Modifications   Performance   Repairs/Service    Options   'Car' Magazine Feature

My Porsche 964 Carrera 4

This is my 1990 Porsche 911 Carrera 4.  Known as my Menoporsche as it was a 40th birthday present to myself.

Purchased for £26,500 in '93 from a superbike dealer in Hampshire who claims to have part-ex'd it for some bikes.

A pretty good buy as with patience could sell if for £20,000 today.

Had 26,000 genuine miles on the clock with full OPC service history.  Accident history showed a ding on nearside front that required a fair bit of wheel/suspension/steering repair.

Over the last eight years, I have put on 30,000 miles.

More photos in the Images section.

I also have several other 964s.  Click my 964 Cup Car  to see them.

Modifications

I decided early on not to add the usual teardrop mirrors or cup wheels.  Wanted the car to look as original 911 ads in the early 90s.  Added some minor embellishments.

Airbox Cover Mod

Under the covers I went for the fabulous sound improvement gained by drilling holes in the airbox cover.  You must do this to your 964.

 Click for instructions.

Performance

In September 2002 I borrowed a G-Tech Accelerometer to check out my 0-60 times.  The heart of the G-TECH/Pro is a precision silicon accelerometer. An accelerometer is a sensor that measures acceleration, also known as G-Force. G-Force is what's keeping you in your seat as you are reading these words and if it wasn't for the seat you would be accelerating to the ground at 1G (32 feet per second per second).

G-TECH/Pro measures your speed and distance travelled by integrating acceleration over time. Basically, if you know how fast you are accelerating for a certain time period you'll know how much your speed has changed after that time period. So, if you start of from zero speed then you'll know what your speed is after every time period. These time periods are very small (2.5 milliseconds) and that's how G-TECH/Pro maintains its accuracy.

Distance is measured in the same fashion, if you know how fast you are going for a certain time period you will know what is the distance travelled during that time period.

G-TECH/Pro also measures delivered Horsepower, sometimes called Rear Wheel Horsepower. This horsepower includes the loss of power through the drivetrain which is usually 10-15%. The formula for Horsepower is speed times acceleration times the weight of the vehicle.

0-60 Results

I had hoped to play with the device at a track day, however it did not arrive in time.  I managed to find time to do three 0-60 test runs.  It is not possible in the C4 (mine at least) to rev up and drop the clutch.  I tried this on the first run and the clutch slipped totally.  So I had to carefully choose the right revs and release the clutch gradually and hit the gas.  I am sure on my last run that I also felt the clutch slip a little on changing to second.  Anyway, I am pretty pleased with the results and with a bit of practice reckon I could consistently get below 5.4.  Not bad for a stock C4. I will borrow the G-Tech again next summer and get some more stats as described above.

Repairs/Service

The car has an annual service every year from Northway Porsche, Nr. Reading.  Every 3 years I treat it to a full alignment from my local OPC, AFN Reading.  Been on Pirelli P-Zeros for most of my life.  Get them from Micheldever tyres in Hampshire.

Full Details are in my Service/Repair Log.

Options

Sound System

In March '01 I replaced the original factory-fitted sound system with a much more powerful and full-featured system comprising:

System was installed by Andy at Technical Solutions in Thatcham, Berks, 01635 860691.  Andy is a specialist Car audio/alarm/multi-media installer.  Total cost came to £950.  Totally worth it!

GPS Speed Trap Detector

In May 2001 I bought a BEL 980 Laser/Radar detector.  My research led me to decide that this was the best value for money/performance detector available in the UK.  I installed the detector using its suckers on the lower half of the windscreen and plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket.  I intended to hard wire its power once I was happy with performance.  The detector seemed to work fine in that it detected UK GATSOs in plenty of time.  The downside is that it gave plenty of false alarms on passing petrol stations, supermarkets etc. etc.  I then heard from folks that most devices do not give you a warning in enough time to avoid Laser guns and in addition, if you are really moving, overhead gantry cameras are detected too late (Ben told me he was still clocked at 83mph having hit the anchors at 100mph when his detector went off.  Gantry cameras are forward facing with little reflection).  There are also more and more non-radar tripped detectors appearing in the UK (road sensors and SPECS/SVDD number plate recognition systems) and there are still moves to outlaw detectors next Parliament.  Finally, I was not happy with the obtrusive location of the device on my 964s dash.

I therefore decided to sell the Radar Detector and try the new GPS Speed Trap Notification systems.  These devices are GPS receivers with the co-ordinates of every fixed  speed trap device in the UK stored in them.  I bought the Geodesy system from Morpheus Ltd.   You update the device every now and then via its modem interface.  Works very well, pin-point accuracy and plenty of warning.  Not just for radar-based Gatsos but for all fixed speed-traps (including temporary road-works traps).  Only downside is of course that it alerts you for all GATSO locations, even those without a camera fitted.  Makes you realise though how many GATSOs are around. Very pleased with this purchase.  Would recommend over a traditional radar/laser detector.

I purchased the re-radiating antenna, mounting this on the parcel shelf and installed the Geodesy under the ash-tray with double sided tape, wiring the whole system into ignition-switched power.  Click the thumbnails for detailed views.  For another review see Ben Lovejoy's report and a full www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk review can be found here.

'Car' Magazine Feature

My car featured in the May 2001 issue of UK 'CAR' magazine and the June 2001 of the N. American issue.  I heard on the Titanic site that they were looking for a 964 for a cover feature - 'Never Buy A Boring Car Again'.  The write-up was excellent.  Details here.