BUILD OF THE BLUE CLOWN CAR, Rebirth of a 914 and its conversion to a /6. Options

[earossi]

Great looking car, and with Brad's tweaking I'm sure it's a great runner as well.
Enjoy it in good health!

Thanks George. Brad is really the "go to guy" for projects like this one. The car has run flawlessly from the day I picked it up from Brad.

[earossi]

Very nice car and I love the blue

Thanks. You just don't know how much I agonized over the color choice. I wanted a color that made a statement. Now that I find that others like the color, even though it is not a Porsche color, I am feeling relieved!

[earossi]

Any plans to bring it to this year's Parade in French Lick, IN?

Hi George. Yes, my son and I will be at French Licht and will have both the 914 and our 993. We'll both be auto crossing the car, and my son wants to put it in the concours, though I don't think the final product is concours quality.....but, it might be fun to give it a try.

We won't be down to the Parade until Monday. We have a conflict since my middle son is getting married in Jamaica on the Saturday the Parade starts. We'll be down there on Monday. Let me know if you'll be there, and we can get together.

[earossi]

Welcome to the madness (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Some blue painter's tape on the rear inside lip of your fender wells during racin will help protect that nice paint job. Folks with sticky slicks on during races tend to pull the rocks out of the road, then leave them on the track. Probably not an issue during your "school"

Have fun! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Hi Chris. Thanks for the tip on protecting the fenders from rocks. And, blue tape will almost blend in with my color! We've autocross before, but in different cars. I wanted to take the car out to this "practice session" to learn the cars habits and my skills at being able to push it. It is so much more connected than my 993. When I AX the 993, I really have to work at it. When I ran the 914 this last weekend, it was more fun than work. I was able to reach the limits of the tires fairly easily and then I could control the car right on the edge. What a blast. Now, I just need to get better tires!

[Larmo63]

Make up a cool sounding name for the color just to mystify the Porsche CWs.

Nice car, glad it worked out for you.

[etcmss]

I passed this car on a trailer the other day on I 55 outside Coal City--looks good, enjoy, quite envious of the results seen here.
I also have dealt with Brad on numerous occasions and happily recommend him as the "go to" guy.
Gary

[era vulgaris]

I remember seeing your car in Gene's advertisements both here and on The Samba. Very interesting and cool to hear the whole story behind it!

One thing I noticed in his advertisements was that your driver and passenger seats are swapped. The angle on the back of the headrest should match the curve of the trunk. Did you ever get those switched back correctly?
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...t&id=497716

[earossi]

I remember seeing your car in Gene's advertisements both here and on The Samba. Very interesting and cool to hear the whole story behind it!

One thing I noticed in his advertisements was that your driver and passenger seats are swapped. The angle on the back of the headrest should match the curve of the trunk. Did you ever get those switched back correctly?
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...t&id=497716

Era,

Thanks for the comments. I'll have to look at the car tomorrow in daylight. I know that Brad Mayeur removed both seats to fix the seatbelt attachment points and did not mention to me that he had found them reversed. But, a good question. Another reason the seats had to come out was that neither one of the adjusters appeared to work. He removed the seats and lubed everything on the tracks and mechanism. They now move fore and aft with ease and can be tilted easily. None of that was possible when I first received the car.

[earossi]

While trailering the car back from Peoria, the wind was able to lift the windshield trim from the glass, and by the time that I noticed what was happening, I had lost one of the two upper sections of trim. The balance of the trim is slightly "sprung" though there is no visible bend in the pieces.

In attempting to get the remaining trim to snap down onto the clips that surround the windshield, none of the clips appears to latch onto the trim. So, what are my remedies short of removing the windshield to replace the clips? Can I safely bond the bright trim into place with something like RTV or weatherstrip adhesive?

Comments and suggestions for a DIY process to fix this item would be appreciated.

[earossi]

I remember seeing your car in Gene's advertisements both here and on The Samba. Very interesting and cool to hear the whole story behind it!

One thing I noticed in his advertisements was that your driver and passenger seats are swapped. The angle on the back of the headrest should match the curve of the trunk. Did you ever get those switched back correctly?
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...t&id=497716

Hi Era,

You are the second one to comment on the apparently "reversed" seats. I confirmed that your observations are correct. The top of each head restraint appears to slope towards the center of the car, and not to the outside as apparently is the "correct" position.

In looking at my car and discussing the seat locations with Michael Hanson (from Brad Mayeur's shop), there are some interesting findings. The normal left side seat bottom bolster on 914's differs in width between the driver and passenger seats. On the driver's seat, the bolster is a little bit more narrow than on the other bolsters on both seats. The narrow bolster is required in order to provide clearance for the hand brake handle to the left of the driver's seat.

When I inspected my seats, I found that the seat bottoms are installed correctly; i.e. the bolster on the driver seat is more narrow than the other three bolsters in the car. So, the seats are installed correctly. However, it appears that the center sections of the two seats have been inadvertently reversed. In discussing how to fix it with Michael, it sounds like a winter project while the car is stored. So, the seat tops are not "technically" correct, but from a functional perspective, there is not an issue. This is another project that goes on the winter work schedule!

