Summer’s Gone (and so has the 924)

Country houses and ’80s GT cars. I had it all.

I’m still not sure if it’s a good or bad thing, but the 924 has changed hands twice since I sold it and it now lives with a guy I work with; I see it EVERY day.

Project 924: Like a BOSS

Pics by RSVP

Project 924: The Archive of a Life Less Ordinary

Another busy weekend means still no proper shoot of the 924; I did however stop off for 5 mins at the industrial estate where the KP was shot for Retro Cars Magazine.  Unfortunately James Lipman wasn’t on hand this time, so you’ll have to live with these:

I’ve de-wipered it now too.

When I bought the car it came with all the original books and a huge folder of history.  Inside was every receipt for every bit of work the car has had, every tax disc, concourse entries and all sorts of press clippings from the ’80s to now on the 924.  I love going through this stuff and will be adding to it where I can.

Project 924: Pass Me Another Prawn Cocktail – Coilovers and Rims

With the car only just home and cooling on the drive I put in the order for my coilovers.  Despite a lot of big talk of me “going sensible” I already knew the 924 didn’t stand a chance.   Next on the list was wheels.  I spent what felt like forever trawling the ‘net, phoning people, calling in favours and keeping my fingers crossed; it paid off. Big time.

I booked a few days off work and took this:

and made it look like this:

The front was an easy swap: Struts to coilovers and max out the camber (which is adjustable from the factory):

Gaz units installed (have you seen the arches…that’s not me, that’s how it came!  Actual concourse car)

The rear was more tricky;  Being a torsion bar set up the whole beam needed removing, stripping and re-indexing.  I’ve not got too many pics of this as I was fighting it, but here’s the set up I used to measure the drop I wanted with the beam off the car:

I read a lot of how-to guides on the internet and they pretty much either blew my mind with trigonometry or were just plain unclear.  I figured I’d stick to basics and work it out by measuring.  The alloy strip was measured to represent the radius arm and I used a fixed point on the cantilever as a reference.  I wanted to drop it 70mm at the rear (pre-measured on the car) so re-indexed the bars to give me that drop.  Sounds easy.  It wasn’t.

I then lifted the beam back into the car and fitted my rear Gaz shortened dampers.

In between all this I collected and worked on my wheels.  This is how I collected them complete with monster drag tyres.  They’d come off a wide-arched 924 GTS replica.

I had the tyres removed and did a test-fit (notice the horrific mud-flaps?  Yeah, I replaced them with Turbo spats pretty quick!  You’ll also probably notice this isn’t strictly chronological, but I’ll get to the good bit soon, hang in there….)

I spent the best part of three nights hand polishing them. This was not the most fun I’ve ever had, but it worked out pretty well.

I agonised over tyre profiles for a while on this one; I wanted to fight the low-pro route as everyone is doing it and, well, it’s not strictly retro or in keeping with the car.  So I settled on 195/60 and 185/65s. This gave the rear 9″ a nice stretch to help get them under the arches.

I’m really pleased with how it came out and even think the tyre profile deal came off.  The car sits about 70mm lower at the back and 75-80mm lower at the front.  It drives sweet with no rubbing or issues at all.  And I know it’s not cool, but it actually has some ground clearance!  All in it took three days to do by the time I had fixed a few little bits and cleaned stuff up underneath.  These are the first few pics so the height will get tweaked more as it settles.  I’ll do a full shoot as soon as I get chance, but for now, I’ve got my red braces on and I’m hitting the city for another prawn cocktail.

Project 924: Interior Motive

Thanks to the wonder of the ‘net I bagged myself a mint, totally complete, 1/2 leather Porsche script interior the same week I got the car.   I loved the Pascha (or blazing chequered madness interior to non Porsche-ists), and yes it is rare, but seriously, I was going blind driving the thing.

First free weekend I had, I fitted it.

From this:

To this:

Like this:

It’s such a nicer place to be; super classy and I’ve retained what eyesight I have left.  A massive thanks has to go out to Dan too for collecting it for me from Essex; thanks dude!

Project 924: The Jet-Set Life is Going To Kill You

Hey, you remember when I had that blog I used to update all the time?  Yeah, about that…

OK, so stuff’s happened…mainly the E30 Sold, just when I’d decided to keep it.  So, on the rebound, I bought this:

I’m an ’80s baby and this has been brewing for a while. In fact Pre-E30.  OK, let’s get it over with: It’s not a proper Porsche and it has a van engine. DEAL WITH IT.

It’s a 1980 2.0 N/A and has been a concourse car since ’88 then spent the last 6 years in a garage.   Belive me when I say it’s clean.  I’m going to Hell for dailying this one.

I’ve already done a load of service stuff (boring), removed the wost mud flaps I’ve ever seen and replaced them with Turbo model spats.  I’ve also changed the interior and I have rims and coilovers sat here waiting to go on…I’ll save them for another post though, let’s not peak too soon after 6 weeks off!