And you are interested in getting rid of them?

I would be interested in them, not neccesarilly for my current car but for a future project. I could pick them up, I will be doing some travelling next weekend and I could swing up 44 and stop in STL before heading south.

MAF Installed
 

I got to spend a few hours on the car over the weekend. I got the MAF conversion done and it fired right up. Hopefully I can get the thing to the dyno next week to really tune it and just see what it does. I also got the gauges sorted out the way I wanted. Moving the speedo to the right was kind of a pain but I like the way it turned out.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161123980.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161124004.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161124025.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161124049.jpg

The three generations of girls who have tolerated my existance.

Steve

damn steve... quite the group of lookers in your family.... well... 3 outta 4 'aint bad ;) :P just kidding dude...

something you can try... get yourself a sharp circle punch... or circle cutter of some sort... cut out the numbers on the tach and, if the cuts are made perfectly, spin them 90 degrees CCW.. if they all have the cut, then it'll be pretty uniform, and if the cutter is sharp enough, you may not even see the cut....

that is, if you've got the balls to cut up your tach :P

Kyle:

3 outa 4 is accurate. There are days I look at myself in the mirror and wonder what the hell my wife was thinking marrying me.

They are pretty cool girls too. My daughter is an artist living in Chicago. She does work for several advertising companies and also does a lot of oil portraits. That is her primary medium. She went to The Art Institute Of Chicago on a scholarship. There was no way I was paying $60K for an art degree. She wants me to help her buy a Mini Cooper. I have one located here in St Louis that's awesome. 1976 RHD w/ 60K miles. I can pick it up for around $8K. Christmas is coming. It would be perfect for Chicago. She has a Geo Tracker and an Aprillia Scrabeo 50 at the moment.

Steve

What kind of MAF is that?

Steve-

A prof or staffer down here at UMR drives a RHD mid 70's Mini. I had no idea how tiny they were till I actually saw one. Nothing like the new ones. The thing is dead cool. Baby blue. Little rust bubbles here and there, but still nice kep. They are really pricey, I have found, even when they are in not the best condition they still go for good money here in the US.