Well, I decided to take the plunge and discover the use of the 4th and 5th gears on my recently restored '89 S2. After a few short jaunts to and from town on the twisting roads between Saratoga and Boulder Creek CA, I figured it was time for a real test drive, so I drove the car to my new shop in Paso Robles CA. It was the first test on a freeway. I took Hwy. 1 to Watsonville, the Salinas Rd. to Hwy. 101, then down 101 to Paso.

I got open road leaving Watsonville and "put the boot in" to the Salinas Rd. exit. At about 100mph, the nose panel lifted and bent back towards the hood. I slowed, took the exit, and pulled over to discover one of the two pins on the left and right side of the nose panel had sheared off (passenger side to be exact).

Now the panel is pretty seriously messed up, but at least it stayed connected to the car by the four screws closest to the hood release latch. I limped into the next gas station (about a quarter mile), borrowed a phillips head screw driver from the attendant, removed the panel and put it in the back.

Now I'm headed for a body shop to see if it can be salvaged.

So beware when changing the air filter on one of these. It can get nasty and you may have an unpleasant surprise in store when you take the car over 100mph.

Scott.

 

That's crazy! Hopefully not too bad.
There should be two sheet metal screws, one in each corner on the thin front 'tabs' connecting the nose panel to the fenders, in addition to those little stud/nuts under the headlights and the 4 screws on top.

I've always wondered how secure these things were...since my car has non-standard front structure, my turbo nose panel is only held on by the "corner screws" and 3 across the top, and has been past 125 mph plenty of times in the last 7 years without a problem.

 

Sounds as if your car has a complete set of fasteners on it, apparently mine doesn't. The body shop I'm taking it to in a few minutes has a Porsche guy who's familiar with the cars, I hope they can restore the panel and re-attach it with all the necessary screws this time. Davis Auto Body in Paso Robles. They come highly recommended by Yelp. Wish me luck!

Scott.

 

Spencer -

So the report is in; there were 4 missing fasteners on the front edge of the nose panel, closest to the bumper. The rear 4 fasteners closest to the hood latch were what held the panel on long enough for me to reach the breakdown lane and kept the panel from flying into the windshield at 130 mph, which would have been much worse.

It seems that somewhere in the past, a technician replacing the air filter just didn't replace those four fasteners. As long as no one drove the car over 100mph (I actually hit 130) it wasn't a problem. No one noticed.

The folks I took it to estimated $1200 to replace the panel (not repair it mind you), paint it, install the emblem then install the panel. I'm a bit upset about that since I'd restore it and replace the original part, but they say that would cost more in labor than replacing it with a new part (two weeks from Germany). I also don't own a sheet metal shop or a paint booth so I'm naturally skeptical of body shop people. I do suspensions, drive trains and engines I admit I've played in the minors doing some body work on my 914, but I'm no pro.

So I guess this is just one of those subtle pitfalls you can expect buying a used car?

Scott.

 

On the upside, I probably saved $700 in track fees. So that's good.

 

Man that stinks, glad nobody got hurt, not to mention the "what the hell was that" factor at 100 MPH. Curious it made to 130 MPH (fastest I've had my S2 also while playing with a M3) without flipping back until dropped to 100. Wonder if your high speed run shook out the last bottom screw on that panel or something funny aerodynamically happened on deceleration due to the nose being lowered and maybe hitting a crosswind or something? High pressure area under the panel and a low pressure above the panel (like a airplane wing) could have lifted the panel enough for to catch in the airstream.

 

Call Lart, he can ship you a nice used one for a few bucks from LA, have your guys just paint that one.

Luckily the two "corner" bolts that tie the panel to the fenders is the same as the screws holding the fenders to the chassis - OK to borrow a pair...but again, Lart should be able to hook you up.

 

I would call him Spencer, but unless he had one in a perfectly matched Alpine White they'd charge me to media blast it, touch it up and paint it, then more for the badge and mounting it all on the car. By the time that was done, buying and painting the new part would be a wash I think. I might save a few bucks but the long pole is painting the thing. If they might have repaired the original and saved painting that could've worked, but two of the rear (closest to hood) screws tore through the sheet metal and needed to be welded. That would have meant re-painting it anyway.

It was just a not so good toss of the coin. An adventure in the making...

Scott.

 

No joke about the "what the hell was that?" part. The pucker factor increased noticeably when it happened.

Yeah, 130 and she wasn't even breathing hard. As a counter-example, right after I bought the 928 I took her out on Hwy. 1 between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, that was 30 years ago. Somewhere north of Davenport, on a fine Wednesday afternoon, I got a few miles of open road ahead. I hit it and brought the car to 120mph when she started to float on me. It felt like the front wheels were lifting off, so I took her back down and brought her back to the shop. As it tuns out, the ball joint on the front passenger side A-arm was bad. The factory replaced it under warranty and all has been good since.

There's a decent reason for taking these cars to their limit, but you have to think like a test pilot while you're doing it. Anything and everything could go wrong. But until a person's done it, they haven't.

Regards,
Scott.

 

Then there's also the ugly truth that the majority of salvage cars are very messed up on either the front or rear end, which will make salvage nose panels a little harder to find I think.

 

"Curious it made to 130 MPH (fastest I've had my S2 also while playing with a M3) without flipping back until dropped to 100."

I've been misunderstood on the sequence of events I'm afraid.

It flipped up at about 100, I took notice and began to slow down at about 130. I was dividing attention between the speedometer and the front of the car. The whole thing happened in about 1 second. It wasn't a slow motion event.

Scott.

 

I was looking for a Turbo/S2 one a week ago as I am converting an NA to turbo front end and Lart had an Alpine one.

Somewhere around $150.

I ended up using a headlight delete humped one for stage 2 intercooler I had around here already (race car) and used the hump to create a ram air duct to air box.

T

 

wow, where are you getting your paint quotes?
i had my whole car done (color change, including door jambs and hatch "jamb") for $1500 in 2011.

 

T -

I'll call Lart. Thank you. Seriously. I just found out my insurance carrier covers this, but I'd very much like to not make a claim; call me stupid and be done with it

Lart, again, to the rescue.

Best Regards to you and Lart,
Scott.

 

Spencer, it's not my intention to defame. The quote wasn't binding and I think it was (in some strange way) justifiable since there were no other body shops in the area that would even agree to bid the job. Pretty much a locked market I'd say.

Yes, the quote is outrageous. No, I don't have many alternatives. I seriously hate being screwed, I'm just not that sort of guy. But I also do what needs to be done and find ways to make the abusers pay eventually. I do what I can, I hope I do my part.

Regards,
Scott.