Bavarian Coach Werks / Clay Doppke
 

I have another off the wall question for you guys.

Anyone here know anything about "Bavarian Coach Werks" in West Carrollton, Ohio and Clay Doppke? My friend is trying to find out anything he can about the engine and suspension mods they did to his car in the late 80's. he can't find any of his paperwork since that was so long ago.

Bavarian did a lot of mods and racing stuff. it's like a knockoff 935.... Jose Conseco was having a car modified for him at the same time his car was being worked on. Supposedly it has a stage 4 package(?)

Just thought I'd throw it out there and see if someone knows something.....

Yep, heard of them like you back in the 80's. Also heard that Clay did some pretty awesome work.. been out of business for sometime though. One of the first Turbos I drove years ago had a Dopke/BCW motor and it was extremely fast on CIS. I have one of thier Intercoolers.

Your friends car would be like a pastel blue would it?

Oh, and noticed the tweed seats and Banjo wheel before seeing the car in you sig line.. I also had a 40 Ford Street-Rod, pick-up some years back.

My Friends car is Guards Red.

40's are fun, but it's no Porsche for dang sure. :)

Thanks for the info. I went for a ride in my firends car and I gotta tell you, it did slam my back into the seat when that Turbo kicked in. WOOOSH!!!

boy you sure have a lot of friends who don't know how to use a pc ;)

I ordered a set of rocker arms from them and was told they were the last set he produced. They were pretty. Basically they were stock units he hand picked for weight and then inspected them for structural integrity. Finally they were highly polished to a mirror finnish. Not cheap. His work was considered some of the best.

LOL !!! This guy is just very busy, seriously busy right now, so he asked me to post a few questions about his car. Might be he is forum shy, I don't know, but I want to help him since he is helping me with a little something now too.

If I were asking the questions for myself, believe me, I would just come out and ask. I'm not shy at all :evilgrin:

JoAnne,

I believe the ex-Canseco car lives here as one of our clients has a Clay Dopke-built 935 that he built and its a special car. This one is yellow and looks just like a K3, complete with flat-fan 935 engine. :)

Show-off! ;)

I bet my friend would LOVE to talk to your client about his car. I guess that car was being built the same time his was.

My client bought the car third-hand so its history and specs are a little vague. He's not a "Porsche" guy so many aspects of the build were not obvious to him.

We did an inspection and wrote some estimates and thats what allowed us to inspect it and determine whats there.

I'll tell you that a LOT of money was spent on this thing and the sum of its parts equal or exceed its market value. :) :)

Hi JoAnne,

We miss you in Arkansas! It is a small world, because I saw your friends car last week at Steve and Rick's place and I nearly to have dropped my keys. You don't see a 935 Ruf Turbo around these parts often. I even took a test drive with Steve in the car. Man that car is fast a stink.

Later that day I met your friend and he explained pretty much the same issues you described in your original post. He needs some work done on the car but did not have any specifications. He told us the Conseco story and the history of the car's purchase in Ohio and then subsequent conversion to the 935 specifications. An absolutely amazing low mileage automobile for sure.

As you already know, researching Bavarian Coach Werks and Clay Doppke is near impossible. Aside from finding your post, using Google, BING, Yahoo or other search engines is virtually useless. I emailed a friend of mine I sold 356 parts to who lives in Dayton and he said Bavarian Coach works and Mr. Doppke left Dayton 10 - 15 years ago and is now in Florida somewhere. I had another friend who said he thought he ended up in New York at a Porsche dealer.

Perhaps the Conseco car has the same specifications as your friends car here in Arkansas? Perhaps the two Steve's need to talk and compare car notes?

As to you friend's car, I did see that it had a very early Electromotive Fuel Injection system and it was twin plugged. The unique header system produced a throaty howl and Steve, Rick and I estimated the actual horsepower of the car to be about 350 - 375. The trailing arms do not look like standard 930 arms and we assumed they were original to the 935. It also had a unique interior and some unusual Recaro sport seats with the controls facing upwards on the bolsters. It had Ruf decals on it but I don't think there is any connection to Ruf.

