912/6 Project - here we go again!

[jury]

Great news Keith, now lets see that rolling road

[911hillclimber]

What happened today?

[anglophone1]

Great stuff KS- CLM 2016 here you come!

[KS]

What happened today?

https://www.facebook.com/keith.seume/vi ... 464959768/

[911hillclimber]

That sounds very sweet at (break-in?) revs.

You will need a far more substantial report than 50 secs, you know this!

Well done, you must be feeling it is very much at the end of the 'garage-phase' now, and ready for the open road.

[KS]

It's been up to 7000rpm but no under much load - didn't do any power runs as engine is too new, but Stephen Miles at Tipton Garageis one of the most confidence-inspiring rolling-road operatives I've met. Between him and his father Richard, they've got masses of experience. Instantly felt the car was in good hands.

Will be driving the car up to Surrey this afternoon, and then taking it to the publisher's Porsche picnic at Mapledurham near Reading tomorrow, and then back home to Cornwall. It'll be two and a half years since it was last 'home'!

[Darren65]

Fantastic moment, congrats Keith.

Truly hope I get to roll with this car one day

[impmad2000]

Fantastic Keith, I hope it all as expected and that Tiptons didn't find any more surprises.
Enjoy the drive.

[KS]

Fantastic Keith, I hope it all as expected and that Tiptons didn't find any more surprises.
Enjoy the drive.

Hi Tim - first off, major thanks to YOU for all your help, shoulder to cry on, etc.

Just two things showed up: first is that there was a problem synching the timing figures between what the (two) timing lights showed and what the Tuning Studio software said was happening. The software didn't appear to respond to any attempts to get the two to match. Stephen did some calculations and worked out what the software should say and made changes based on that (probably haven't explained that very well!).

The other was that at low rpm, there is a slight glitch which he thinks is probably caused by interference. When I take the car over next (probably a couple of weeks), he's going to put his oscilloscope on it to look at the signal from the crank sensor. I did wonder if it was the screening (or lack of) where I had to peel it back to connect up to the EDIS...

Fantastic moment, congrats Keith.

Truly hope I get to roll with this car one day

Me too!

[KS]

Blimey - reading the above post almost makes it look like I know what I'm talking about. Let's make one thing clear: I don't!

[impmad2000]

Keith, you know a lot more now than you did at the start. Sound like Tiptons are taking the right approach.

[KS]

Another little video. This was the first longer run – slight stumble which was tuned out....

https://www.facebook.com/keith.seume/vi ... 664409768/




Remember when all you needed to tune a car was a screwdriver and a length of rubber hose to listen to the sound in the carb intakes?

[911hillclimber]

That's how I did my Lola-Porsche engine, took 20 mins to optimise it, but I used a 30 year old Colour Tune too..(!)

Do they use any extra air while running the car? Bob Watson has a monster fan to simulate road air flow.

Sounds really good. Be good to have an 'Outlaw-Only' run, from Neil Bainbridge's to Canford Classic's place.?

[samcro]

Congrats looks really cool dude,look forward to seeing it blasting round the lanes.

[KS]

OK, so now I've got about 500 miles, maybe a few more, on the clock. Well, they would be on the clock if the speedo cable hadn't broken after 231 miles – I know it broke precisely at that point because the trip odometer is stuck at that mileage!

When I left Tipton Garage, the car ran well, but not perfectly. The engine was too new to put any serious rolling road time on it, so we (well, Stephen Miles) concentrated on getting the mapping done sufficiently well for me to be able to drive the car to get it broken in, so to speak. He took it up to 7000rpm without any load being applied to the rollers and it sounded sweet as a nut. The small amount I'd driven it up to that point had me paranoid there was some problem internally as there was what seemed to be a distinct mechanical sound coming back up the intakes at about 2500-3000rpm. Turns out that was the point when things were starting to 'work' – compression was no longer being bled off through open valves at low rpm as the engine started to 'come on cam'. The beauty of the ECU and the ability to be able to apply fuel and add or take away timing at precise points means that the normally very peak 'S' cams appear far softer, the engine generating torque where normally an 'S' has very little. But I digress other than to say the noise was nothing to worry about...

A test drive of a few miles with Stephen in the passenger seat looking at his Innovate to get fuel-air ratio readings showed that we weren't a million miles off, but the engine still 'pinked' slightly under load up hills – easily solved by backing off the throttle slightly. We'll get that sorted on the full rolling road runs next month by which time I should have 1000 miles on the engine.

