Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

i picked up this 924 turbo race car a few weeks ago. it was prepared for racing by a company called nick bentley motorsport, it had a full shell strip and rebuild!

it looks very clean and well built, the car has no underseal and signs of seam welding in places. runs leda coilover suspension with torsion bars reindexed. uprated pads all round, strut brace, full weld in rollcage, omp bucket seat and trs harness, plumbed in extinguisher, battery cut off, push button start, digital speedo and rev counter, 5 stud 944 hubs, quaife atb lsd, dogleg gearbox, cookie cutter wheels, quick release steering wheel hub and momo wheel, exhaust system, braided fuel lines, plus more i have forgotton or not discovered yet!

its a 1981 car, series 2, originally blue in color but had a full respray in yellow when the car was rebuilt, the paint job proves how much of the car was stripped down as i literally cannot see a spec of the original colour anywhere on the car! the engine bay has also been repainted in black

the car seems to be in very good shape! very clean throughout, underside looks great aswell, no oil leaks anywhere in the engine, which is clean as a whistle! engine starts on the button hot or cold and runs very smoothly, fan cuts in, good oil pressure etc.

the car hasnt been used for around a year since the last person bought it as a project they never got round to touching as he had another race car and some classics he was also restoring. my plan is to re commision the car ready for some track day/race fun!

there were a few small niggles that i have sorted straight away which consisted of the car having no working brakes, the pedal dropped to the floor. there was also a seized rear caliper.

i replaced the seized caliper, and then gave the braking system a bleed, and the brakes were sorted! the car now stops as it should!

next job was to lower the driver seat on its mounts as it was very high up! simple job!

the main work i have carried out is to modify and improve the weld in rollcage that was already installed. i added a few extra tubes to strengthen the bodyshell further, aswell as adding a tube to wrap the harness around rather than using the original rear seat belt mounts which dont lend themselves to a good harness angle.
i then added some a pillar gussets to tie the cage into the screen pillar, not only does this further increase shell rigidity it also looks pretty smart!

the main things i need to do now are a full vehicle check over on the ramp, replace anything that looks tired, and then give it a full service, fluids, filters, cam and drive belts, race brake fluid, spark plugs, dizzy cap and arm etc etc. then take it on a trackday and see how it goes!

currently not road legal as no mot, but im thinking of getting the car back to a road legal MOT'able state so it can be driven to track if need be, not that it would be a great road car as its VERY low, and VERY stiff! i will need to see how much work is required to get an mot first.

anyway heres a load of pics for you to look at, will update as and when work is carried out

thanks
nick





























obviously all the unpainted tubes are the ones i have added myself.

the car also has a load of history/paperwork etc, and evidence of an engine rebuild aswell!

a great little buy i think!

Sweet. Would you like a tip thatll make you 10 seconds a lap faster on many days?

It does look like a good one, almost a shame it was made in to a racer, but it is quite cool and that I need to make space in the garage for a 924.

whats the tip? driver training lol? already had plenty of that! if not, go ahead and share!

cheers

I like that Nick Bentley did my belts, tensioners and waterpump.

not a spec of rust on the whole car! shell is great! i imagine its very light aswell, although its still running glass hatch and heavy steel bonnet so could loose a fair bit of weight there if needed.

not going mad on this, just want to give it a service up and check over, then get it out on track for a shakedown and see how it performs!

Im surprised that you didnt get it, particularly seeing that you know which parts of the car I have seen.

I would refit the blower and windscreen vents. If it was mine Id refit the heater too, but I appreciate that you will want to keep it sealed up. Being able to clear the screen makes a massive difference.

lol i wasnt looking at the pics or thinking about what it could be i just assumed you may mention driver training lol. being able to see out the screen is always a bonus yes! will look into that, dont really want to have to put the whole lot back in, but may look into a small race matrix and fan to mount.

cheers
nick

Cool. That looks as rigid as hell now you've tied everything together. Should corner like it's on rails.

