George is one of the 911 & Porsche World Running Reports contributors.  His reports for them are reproduced here.

George's Running Reports

Running Report 1 - November 2001

Replacing a Carrera 3.0

So why sell a superb silver 1977 Carrera 3.0 coupe and buy a neglected, scruffy left-hand drive modern 911. A recent move to Oxford meant I lost a garage. My Carrera 3.0 was too good to leave on the street and storage is not only expensive but inconvenient. I decided I needed a newer car, which would be more robust so I could leave it on the street and use it virtually daily. I knew the replacement had to be a 964 RS as it had the rawness of the earlier cars with 1990’s advancements and reliability.

I bought it “as seen” from Oxfordshire specialists Autofarm. Although very sound, the car had clearly been neglected and led a tough life, luckily the low asking price reflected this. I like cars that need “sorting” and enjoyed improving my previous 911. My standards are high and if you improve the car yourself you know it will be right. On first impression the RS did not look too bad. However the clutch was awful with lots of play in the pedal, within a week it was impossible to get it into gear so the first job was a complete clutch assembly and flywheel (thank goodness it’s not a dual mass flywheel like a regular 964).

Previous owners all seemed to like to add their own brand of “expertise” to what is already a superb package in standard form. In the quest for better on-track handling someone had lowered the car and set it up with far too much negative camber. Really it needed leaving alone (Porsche knew what they were doing) Although the service history shows that at sometime a so-called performance chip has been fitted, throttle response was poor and clearly the engine was not delivering anywhere near it’s full potential.

Bringing the RS up to Scratch

I decided to use JZ Machtech in Kings Langley to set up the suspension properly (with new Bridgestone SO2 tyres all round) and return it to it’s original factory settings. As they have a rolling road I decided to have one of their de-cat conversions with means removing the catalytic converter and lambda probe (only legal if the car is pre 1993). They then mildly re-chip the ECU. Horsepower gains vary from car to car.

The news was not good, only 231 bhp instead of 260 and the suspension had been lowered so much two of the expensive Bilstein dampers had been destroyed. The lack of horsepower was due to a blocked cat, which was discarded anyway, a pressure test showed that the engine despite over 100,000 kms was in excellent health. A 24,000-mile service and re-chip produced a more than healthy 270 bhp and a full suspension re-build and alignment returned to the car to it’s correct ride height.

JZ Machtech did an excellent job; it now been completely transformed and drives probably as good, if not better than when it left the factory. The power delivery is fantastic, really smooth and torquey but with a real Jekyll & Hyde character. Over 4,000 rpm it’s absolutely explosive in every gear. The brakes are quite amazing and seem capable of extracting eyeballs and dentures! As it now has some proper suspension the ride is almost civilised on A roads, however B roads still need to be avoided!! Needless to say the handling is superb, why people mess about with camber and ride adjustment is beyond me.

The documentation shows that my car was supplied from the factory with a full roll cage which was removed a couple of years ago. The lightweight interior was very tired with holes in the carpets and blanking plates everywhere. Porsche interior trimming specialists Southbound had the car for a week to re-carpet, generally tidy the interior and re-paint the scratched fibreglass seat backs. They also managed to source, at a very good price, an original violet leather (yes violet!!!) seat swab for the drivers seat. The original was marked (probably by the buckle for the racing harnesses) and has seen better days. Southbound did a first-class job and the interior now looks as if it has just left the factory.

Unfortunately the rare and very expensive magnesium cup rims had been replaced at some time with 17” 993 wheels. The best price for a new set was £2000! However a “wanted” advert in this very magazine yielded a positive response and my car is now wearing a nice clean set of correct wheels. An option I did consider was to fit the optional Speedline 18” split-rims, after much discussion and contemplation I have decided to stay with the original 17” wheels. The handling is so good I don’t feel a reduction in tyre profile will benefit the car and to fit wider front tyres could spoil the excellent steering feel.

Although it looks original and not bad for 9 years old, the last job on my list is to give the paintwork some attention. The front bumper and boot lid are very chipped, the paintwork is scratched and dull (I think the previous owner used to put the car through a car wash!). however now the car is so mechanically sorted, which was always the main priority, this can all wait until next spring.

On the Track

My plan was always to book a track day once the car was back to full health. I arranged a Saturday in November and enjoyed a gorgeous sunny winter’s day at Goodwood. This is probably not the best circuit for someone like me with such limited track experience as it is very fast with no gravel traps, just grass, but I was sensible, enjoyed the car within my own limits and was overwhelmed by the RS’s ability on a circuit. It certainly flattered my limited skills! I decided to call it a day after a poor 968 club-sport owner hit a tyre wall causing some pretty terminal looking damage to his previously immaculate car, it reminded me that not all track days end up putting a smile on your face.

So what is a 964 RS like to live with everyday. Well after nearly 3000 miles in three months actually much better than you would think. Although very basic, creature comforts include an excellent, easy to use and effective heating system, a loud Kenwood CD player, and as I use the car regularly for work I have installed a proper car kit for my mobile phone. All passengers love the leather lightweight Recaro racing seats, which although are fixed, are the most comfortable I have ever experienced.