[era vulgaris]

That's interesting. I didn't realize the seat bottoms were different between the driver and passenger side. Good to know!

[GeorgeRud]

We are getting down to French Lick on Sunday night as we have a wedding to attend up in Wisconsin on the Saturday preceding the Parade. I'm wondering whether to bring my conversion car or 911 Targa down to Parade as I won't have any time to prepare for the Concours beforehand. I understand that all the rooms at the host hotels (actually at all the hotels) in French Lick are filled with Parade attendees!

[earossi]

The ride to French Licht from Naperville is about 5-6 hours, so you might want to think about bringing your Targa down. It's got to be a more comfortable car for long travel. I'm hoping to bring both my cars down since both my son and I will be traveling together. That way, we can switch cars at least once on the drive! My 993 is an entirely different animal than either the 914 or your Targa. We had thought about entering our 914 in the Concurs, just for grins and the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of nice cars. I don't consider the car to be Concurs quality except that everything on the car is "new" or newly polished or painted. No rust! But, unfortunately, the Concurs is on Monday which is the day we will be traveling down to Parade.

I attempted to register for all the events and make hotel arrangements 2 hours after Parade registration opened. By that time, every room at the French Licht resort had been booked. We were directed to a Comfort Inn that I am told is about 3 miles from the resort! One has to believe that there is a "system" and pecking order on who gets to stay at the main resort. One of the negatives of a club getting so popular that it begins to outgrow all the venues available for staging such an event.

One of the things we need to discuss while down there is the gas heater you have stored up in Wisconsin since I am still interested in such an installation for my car.

At any rate, we should all have a good time and a lot of fun. Do you know of any other 914 guys going to the Parade?

[GeorgeRud]

There should be some. Jim Kutill is coming down from Oak Park with his yellow 914 and is entered in the concours. I entered the Concours with my 914-6 conversion, but I don't think that will work with my revised schedule. When I talked to Eric Shea @ Amelia Island, it sounded like he wanted to be there with his beautiful conversion -6. It'll be great to see your car and I'm sure others will also make the trip.

We got into the West Baden Resort, but entered as soon as registration opened and immediately booked the hotel ASAP once finished with the loooong registration.

[earossi]

Today, I took the 914 to its first PCA autocross. Gave me a number of runs to further evaluate the car......and unfortunately, the driver! Well, the car did wonderfully. Now it just needs a decent driver. LOL. This was my first foray into auto crossing in over two years, and it was not pretty. I ended up with DNF's on most runs, simply because I missed gates on the grid. Not the car's fault. The car has great power. So much torque that I actually started off for each run in 2nd and there is where I left the gearbox.

The mods to my car, including the engine and staggered tires pushed the 914 into a class against 993's and Boxster S's. In reality, I think that the car can and will eventually be competitive against that kind of machinery. I just need to run more races and push the car more.

From a handling standpoint, the car has too much understeer at speed. So, I'll be researching what I need to do to reduce understeer. And, I need better tires, particularly in the front where it was too easy for me to lock the front brakes. Which goes back to the argument that the stock 914 front brakes were probably OK. Instead, I elected to add Boxster front calipers for more bite. I just now need to select a tire that has better traction. Right now I have got Continental DWS Extremes which are all season street tires. Great riding and low noise, but the traction is not up to the demands of auto crossing.

I've attached a couple of photos taken at the PCA auto crossing school from last week. [attachmentid=499
521]

What was the most fun, was all the conversations that started from folks walking over to find out about the car. At today's autocross, there were 73 cars running. I had the only 914, and would have been oldest car running save for a 1969 911T and a 1972 BMW 2002. I was especially glad to hear that the color of the car was the first thing that grabbed their eye. When they got up close, they really liked the workmanship of the project. So, I'm a pretty happy camper tonight. I just need to learn how to drive the car as it should be driven.

[peteyd]

I also love the colour! My cars colour is very similar, and actually my car is almost identical to yours minus a few small details. I also think the red interior is a nice touch.

Nice build.

Pete

[r_towle]

Look really nice.
May want a rear adjustable anti sway bar, or more springs in the rear...
That one pic of you turning left seems to be the rear is to high on the inside which makes me think the rear needs to be slightly stiffer.

[Camaro Mike]

Ernie,

Good to hear you had fun today. It was great getting to meet you yesterday and see the car in person.

Mike

[earossi]

Ernie,

Good to hear you had fun today. It was great getting to meet you yesterday and see the car in person.

Mike

The pleasure was entirely mine, Mike. We need to get your Cayman out there. There were about a half dozen that we're running blistering times. They are great handlers.

[earossi]

Look really nice.
May want a rear adjustable anti sway bar, or more springs in the rear...
That one pic of you turning left seems to be the rear is to high on the inside which makes me think the rear needs to be slightly stiffer.

Thanks for the comments. You may be right. One trick I have heard from guys who have auto crossed 914's is to disconnect just one end of the rear anti sway bar to induce some oversteer. I may try that next time. Stiffer springs are something I would resist since I really want this to be a comfortable riding street car. I'm afraid that adding stiffer springs will be at the expense of ride comfort.