Great news fellow Pelicans! We've embarked on the restoration journey of this ex-Richard Lloyd 962 which is the original car run during the 1987 Group C season. As mentioned earlier in this thread, Porsche 956/962 specialist Trevor Crisp will oversee the entire project at his world-class restoration facility, Katana Ltd, in the UK. So let's get started!
Engine Swap & Off To Katana
As you've read about earlier in this thread, RLR 106b has quite a history and eventually ended up in Japan where it underwent a partial restoration with attention to the chassis itself. Additionally, a water-water engine had been installed but that wasn't the engine which powered the car in '87. The goal now is to restore the car back to its RLR Liqui Moly livery including the period correct air-water MP1.2 specification engine.
Since the car was located here at Pelican HQ post-purchase, Trevor came out and swapped the engines before shipping 106b back to the UK.
Here's a quick shot of the water-water engine before it was pulled:
Changing an engine in a 962 isn't the easiest of projects as the rear end and floor need to be removed:
Lower a-arms have to be removed as well:
Finally, ready to come out:
Nice and clean rear bulkhead; pretty simple isn't it? You'll notice the shift linkage popping through the bulkhead on the right side:
Trevor shown here removing the engine mount:
Great shot of the 'new' bullet with the all-important (and rare) engine mount pre-installed by Trevor:
And here we have the period correct engine installed:
With the correct engine installed and car back together, it was time to load her up for the trip to Katana!
Stay tuned as we'll report next time from the UK!