David R. Schlegel

If I were to modify my 82 SC to the Turbo "wide body" look, would it involve rear flairs as well as front. I suspect the answer is yes, because 930 rear flairs certainly look more pronounced than on my SC. If the answer is indeed, yes, are there less pronounced flairs for the front that would not make the car look unbalanced, as I suspect the 930 front flairs with the existing rear flairs would? If I were to do this, the flairs would have to be steel, not fiberglass -- anyone?

Jay H

David:

If you wanted your narrow body SC to look like a true Turbo, yes, you'd need both front and rear flares. Also, everyone is pretty used to the Turbo body shell, so if you could find flares that are a bit less than a standard Turbo's flares, things may look out of proportion to some people.

Last time I checked, there are fiberglass flares available.

Here's a 1983 SC that was converted from a narrow body car to a Turbo body car using factory steel flares:

83 SC Turbo Look

Jay
90 964

vwdrvr66

Although all the work was done when I purchased my car, all the fenders were replaced and the the front ones seem to be a galvanized metal as well as the rear. This is also an 82 sc. This is what it could "look" like.

JCP911S

Turbo has 9" front and 11" rear flares. SC has rear 9" flares.

Actually there was a rare 911 variant called the 911ST that was a rally car with 9" flares front and rear. GT-Racing.com sells a body kit if you want to see what it looked like.

IMHO, everybody is used to seeing 911 with wider rear flares, so I suspect you would spend alot of time explaining such a car... but it would be different... basically, all 911 look good so it is really what you like.... its your car.

If you really want to do something different, you could put a 73 RS/RSR body kit on your car. If you went with fiberglass it might not be that bad... hood, bumpers, rear valance... for RS you could leave your SC flares intact. If you went with 911R lights, you'd save monay on new housings... origional small bumper lights are getting rare..... then you'd have a more exclusive look.

Always fun to spend other people's money...

David R. Schlegel

Thanks all:
I agree with you, Jay; as a matter of fact my car is identical to yours (platinum metallic paint) except for the flairs. Looks great! The body & paint on my car are original & look great, so I'll forgo the flairs till a later day. I bought my 82 two months ago & put a ton of $ into the mechanicals (body, paint & black leather interior are in very good condition) and I will NEVER sell the car(my total investment including the 13.5K purchase price is 33.6K [am I nuts or what?!}). Jay, is yours also a Euro spec. car? The side lights make me ask. Mine is & I love the 20 extra horses I understand they came with. I put on SSI's & a dual out stainless muffler, K&N filter, otherwise stock. My mechanic, to whom I turned the car over for five weeks for a no holds barred mechanicoresto, tells me it's probably making between 225 & 235 HP. I love the car & do not miss the monster torque of the 99 Corvette hardtop that I had for five years & sold w/78,800 miles on the odo to buy this 23 year old Porsche w/ 178,600 miles on its odo - AND I NEVER LIKED PORSCHES ! Unlike the Vette, the Porsche involves you 100% when you drive it. Sounds goofy, but it takes me back to my teen age thrills gotten driving my first sports car - a 48 HP Bugeye Sprite!

Jay H

David:

That car in the link above is actually my brother's. I do drive it often and love it (and prefer driving it at times to my 964 coupe). It's so basic and the newer cars have all but lost that feel.

The previous owner spent about $50k on the car and it's conversion back in '88-'89 to convert it from a low options SC to this Turbo look. He went all out and it shows. OEM steel flares, wider Fuchs rims, OEM front valance, spoilers and wheel spacers. The metal work and paint was carried out by a local Porsche 356 craftsman who does exceptional work (and only gets his business by word of mouth in a back woods shop that is hard to find - we've seen other cars he's done and his work is stunning). Yes, it is platinum.

The car was delivered to a customer in Germany when new (making it a Euro spec car as you guessed) and was imported in 1986 to Wisconsin by it's second owner. The car originally came with no sunroof, no A/C, cloth seats, vinyl interior, no catalytic converter and 15" phone dials. Very light (before the conversion).

It's got about 130,000 miles on it now and has been very well taken care of by all of it's owners, but never babied either (some track use by former owners and it does get worked hard on the street). My brother had our trusted shop drop the motor and tranny about 5 years ago for some tranny work. They checked the top end of the motor throughly and everything was well in spec on his motor. Very little wear after 115,000 miles. These things are vitually bulletproof.

My brother lowered the car and had the rims refinished years ago. Other than some cosmetic issues and general maintenance issues, he has had to do very little in the way of major repairs other than the previously mentioned transmission work (which is common at 100k for a 915 tranny).

It's never been driven in snow and it's seen very limited rain by all it's owners, so it's completely corrosion free and very easy to wrench on even though it's 22 years old. The undercarriage and wheel wells look great.

Good luck with your car!

Jay
90 964

David R. Schlegel

Jay,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm the fourth owner of my car, it also having been brought over from Germany w/low miles to a San Diego dealer who did the gray market req'd things, sold twice after that, then bought by me.

The seller is a mechanical engineer w/HPackard and owned the car for 12 yrs. He had the seats (originally black & white herringbone panels) beautifully reupholstered in all black leather, cocoa floor mats, no dash cracks. The car did come w/sunroof but no A.C. (just as well - weighs lbs, saps HP [I stay near the coast during the summer months]). It had cookie cutters, 6's & 7's, 15". Had a helluva time finding Fuchs 7's & 8's, 16", but lucked out w/a local find (polished & pretty). Went w/a bigger rear torsion bar, Bilsteins all around Turbo tie rod ends and a strut bar, so I think I'm pretty well set up to toss it around a bit.

The trans was rebuilt @ 84K miles and I believe I again need to have it opened up because 2nd gear is intermitantly difficult to engage w/o a bit more pressure than I think should be necessary (never any grinding), and has twice prevented me from engaging 2nd gear, period, even by double clutching or turning off the engine and trying. A couple stop signs later & it returned to normal. I'm told it's probably a synchro issue. At any rate, I realize that, unlike the Corvette or RX7 twin turbo I once owned, it was never designed to be able to snap shift w/no throttle lift (I'm not a drag racing buff anyway).

I'm a rank newbie, but have very quickly become enamored w/this old Porsche o'mine and am happy to find this forum where one can vent, opinionate and question (and ramble on too much I suppose).

Jay H

...I'm VERY guilty of rambling on and on and on here...

Sound like you have a nice car and are really enjoying it!

I remember when we bought my brother's car, I drove him in my 911 to pick up his 'new' 911 from the prior owner. The prior owner really didn't want to sell it, but kinda had to since he had a 43 foot boat that was taking priority (and I assume his budget too). As we drove away after paying for the car and chatting a bit, the prior owner watched us go "in his car" just clutching his dog in his yard dang near crying. How many cars will do that to owners? To some people, these aren't just cars...