Well, I got the call today to come to the shop to drive the call and let them know what I thought....as in does it need anything else.
Beautiful fall weather today in the Portland area, so who could say no to that?
Click to view attachmentThe car sounds incredible through Ben's stainless steel heat exchangers and a single outlet Dansk sport muffler.
It's been awhile something like 30+ years since I've been in a 914. My very 1st Porsche when I was about 30 yrs old was an orange 74 2.0.
I had obviously forgotten much about the 914 driving experience.
Right off the bat, the 901 gearbox/shift pattern was driving me crazy.
Took off in reverse at one of the stop signs...luckily no-one behind me. Ha
Initial impressions are that there is a lot of power with 230hp sitting inches behind your head, it's pretty dang loud (in a good way), the gears really are close ratio and low, and I had forgotten about the awesome handling of these cars.
My other P car is a 73 RSR hotrod with a 3.6 Vram, steam roller wheels and tires, and something I've been driving for almost 30 years.
This was the car I purchased and modified over the years since selling the orange 914 a long time ago.
I'm very comfortable in that car.
In this new 914-6 hotrod....not as comfortable yet.
So it really rides likely too stiff for what I will use it for most.
If this was a dedicated auto-x/track car.....perfect.
For the street, the 21mm torsion bars and 150lb springs are too much for the low weight (2176lbs) of this car.
I'm already considering getting a set of 19mm t-bars and 110 or 125lb springs for the rear.
If I can get them quickly enough, I'll get Rothsport (Carl) to get them installed next week.
Otherwise, that will be a project that can wait until next Spring.
The handling is really quite different from the 911.
The steering is so light with the modest width tires (195/55x15) I have on the car.
The Toyo R compound tires are very grippy.
Quite the slot car.
Can't wait until next Spring when auto-x season starts up...this will be one fun car.
So I've got to work on my 901 shifting a bit.
If you try to guide it too much from 1st to 2nd, it's quite balky.
But if you just nudge if from 1st into the neutral slot, let it find it's bearing for a fraction of a second, then proceed North again with the gear lever, it's very smooth sailing.
Will just take me a bit of practice.
The factory 380mm steering wheel that I love so much may be too big.
I'm about 6'2" and my legs nearly are up in the steering wheel.
Carl the mechanic (about the same size as me) noticed the same.
So I'm sizing up a Momo 350mm heritage Prototypo that has distressed leather.
It's very similar to the Magnus Walker steering wheel....just without all the Magnus Walker do-dads on it.
Nimrod me, mounted the rear view mirror too high on the windshield, so it's next to useless currently.
I'll fix that with some guitar string and shave it off the windshield and re-mount lower.
The sport seats from GTS Classics (Watkins Glen model) are just about perfect.
As are the retrofitted retractible seat belts I insisted for this car.
As for driving impressions of the 230 hp 2.7 MFI engine.
Well let's just say it's got plenty of go power....especially once you pass 4500rpm.
After that, it's just about like launching off the deck of an aircraft carrier I'd say.
Click to view attachmentRide height looks good I think....not too low.
Plenty of room in the rear for bigger wheels and tires if I'd like to try a set of 15x7 Fuchs with some 205, 215 or possibly 225 tires.
Not much left to do at this point.
The car runs so cool....barely getting it up to 85-90C, that Carl thought let's just run it for awhile without adding the auxiliary cooler and see how it goes.
I'm in total agreement.
The on board engine oil cooler is a "high efficiency" unit that Stoddard sells, plus the 2.7RS engine is actually quite unstressed at only 8.5:1 compression ratio.
Most of the longhood 911's and even the 73 RS all came with the trombone loop in the front fender well that really didn't do all that much in the way of cooling.
They mostly relied on the on board engine oil cooler
I'll keep you posted on how this all works out.
If needed, we can slip a Fluidyne aux oil cooler with fan underneath the rear trunk to help out with the cooling duties.
So Carl needs to still install the heater control boxes that come off the heat exchangers, do a double check on everything, and that will be a wrap. Unless we get the softer t-bars and springs in next week in time.
Once home, I'll take a bunch of better pics and get it all posted.
And drive, drive, drive while the fall weather permits.