My Slightly Delayed Backdate
 

How hard can it be to backdate a 1978 to 1973 RSR? It is actually quite hard.

Stupidly looking at Pelican Classifieds in 2013 I came across this project car:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/731508-semi-completed-73-911-rsr-project-based-79-sc.html

I owned my dream car at the time, a 1996 993TT that I had bought very cheap at $44K. I figured, I can sell the turbo for $60K now and fund this build, how much higher can the 993TT market go right? (I feel sorry for the sucker who payed $60K for that car, I don't follow the 993TT prices anymore, but I bet it's worth $40K now)

I called up GaryR and he told me that he sold the car to a guy in FL that had decided it was too much of a project once he took delivery so a few phone calls were made and a week later the car was at my builders shop. from there it is an almost six year story of headache and heartbreak where I spent about elevendy million dollars and was left with a car that looked great, shifted great, had a great tight suspension and wonderful brakes, but had a terribly running engine.

Shop #1, after telling me to swap from MegaSquirt to Tec3 Electromotive, said that the engine was shot, showed me leak down numbers to prove it and wanted me to drop in a 3.6. Something seemed off so I took it to shop #2 (although telling me otherwise) didn't know the first thing about the Electromotive and charged me another boatload of money to deliver me a car that went from running poorly to not running at all.

I was at my wits end so I called Dan Jacobs who built the engine almost a decade ago and asked for help. Dan was so unbelievably helpful, he pointed me to John Behe at RPR in MD and said that if anyone could figure this out it was him.

This is where the story takes a great turn. John was exactly who the car should have went to in the first place. He not only had to get the engine running but he had to fix all of the duct tape and bubblegum that the previous guys had hacked in. John did exactly what he said he was going to do, kept me up to date with the progress and then surprised me on a thursday afternoon with a text message video of the most wonderful sounding 3.2 SS revving like a an F1 car. I flew up the next day and drove it 9 hrs and 600 miles without a hint of an issue. I hit bumper to bumper traffic near Charleston, SC in 90 degree heat and the car never even got to 220 degrees.

John had known that this was a longer than normal shake down so he took extra time to really make sure I was getting a finished project.

I still have a bunch of small things to do, but the car has been a blast to drive and although the neighbors aren't 100% sold on the "Bag of Satans Hounds" sound they hear on my way to work or the flames shooting out on deceleration, I couldn't be any happier.

Big thanks to Dan Jacobs and John Behe for helping me have a happy ending to this very, very long project.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540051030.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540051030.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540051030.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540051030.jpg

looks fun to drive.

I have a accumoto special street build goiung and cant wait to drive it.

So glad you finally got to the end of the tunnel! When I got the car it had webbers and ran great so I knew the odd diagnosis was simply not true, the engine didn't go bad sitting in my garage!! Congrats!

Beautiful car. Any build pics?

Thank you, but unfortunately I was thinking this was going to take five months, not years. I did not chronicle the way I should have.

Way more interesting car in your drive then a 993TT.......

You had me a Bag of Satan’s Hounds.

Can we get a video clip? You can’t leave us hanging like that!

Congrats on the happy result.

Sorry for the delay, been enjoying the hell out of this car.

Here is a short video,
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyvsQkFpeq8x1HvTxAbrRZQ?view_as=subscriber

Anything Mark White builds is a blast to drive!

Looks great!

Do you know what brand of seats those are?

Man, I do love this car. The dark silver, the blue accents, the SS 3.2L engine, just all of it.

Please enjoy it. And if you ever get bored, sell it to me. I don't need it but that has never stopped by from buying anything.

Cheers,
Ryan


PS: your youtube link is broken. It doesn't go to a video.

Gorgeous car with a motor to match. I hate you. ;)

Call Roger at Classic Touring Seats. Great guy to work with. Delivered quickly and they are perfect for comfort and support.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HWwSm1VfXQ

Try this one.

Congrats. Yeah...elelvendy million dollars is about right. ;)

I hope my wife never asks to see the "investment property" I said we have.

looks great!! Really digging the color combo. Any spec sheet for the car?

Which exhaust is that? It sounds awesome!
Mike

fantastic!! i remember that car in the classifieds...great job

Its a custom build from the first shop I took it to. They did that part well. I will post up some nice videos with better sound this weekend.

Was thinking of my past cars (and projects) today, how is that baby running today?

It’d be nice to know the two shops you were unhappy with so no one goes to them blindly.
Don’t really want to stir anything up but it’d be good to know
Tony

Very nice!

It is a beast, best car I have owned. It still needs an O2 sensor to fix the last issue of a small flat spot at 4K under half throttle but other than that I feel like I have the perfect little backdate for me. (As soon as I Classic Retrofit Air)

If it was a cut and dry scenario where I thought that the shops were 100% at fault or criminals, if it were I would shout it from the rooftops. This was more a case of several factors intersecting to create a poor outcome and I know for a fact that I was to blame for some of the issues because I didn't set proper expectations of trust my gut. **** talking these guys isn't fair because I think that other people may have better experiences with them than I did. Again, not scum bags, just not the best businessmen.

On the other hand, Dan Jacobs and John Behe are the two guys who deserve all the credit for getting this back on track. I cannot recommend these two guys enough.

I get it. I’ve been in similar situations before also, very classy answer so please disregard my previous post
Tony