James's V8 944 Budget Build

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

I want to apologize to all the purists here, but this car is just too cool not to show off to you guys. I recently met up with an old friend named James to talk about his 1985 944.



This V8 monster you see here started out life as a totally stock Porsche 944s that James trailered home from craigslist in 2014. It needed lots of love to be roadworthy in its former state. He got it into a drivable condition and then reality set in- the tired old engine needed a rebuild and he was quite shocked at the prices for the parts alone. About $1500-2000 for just the timing parts and seals.



So James decided to do something extreme. He set out to build a car that was his own. On his budget with his ideas all coming together to create a stripped-out sacrilegious Porsche that was a racecar at heart and could take a beating but could still legally be driven to events and around town.



It started with a LQ4 V8 pulled from a junkyard Chevrolet Suburban donor. He put it on an engine stand and got to work stripping it down and rebuilding it with new sensors, refreshed gaskets, upgraded bolts, camshaft, lifters and anything else you can probably order off Summit Racing’s LS catalog.



Meanwhile, the 944 was then gutted of just about every component. Interior, drivetrain, wiring, all carefully removed to allow for room to work. A full roll-cage was then welded in, and the car’s signature army-green color was laid down.



Custom engine mounts had to be made to fit the 5.3L block into the Porsches engine bay, and with not much room the hood had to be cut to accommodate room for the intake manifold.



Rear suspension heavily was modified. The F1-inspired architecture was completely fabricated from scratch. Every piece of metal cut and welded by hand. No CNC design, just some measuring, a drill press, angle grinder, and a dream.




The wheels have been upgraded to 18" front and rear, and to handle the extra power all four brakes have been upgraded to 968 calipers. VW Coil-overs were added up front with the sleeves welded to the factory knuckles.



For fun sliding action a hydraulic handbrake was added to the cockpit along with two Recaro race seats, and custom gauges fitted to a handmade sheet metal dash.



This formula put together makes for a fun car with almost 350hp and a load of torque! The words “Porsche” and “budget” don’t really go together so well, but apparently with the right imagination and enough determination you can make it happen. It’s a labor of love that took years to complete and is still never finished. It’s interesting to see the machine that has come to life and the talent it took to make it happen.

Hope you guys appreciate this car as much as I do!

-Matt

[walfreyydo]

Thats really cool. Would love to learn more about the rear suspension setup and what transaxle solution he came up with. I am guessing a turbo/s2 trans but curious how that works with the redesigned suspension.

I also like the dash setup - is that custom or a prefabbed solution (guessing custom)?

Thanks for sharing!

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by walfreyydo

Thats really cool. Would love to learn more about the rear suspension setup and what transaxle solution he came up with. I am guessing a turbo/s2 trans but curious how that works with the redesigned suspension.

I also like the dash setup - is that custom or a prefabbed solution (guessing custom)?

Thanks for sharing!

Hi walfreyydo!

My information is limited to my conversation with the owner. I don't know much about the rear suspension other than it was drawn up on paper with no real R&D done. The transmission I believe is a 951 though I'm not sure what was done to mount it in there.
And the dash was custom fabbed from some sheet metal.

I will try to dig up some pictures of the build process to post as well. Thanks for your interest!

-Matt