The are some irritants though. In the quest for lightness Porsche installed a rear window with a heater element but omitted all the associated wiring. Now the evenings are getting darker the omission of any interior lights is a nuisance. Left-hand drive, although much easier than I anticipated, can be a pain in car parks. The other big problem is insurance, no garage or driveway, unlimited annual mileage and business use doesn’t come cheap!!

Back in 1992 opinion was divided on the Carrera 2 RS, some journalists thought Porsche should never have released such a harsh uncompromising car for the road, others hailed it as Porsche’s finest creation since the 1973 Carrera RS. I fall into the latter camp and as you can probably tell I am now completely hooked. Previous owners say that the worst thing you can possibly do with a Carrera 2 RS is to sell it!!!!

Running Report 2 - February 2002

First of all I would like to thank all the other 964RS owners who e-mailed me after my first report was published. Clearly these cars stir up much enthusiasm and it has been interesting to hear other owner’s views. Most seem to use them as track day tools and share my opinion that these superb cars are best left as standard as possible.

After a great deal of expenditure resulting in what is now a very well sorted car, I have been enjoying using NPF 111 virtually everyday. However as the weather turned colder, using a car designed for the weekend racer rather than the daily commuter has turned out to be a bit of a challenge. As a Porsche mechanic recently said to me “you have got to really want to drive one to use it every day”

As I stated in my previous running report, I bought the RS to use, it lives on the street and is driven rather than polished. The first problem I have encountered was with my Magnesium Cup wheels, which I bought “newly re-furbished”. These had been powder coated, and as soon as the weather turned to freezing the paint flaked off in huge lumps. Magnesium is very porous and apparently this is a common fault with poorly re-furbished wheels. The old 993 cup wheels are back on the car, which are much less fragile and look fine. My intention is to have the original magnesium wheels re-furbished properly, painted rather than powder coated, fit them with a second set of tyres and use them in the summer months only.

The second minor but irritating fault manifested itself over the Christmas period, my car was purchased with a brand new Bosch battery but with little use over the holiday period and sub zero temperatures it was not holding any charge. The battery is smaller on an RS to save weight and the Alarm, CD Radio and Hands Free Car Kit which have all been added, have not helped the situation. Oxfordshire specialists Autofarm who supplied the car very kindly swapped the battery for a regular large 964 one at no cost.

Whilst the battery was being changed I also had the washer jets replaced as only one was working, the oil tank sender unit has ceased to work, but this can wait. I tend to check the oil on the dipstick, and unlike my previous Carrera 3.0 this car has not used a drop of oil.

The only other incident was entirely self-inflicted and very embarrassing. I attended a sales meeting and whilst trying to park I got distracted and backed the corner of the car into a low brick wall, scratching the bumper and detaching the exhaust from the manifold. The AA came out and wired it back in place, I then drove it up the road to Autofarm (it sounded great, like a 427 Cobra!!) after they had all stopped laughing, they managed to bend the rear bracket back into place and re-fit the silencer total cost; a modest £20 and a very red face!!!!

The only other minor improvement has been a set of genuine Porsche overmats. My friends at Southbound, who did such an excellent job of restoring the interior, supplied these. David Nunn very kindly cut and bound a perfect hole out of the passenger mat to go round the floor mounted fire extinguisher. The mats come as a kit complete with retaining lugs mounted a bracket which in turn very neatly clamp under the front of the seat runners. I had non-original mats in my previous 911, these are far superior and well worth the extra cost.

So what is a Carrera 2 RS? The RS was a road going evolution of the 964 Cup cars developed in the early 1990’s for Porsche’s one make racing series. The road going RS was introduced in three versions, the basic sports model, a more luxurious touring version, and a highly desirable stripped out club sport model which came as standard with a welded in roll cage but without interior trim. Mine is the basic sports model.

Priced at nearly £9000 more than a regular Carrera 2, this was no cosmetic marketing exercise. Specification included, lowered and stiffened suspension, seam welded chassis, deletion of power steering, re-chipped/higher output engine, magnesium 17” “cup” wheels, more powerful turbo ventilated brakes, revised close ratio gearbox with a limited slip differential, and a one piece lightened flywheel. Popular factory options were a bolted-in Matter roll cage, full harnesses and a floor mounted hand-held fire extinguisher.

Weight was shaved down to just over 1200 kgs by the removal of most of the non-essential electrical components. Weight saving measures included the removal of most interior trim replaced by a pair of lightweight fixed leather Recaro racing seats. Sound-proofing was removed and the interior received lightweight carpets and door panels. Slightly more drastic was the removal of the underseal and the fitting of thinner glass. Performance was 260bhp at 6100rpm and 325Nm at 4800rpm. A total of 2,051 cars were built. Unlike the 1988 Carrera Club Sport, which was a slightly half-hearted affair, this was hailed as a worthy successor to the 73 RS.