I hope she goes well for you. I'd put intercooler at the top of the list of any mods, even if just for reliability.

yes should be a nice strong shell, the suspension is rather stiff aswell and all looks in great shape!

the cage is tied into the body in many places, it bolts into the b pillar where the original seat belt mounts are, and is also welded to the shell at the bottom of the screen pillar.

i may add a couple more tubes which run from the front legs up to the bulkhead just to protect my legs if in a big side impact etc. apart from that just need to find some yellow paint to match and paint the new bits of the cage, add a passenger seat aswell for trackday rides etc.

it is running some semi slicks at the minute, but they are looking a bit old and tired and so i will change them for piece of mind, date marked 2004! and a bit cracked, dont want to risk a blowout, and i doubt they will perform well due to age anyway.

your right regarding the intercooler, in fact i have already said to steve (carrera rsr) i will buy his intercooler kit he has advertised!


i have just spent a bit of time looking through the paperwork to try and piece together a bit of the history of the car.
the majority of the paperwork points to a mr a baird, who spent a fortune on it! in 1995 he had camtune which is a local company to me carry out a full engine rebuild at the cost of £3000 @35k miles. this owner seems to have had the car for all of the 90s and spent a small fortune on the car!

in 1999 it looks like nick bentley motorsport actually owned the vehicle, bought from lodge sports! so the car will have been converted to a race car around this period of time, and apparently it was raced on and off in the porsche classic race series up until 2002, when it was retired to be used as a track day car. nick bentley sold the car in 2004!

the car was still road legal at this time and i have mot certs to back this up. i have a receipt of sale in nov 2004 for the car sold needing repair due to an engine running fault.

1 month later the new owner obviously had the engine repaired, as there is a receipt from Strasse Porsche specialists in dec 2004 for repairs to the valves at a cost of £1100. at the same time the rest of the engine/bearings etc were all checked and ok'd, then put back together with new gaskets etc

we then have another receipt from strasse for a replacement clutch, new warm up regulator, earth lead set and CO set up costing another £1160 dated february 2005.
there is also an mot cert which expires on sept 2006 at 64k miles!

the last piece of paperwork for the car is a change of owner september 2007

so the car was certainly used and road legal up to 64k miles and sept 2006, after that the last owner told me it had been used purely as a track day car, and was no longer used on the road. hence why the car had the dash removed and anything else removed to save weight etc. im hoping i can MOT the car without to much work, as it just makes testing and tweeks easier being road legal, and also being able to drive to local tracks is handy, i will have to fully inspect the car and see if there is anything it will need for an mot without to much work. i know it needs number plates lights but thats hardly an issue lol!

i imagine being converted to a track car means the car will have done very few miles since then which makes it quite low mileage in comparison to most newer 944s which have all covered loads of miles (my 86 turbo at 180k!)

i also have the chassis sticker to hand which shows the car was originally colour code ly5a, it also had options trans-31, c45, e28, 261, 395, 410, 666 if anyone can shed any light on what that all means!

quite enjoyed tracing the history of the car by flicking through the paperwork, would be nice if any previous owners could shed more light, or even better owners between 2006 and now to shed some light on the missing history.

as said the car runs very well and with a small recommissioning service and check over will make for a fun and rare car!

Ask marc noac (see other thread re info) and he will mail you the orig spec of the car!

thanks have just emailed him

the car is also a non sunroof shell which is nice!

Valves hitting pistons? The 931 is an interference engine, unlike the normally aspirated version and this sometimes catches people out. Do you think that it has had better suspension at some time? The holes in the body in the 'under the rear squab' area suggest remote reservoirs...

Last question: how are the torsion bar adjustment hole covers secured, please? 911s were designed with the hole so they provide for a cover, but converted 944s usually look a bit Heath Robinson.


Simon

the engine damage report stated they found debris in cylinder 4, i dont think the belt snapped, but possibly the car dropped a piece of valve, as they said they removed and lapped in the valves and put it back together.

it could have possibly run remote resevoirs at some point, i couldnt say for sure! it is currently running leda adjustable damping all round, with coilover adjustable height and damping at the front.

i will take a couple of pics of the torsion tube hole covers for you

i also heard back from marc noac re the info of the car which is as follows


engine 31/03
gearbox 31/01
color K9=mauritius blue
interior KN=leatherette black,seats Berber cloth
delivered to GB Feb.'82
options 020=speedo in mph and kmh
240=version for countries with inferior fuel
261=electric mirror passengers side
269=driving light with switch
288=headlampwashers
323=ECE sticker
395=alloy wheels "911"-type 7x16
398=electric mirror drivers side
410=sport seats
425=rear wiper
431=4-spoke steering wheel leather,leather boot shift
466=rear fog light
492=H4 lights
568=colored windows
651=electric window opener
666=without paint protection

thanks
nick

result! just bought a cool little solution to window demisting! had a quick search on ebay and found an electrical hot air blower demister from an e36 m3 evo cabriolet. its a compact unit that is electrically powered and blows hot air! used on the m3 to demist the rear cabriolet screen. perfect for the job, easy to fit and wire in, lightweight and simple!

nick