The following day, I drove the car from Roger Bray's near Exeter up to Delwyn Mallett's' at Farnham. It was a pretty moving experience for me – it was four full years since I'd bought the base car and over three and a half since I'd started work on it. I've had some decent highs but some very low lows during that period, mostly as a result of my not being able to work on the car when I wanted due to my not having a garage, not having the time and, to be frank, not having the money. I sold most of my VW memorabilia collection over the last couple of years to top up the funds, and called in as many favours as I could. I dread to think how much money has been consumed by this, but at a rough guess £35-40K. For what? A car which one dealer told me is worth £55-60K on a good day but looking at some cars advertised on here, more likely £30-35K. Who knows? Who cares? I don't at the moment but may have to worry about that one day. Anyway, back to the plot...

Delwyn Mallett is, as you've probably guessed by now, my dearest friend and a great character in every way. But he hates gold cars with a vengeance. He practically begged me not to paint the car gold when I first told him my plans. Anything but gold. But when he saw the car in his driveway (he'd never seen it until then), even he agreed it looked (in his words) 'absolutely beautiful'. High praise indeed from the old codger.

Sunday morning, we caravanned up to Reading for the CHP Porsche Picnic, me in El Chucho (or El Chuckle, as Mitch has renamed it – I kinda like that!) and Del in his silver Speedster, one of the two he owns and which cost him £350 each a good few years ago. Them were the days, eh? There's nothing like empty roads, a crisp morning and a pair of mates in Porsches. A stop at a local garage for fuel was an amusing experience. I was filling up while Del sat in his Speedster waiting. A big black guy pulled up in his BMW and practically fell out of his car in excitement, his head snapping from left to right and back again as he took in the two Porsches. Turns out he'd been lifelong Porsche fan and couldn't wait to get behind the wheel of one. He'd never seen a genuine Speedster before and was fascinated by Del's.

Arriving at the show and getting a round of applause from Clive Househam, the publisher of the magazines I write for an a lifelong friend, was amusing. I remind him every now and then that I got him his first job in publishing back on Hot Car in 1978... At the show, the car attracted interest and Steve Bennett, editor of 911 & Porsche World, gave me a trophy simply for getting there!

The drive home was great. I was elated at having made it all the way from the south west up to Surrey and then across to Berkshire. The drive was into a stunning sunset, the engine running sweeter than ever in the cooling air. I was a happy man.

So what went wrong? Not a lot. The rev counter doesn't work – I need to install a step-up coil to boost the low voltage signal from the ECU to drive the early tacho. No biggie. The speedo cable broke at Yeovil on the A303. My fault for using the original cable (cheapskate that I am). The oil temp gauge was refusing to read above 60 degrees C. Now temporarily fixed thanks to Ian's loan of his spare gauge. Not bad eh? No tacho, no speedo and no oil temp gauge. Oh, and the clock doesn't work! But it is right twice a day... And for some reason, I've lost high beam – I think I may have simply dislodged the fuse putting the cover back on the fuse box.

The car handles well – the alignment is spot on, but it has settled a little at the back. The front now needs to come down a little to get the car to sit level. The brakes are 'firm' – I installed a 23mm master cylinder but Chris Rudling who made the calipers (and bugger me, they are gorgeous!) tells me I needn't have done that as they would work fine with the stock m/c. However the pedal is not too bad once you get used to it, and the brakes sure do work! I've never owned a car with braking performance to match the engine – after a lifetime of over-powered, under-braked VWs it's quite a revelation.

The seating position is too low – what felt fine in the workshop is not at all comfortable out on the road. I need to raise the seats about 20mm. The door mirror is useless (but, damn, it looks cool).

I forgot to mention. After I had the paperwork returned from the DVLA because Crispin Manners had forgotten to sign the MOT certificate (crazy as it's all computerised these days), I was worried about running out of time to get the car registered prior to its maiden trip up country. I put a 'pretty please' note in with the resubmitted application, which arrived at DVLA on the Friday. I didn't hear anything by Wednesday, so sent another 'pretty please' e-mail, and got a reply telling me that the paperwork had gone through, but they couldn't tell me the number for security reasons! I rang DVLA and got a very helpful young Welsh lady who said 'I expect you'd like to know your new registration number?' I could have kissed her... So VAM 504D it is for the time being until I transfer TLF 25, which is currently on retention.

I've now driven El Chuckle a few times and it's still sinking in that I have my own Porsche again, in my garage, at my disposal whenever I want. Damn, it's been a long heart-breaking, bank breaking journey but it's worth it. Thanks to all of you who've offered advice, help and encouragement (and bugger off to those who said they got tired of reading about it) - but most of all a big thanks to Sarah who, even as a non car person, has encouraged me every inch of the way. Unprompted, she even took this picture of me about to set off for Surrey on my first journey... True love, eh?