When I delivered NPF 111 to Autofarm I parked next to three 1973 RS Carrera’s, two tourings and a rare lightweight. It was interesting to compare the cars, I know the 73 cars are now legends but I thought mine held it’s own in such good company and is still a very good looking Porsche. Classic and Sportscar magazine recently did an interesting comparison between the 73 RS, 964 RS and the 993 RS. Predictably all three were very highly praised and the 964 especially for it’s track manners. Although the 964 was not the outright favourite, compared with the other two at £25,000 for a good LHD car it was seen as somewhat of a bargain.

Running Report 3 - May 2002

There is a saying that you wait half an hour for a bus and then three arrive at the same time. Just when I was thinking that I am going to run out of writing matter, it has turned out to be a very busy period since the last report but for all the wrong reasons.

The first minor, but ultimately quite expensive problem was a water leak, I knew something was wrong when I noticed that the car was misting up all the time. On closer investigation I noticed that the rear foot-well carpets were soaking wet. A new rear screen seal, solved the problem and at last the carpets have dried out and the car is watertight again.

In my last report I mentioned that my magnesium wheels had been causing problems, this has now been remedied. Jasmine Motorsport had a good used set of the correct magnesium wheels complete with virtually new Michelin Pilots. They also took my flaking set in part exchange. The new set are excellent and completely original, but obviously because of their rarity were not cheap!!!!

Dramatic and Nasty Incident

Luckily I hadn't fitted them to the car as on the following Sunday I had a very dramatic and nasty incident. I was driving with a friend of mine and I lost control of the car, spun and ended up going through a fence. This was a close-boarded fence and we took out about 20 feet of fencing and three posts.

The car was inevitably badly damaged mainly to the offside wing, door and rear quarter, which took the full initial impact. As the fence also fell on the car most of it was either badly scratched or dented. It is a testament to the strength of the 911 that neither of us was injured and I managed to drive about five miles to my friend's house.

I insisted to the insurance company that the car should be repaired by a Porsche approved bodyshop, they agreed and it was taken to Bodytechnics in Slough. Although the repair estimate was over £13,000, the car was not a write off and essentially was only outer panel damage. The reason the estimate was so high was due to the amount of parts needed plus they decided that the car needed a complete re-paint because the bodywork was so badly scratched. My insurance company assessed it and gave the go-ahead within five working days, which I thought was excellent service.

My passenger in the car is a good friend of mine and has been considering buying a 911 for a while. Even though we went through a fence together, he loved my car and a week later he called to say that he was coming up to Oxfordshire to look at a 964 that local specialists Autofarm were selling, The car sounded really interesting so I agreed to meet him there.

The car we looked at was very rare indeed. A right hand drive 964 RS touring. One of only seven UK cars and one of only eleven right hand drive cars ever produced. As I have a long relationship with Autofarm they let us take the car out for a drive. I approached the car with some scepticism but after a couple of miles I really liked it, although I thought immediately that the pedal layout was not as good as left hand drive 911's. The pedals seem too close together.

The Touring version weighs about 100 kgs more and is essentially like a normal Carrera 2 but with the RS engine, brakes, suspension and wheels. The interior is like a regular 964 but without the rear seats and the car even had a sunroof, central locking and electric windows. I realised how brutally quick mine was in comparison. With 100 kgs less weight and 270 bhp my car should be faster. However I liked the increased refinement, power steering and of course right hand drive.

At the time I was very tempted, but at over £35,000 despite it's rarity and exceptional condition, I don't think it represented good value for money. It looked too much like a regular 964 and I think I would miss the rawness and sense of occasion that my basic sports model delivers.
 

Ultimate Car Control

I recently received an e-mail informing me of some track day dates, in the note they recommended Robb Gravetts ultimate car control course, www.ultimatecarcontrol.com in light of my recent accident I thought this would be a great idea and booked myself on to one of Robb's courses.

Robb uses the Transport Research Laboratory just outside Bracknell, this is ideal as it has a huge tarmac skidpan. Interestingly this is where the Autocar sideways challenge is held. There were five of us on the course and Robb (an ex BTCC winner) has a unique way of teaching car control. The day was split, half the time in the classroom learning about car dynamics and sharing our experiences (and Robb's fairly direct criticisms!) and half the time out on the track.

We used BMW Z3 1.9 roadsters (although you could use your own car) which were ideal being softly sprung, and with the traction control off, a good natural oversteering car. The day was quite a revelation and I didn't believe how much my driving could improve in just 9 hours, the highlight was toward the end of the day, having complete control of the car on the limit, in the wet, with total confidence. I would thoroughly recommend it to any owner of a high performance car.

Goodbye

With my own car off the road for over two months this gave me a lot of thinking time. The RS was an impulse buy nearly a year ago and although it has been a unique experience for the wrong and right reasons! and a sensational car, at times it has been difficult to live with. I know a year ago I said "the worse thing you can do with an RS is to sell it". However after six years of 911 ownership other commitments have forced me to take a sabbatical from Porsche ownership. Not only will I miss that evocative noise and unique driving experience. I will really miss the friendships I have made all over the world from other enthusiastic (and equally obsessive) owners. I am sure it will not be long before another 911 joins the fleet again.