O2GO

Several months ago at only my second Porsche Club Sprints event on a wet day I aquaplaned and side swiped the concrete barrier then off through the kitty litter to come to a stop against the tyre wall.

Fortunately the only damage to myself was a slight headache and my beloved 964 suffered damage to the bumper, right guard, door and broken right wishbone (compliments of the barrier) then left side of the bumper and left guard compliments of the tyre wall.

Here she is before...

O2GO

While I was checked over in the on-site St Johns ambulance, my mates and the event organisers set to retrieving Lola out of the kitty litter. With the right wishbone broken, the steering u joint that attaches to the steering rack broken, the right front wheel was just floating on the strut.

Damage to the right was guard, bumper, oil cooler, door, mirror, wishbone and steering U joint.

O2GO

And on the left hand side, bumper, lights and guard damage...

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My mates put her away in Steve's huge lockup at the track and another mate took me home. I was pretty shattered as I was uninsured at this event and an initial gut feel estimate by someone who would know put the cost at reinstating her at NZ$25k.

A week went by and then the service manager from my local OPC, Dean from CCS came with me and we met Steve from Europacific at Hampton Downs track to go over and take a good hard look at the damage and to assess what parts and panel beating would be required.

I'd borrowed ChrisB's race car trailer and, when the inspections had finished, we winched her onto the trailer and Dean and I set off back to Auckland.

It was tricky to load and unload because we didn't want to stress the front right wheel strut, so the right front was carried on a jack while loading and unloading which was pretty challenging.

Here we are unloading her at my place.

O2GO

ChrisB has also lent me his 4 trolly wheel jacks (not sure what they're normally called) which helped us getting the left front off (the wheel was rubbing on the bent guard) and once in the garage would enable me to move her around.

Once she was off the trailer we had to push her up hill into the garage. I canvasses a neighbour and 4 of us got her off the trailer but couldn't get her up the hill.... So I sent them home and waited for several more neighbours to get home. Eventually 6 of us grunted and pushed her up the hill into the garage to her place of rest for the next few months. It was hard work because of the jack holding the front left up and also a 1.5 inch lip to get the trolly jack over to get her into the garage. Phew.

O2GO

At home in my garage, ready for the slow rebuild

O2GO

The first job was to remove the right front wheel and test it to see if it was bent with the sideswipe of the wall. I thought it would be unlikely and was proved right. First good news.

O2GO

The next talk was to remove the right front wheel carrier assembly and the strut. The KWV3 struts were less than two years old and I was keen to see if the strut was damaged. I removed it, loosened the tension off the springs, cleaned and tested it with my own bodyweight. It moved freely and seemed to be perfect. That is a good win as replacement would be around the NZ$1,200 mark.

The wheel carrier looked ok but would need to be crack tested to be sure.

The steering arm U joint that strews into the end of the steering rack had sheared off and was easily removed. I've ordered a replacement.

You can see the broken aluminium wishbone in the picture.

O2GO

The KWV3 strut

O2GO

Next, off with the left front wheel to check that there wasn't anything untoward to discover there. While the wheel was off I decided to start getting the mountains of kitty litter that had sprayed up into lots of suspension and other nooks and crannies under the car out. Lots of brushing to get the worst of it out...my guess half a bucket full, and this job won't be completely finished for a while as I work my way around the car.

Crz21

Feel gutted for you. Hope you get it sorted soon and it doesn't cost a fortune to put right.

O2GO

Thanks. I was really gutted for a while but I've now had a couple of months to get over it and look at it positively as a project and an opportunity to do some personalisation along the way. Amazingly it will cost about half the car's previous value to reinstate. 55-60% of the cost will be in parts, even when using good quality second hand guards and a door.

O2GO

Rear left wheel off and tons of kitty litter in and around the suspension and on the guard under the cat. After scraping away for a while I decided it really needed to come off to clean it out.

O2GO

Time for the first mod. Off comes the primary bypass which goes on to Sam's 964. Out comes the loan secondary muffler (mine has rattly baffles and had been exchanged for a spare one of JohnM's a few months ago after our Cape Reinga to Bluff tour) and in goes my old primary muffler.

I need to order a secondary bypass from Pelican. So will end up with an exhaust system made up of cat bypass (NZ new 964s cars don't have a cat due to the high lead content in our fuel back then), primary muffler and secondary bypass.

I can't start her to see what it sounds like as the oil cooler had the fan pushed into it and sprouted a pretty serious leak.

O2GO

And my primary bypass goes straight into Sam's lovely black 964 tippo. When he starts it up he's stoked with the sound.