I will continue to look for clues on the car and will post what I find.

Take care,


Henry Carraro
hcarraro@hughes.net

HENRY!!!! So nice to hear from you. We miss Arkansas more than you know :)

We did find out one thing about the car. It has some RUF parts but it is not a RUF car. I suggested the RUF sticker come off since it really isn't one and in a way is much more Unique than a RUF is. Mike's car is definitely a one of one.

I also got to ride in the car. Mike gave it to us for a couple of days and Robert had fun driving it on Amity Road and Hwy 192. When the Turbo kicked in it glued me to the back of the seat. Lucky there was nothing else in left in the seat! lol

Between you and me and Mike and Mike's old mechanic looking for clues and the guys here on Rennlist we just might put some sort of a history together of the car.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5016/mikescar.jpg

REALLY good to hear from you!!

All I can remember is Clay owned a company called "Dopke/Design Motorsports", why I remember, haven't a clue. I did find contact info based on a post he did a few years ago.
Clay Dopke
Managing Director
Dopke/Design Motorsports
Porsche High Performance Specialists
4315 Highway 39 North, Suite 2K
Meridian, Mississippi 39301
601/693-8130

Good luck in your search.

____________________________________________
Dave
'85 930 Factory Slant
B&B Exhaust, SC Cams, Kokeln IC, Electromotive Crankfire Twin-Plugged, 1.0Bar Boost Tial, K27-7006 turbocharger, Euro fuel distrib

Thanks Dave!!!

Hello All,

News of my demise has been highly exaggerated. A friend sent me this post, and although I don't pay attention to the Porsche world any longer, I did wish to reply to this. Steve W. Thanks for the kind words, you've always been a gentleman and I hope all is well with you and yours. Jo Ann, the car you are talking about (if it is the red one in the picture), I think belonged to Mike McAlexander? I'm getting old now so I could be wrong. If so, it started out as a reg 930, stone grey I think i color. We did the usual 930S slant nose conversation on it along with some weltmeister suspension an a ton of engine mods. Working off of memory, it perhaps made 4-450 HP? Sorry, memory is bad on what exactly it had in it now....that was a long time ago. On the Yellow 935 . . . that was built for Jeffery C. Stone who use to be attached to Nutrisystems, Not Jose Canseco. Jose wanted to buy that car but ended up buying my personal 930, which was the one he crashed into his wifes BMW during their divorce. The 935 was one of 3 like that we built. And yes Steve, you are correct, back then it cost I think 235k in 1990 dollars; and the sum of its parts are well worth the cost of what was recently paid for it by G. Cox. Two years ago G. Cox and I drove the car from Portland to Montery for the Historic Races and had a ball . . . it made the whole trip, at light speed, no fuss, no muss, and still is 'nasty fast'. George restored it bac to original condition after buying it from a friend of John Starkeys who had 'historic raced' it. Imagine that! As for myself, I have been dealing with Quarter Horses for the past 10 years. I have a very bad 'horse wreck' in 2007 which almost (and is still trying to) killed me. I'm pretty harmless now, (lol) and my heart and lungs are just about so much junk, but I'm trying to hang on till 2012, lol, dying to see, (bad choice of words) if the Mayans are correct. Oh well. Have only driven one Porsche since the Monterey trip and that was a local Dr. who wanted to know how to really drive his twin turbo 997. Guess he took his wife for a banzai ride afterwards and since has sold it for a nice tame BMW. LOL Anyhow gang, so much for all of that. I don't really answer Porsche questions any longer as I have been out of the game for 10 or so years, however this concerned my favorite car, (one of three . . . one went to Brazil, Charlie McAdam had the white one and Jeff Stone the yellow one), and I had to comment on the Banana Slugger. Lastly, George Cox who now still owns the car is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, and just loves it, or so he told me last time we talked. <G>

Best to all, and may God Bless
Clay Dopke
Sundance Quarter Horses
Toomsuba, MS. USA