To mod, or not to mod?

[fastfredracing]

I fell into a pretty nice turbo s last fall. I just started cleaning it up, and doing major maintenance last weekend.
The car had one owner, serviced only at the dealer. It has 83k on the clock, and it is in nearly perfect unmolested condition. The only aftermarket piece on the whole car is a car phone, probably installed at point of purchase in 1988.
Turbo cars love mods, I love turbo cars with mods, but I am wondering if I should just leave this one alone. I plan on keeping this car.
Prices for these are about as low as they will ever go right now, and good unmolested Turbo cars are getting more and more scarce. Plus add to it the fact that it is an S, fairly limited production car. I may just keep it as a time capsule.
I was originally planning the typical 951 mods, MAF, 3" exhaust, Tial waste gate etc.. nothing major. nothing permanent.
I already have a track car, and have had plenty of hot rods. Plus, I have a kid, and have no real plans on doing any doing any track stuff for the next few years.
I am not really concerned with "resale value" but will I kick myself later on for hot rodding this car? It may actually end up being quite valuable down the road.
Plus, I will save a butload of money by not heading down that slippery slope.
What do you guys think? Any advice appreciated

[M758]

I bought my Turbo S in 1997. It was stock back then except for polished wheels and an aftermarket stereo head unit.

Since then I have left it as is and just have driven the car. I have a 84 944 race car that I can race so my Turbo S is true street car.

I have no plans to mod it, but I do sometimes think about it. Then I figure it better left stock as it is already more than enough for the street.

[JoshB]

With that kind of mileage it all comes down the condition of the paint and original interior. If the car has never been wrecked and or painted and the interior is not badly sun damaged I would say leave the it alone.

What is the color combo? Any pics you could post?

[racer]

83K miles will prevent it from being a true time capsule.. but I like cars stock. If you already have a track car then even moreso I encourage you to keep it stock.

[fastfredracing]

Some photos from the shop. The car has been repainted, but the job is a 9.5 out of a 10. I cant find any tape lines in the door jams, or under the hood, the finish is flawless, and it has a beautiful shine. I did talk with the original owner, and he said someone had backed in to the passenger door, and needed a skin, he had some stone chips on the front valance, so he had the dealer respray the whole car. The local dealer ( I use them quite a bit for parts) subs their work out to a local shop that I know of and they do excellent work. It was a complete dissasemble, windows out job, and it shows.
Zermat Silver on black interior. Porsche script seats. There are a few small scratches and nicks, but it is real close to perfect. The pics of the engine are before I cleaned. I was shocked to see not a drip of oil anywhere. The water pump I just replaced, I think had about 3700 miles on it. He had just had service done at the dealer before he parked it in 2002. It was dirty from sitting but is cleaning up beautifully .
I know it will never be a concours car, or Barrett Jackson 6 figure machine, but It really is nice. I have had a small fleet of 944's in the past, and this one is by far the nicest I have ever had.
I am pretty sure that my little grubs are the only hands that have ever been laid on this car except for dealer service.
I will probably finish up all of my maintenance this weekend. Timing belt/balance shat belt, water pump, seals ,all rollers, all belts. hoses. Change all fluids, filters. New rotors, pads, and hoses. Cap rotor , plugs , and then take it out and give it a good shakedown. I drove it briefly ( under 5 miles) when I got it , but the tires were dry rotted, and the Timing belt is almost 10 years old now, so I did not want to take a chance, but as far as I can tell , it runs 100%
Maybe I will just chip it, with the banjo bolt, and leave the stock exhaust , and air box on . no visible mods, it will still be quiet, but with a little more oomph
Tough call.

[fastfredracing]

Here is the best part. I paid 2k for this car from the junk man. The junk man bought it from the original owner for $300.00. I did find and contact the original owner. He paid 48k for the car in 88. Parked it in 2002 while he was in the middle of a restoration on his house, and just lost interest. The rear glass hatch got smashed out of it, and he parked it under a tarp in his yard for 2 months, and the township started complaining, and his wife was nagging him so he called one of those "buy junk car guys" to come and take it away. I was just in the right place at the right time.

[zedsn]

I put a few things into my S but can remove them fairly easily and go back to stock if I ever want to. I ran an autothority MAF and chipped the DME and KLR.

[Grandad#3]

+10 on keeping the car stock. You will have less problems and it will still be a great ride. With the kind of luck you had in the purchase you should gone out and bought lotto tickets.

Cheers,
Larry

[nize]

it really depends on how committed you are, how meticulous you are, and how much work you're willing to commit to the 'project'.

if you're going to simply install a MAF and crank up the boost, i think it's better to keep it stock.

having had my heavily modded 89 951 professionally appraised for over $35k in this economy proves that a properly modded 951 with meticulous work and detailed documents can actually increase their market/resale value.

you'll never get back what you spent modding it, but the driving enjoyment is what keeps me at it and is worth every penny to me.

[kdjones2000]

If it were mine (And it is pretty close to what I have) I would put a Lindsey boost enhancer on it to improve the spool up (Terrible lag with stock setup) and put some mild chips in it to give you ~15lbs of boost. Leave the rest of it stock and just enjoy it.

It is a pretty fun car as it is

Cheers, Keith