Quote:
Originally Posted by panzerfaust
more headroom not less weight? the other M491 cars were performance oriented  |
Let's be intellectually honest. By the late '80s (if not earlier) most every US 911, save for the handful of Club Sports, were ~3,000 pound, more luxury than sport (i.e. less performance oriented) cruisers.
Even G Speedsters (most optioned with AC, many with power seats, headlamp washers, intensive windshield washers, etc,) aren't performance oriented. As much as I like a G Speedster for it's looks, the widebody and heavier 930 suspension & brakes went against the original 356 Speedster ethos, both from cost and weight perspectives.
How many 911s, much less 491s, have you seen as "strippers" vs heavily optioned?
Cases in point:
My '87 coupe, as close to a stripper US 491 that I've seen. It is PTS, which is UH-mazing (still tho, I wish it had also been optioned with sport seats and LSD. I can only dream about the holy grail factory sunroof delete car!). ~2,840 pounds after some lightweighting (fog light delete, heater backdate, 20 pounds taken out of the powertrain's reciprocating / rotating assembly)...
My former '88 491 cab. 3,066 pounds (with a manual top conversion)...
My newly acquired '89 491 coupe. Weight
TBD (it's going on the scales Tuesday), but probably ~3,000 pounds...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic11
Yes i think less weight is also a good reason. How much weight saving is the slick top? Does anybody know? I am curious if any of the M491 (slick top) cars were bought for later racing purpose as a helmet and sunroof does not go along for most people? Nobody knows.
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There are three ways slicktops are being done these days: replacement roof panel (either as a cut-out from a donor car or as a new part from Porsche or Dansk), metal or composite patch panel (Fennlane [RIP], Rennline, Stuttgart Classica, etc.), welding the existing sunroof panel to the existing roof. All three methods have their pros & cons. Per my research, you can expect to lose ~20 - 35 lbs depending on which method. Options 2 & 3 require gutting the sunroof cassette & reinforcements, etc. If you don't do that, you won't gain as much headroom or lose asuch weight.
Here's a good, recent, thread on roof replacement (note in this case, they just replaced the skin. They didn't cut any of the pillars):
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1076181-911-sunroof-cancelled.html
I'm planning on a roof skin replacement sunroof delete for my newly acquired '89, which needs a paint job anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by panzerfaust
folks who have done it says about 35-45lbs. at the very tip top of the vehicle, thats significant. the shape of the roof is very different too but folks dont usually go through the trouble of replacing the whole roof and used a filler panel instead.
M491 nomenclature or option code i believe was used on many cars,73 2.8 RSR, 74 3.0 RS,RSR etc.. even on the cars afterwards with the 964 RSR 3.8 im not an expert my any means with numbers or codes, perhaps someone more knowledgeable can chime in.
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Yes, the code was used and reused. Regardless, please don't try and make a connection between the '70s RSR cars and our beloved lil' street cruisers, like Paul at the M491 Yahoo! group did back in the day. That was a bridge way too far.