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Uncovered 2 928s, trying to find a past Devek contact
I recently discovered 2 928s in covered storage in a 2 off-the-grid 928s in Omaha parking garage in Omaha. Both cars are in great condition. They were in long term ownership since the early 90s. They are not in the registry. Car 1 is an India Red over cork '85 5sp, Car 2 is a black on black '88 5sp. They had been there for awhile following the owner's passing. Through his estate they ended up with his son who is not a car guy and just sitting on them for sentimental reasons. I can get that. I was able to purchase the 85 (still working on the 88). In talking with the son and confirmed by a local shop that did some recent work on it to fix electrical gremlins, it is a Devek shop-prepped car (the outline from the DEVEK banner on the rear window is still visible), built for PCA club racing even having a PCA certified sticker on the roll cage. I found a reference to the car in the GGR Nugget newsletter from 1996. I'm trying track down and communicate with Marc Thomas from Devek to inquire if they still have the records from customer built cars. This has many Devek parts including cams, suspension, chips (the originals came with the car). It runs magnificently and the sound from the cams and the headers on through is amazing.
Anyway, anyone know how to contact the Devek folks after all these years? I'm trying to piece back together the cars history. I would like copies of shop records if available. Thanks, Jeff
As I am aware Marc is still a registered member of Rennlist although I am not sure of his Rennlist ID.
I think I can still contact Susan [his wife] to pass on a message if that would help. Send me a PM with your contact details and I can try to pass them on for you. Others may be in even closer contact.
It's certainly been interesting going down the discovery trail. The 85 ran 1:31 at Thunderhill in 1996 and 1:59 at Laguna Seca. The car ran #35 and the license plate was RACE928 should anyone have pics from the June 1996 events. It's unclear if that plate was Nebraska or Illinois. Hell, the CarFax has a whopping 5 entries, 4 early registrations and the 2018 transfer to his son. No clues there. The rear diff has been swapped out as there is a post-it note in the owners manual with updated ratios. These are the things I'm trying to get information on.
It's certainly been interesting going down the discovery trail. The 85 ran 1:31 at Thunderhill in 1996 and 1:59 at Laguna Seca. The car ran #35 and the license plate was RACE928 should anyone have pics from the June 1996 events. It's unclear if that plate was Nebraska or Illinois. Hell, the CarFax has a whopping 5 entries, 4 early registrations and the 2018 transfer to his son. No clues there. The rear diff has been swapped out as there is a post-it note in the owners manual with updated ratios. These are the things I'm trying to get information on.
I have something in the back of my mind about someone doing a 3.09 ratio on the rear diff of a 928 manual and it was sometime in that era. I only ever head of it being done once as a custom mod- whether it was this example or not no idea. There was also an debate about whether it served any point as there was a perception that simply made 1st lower and the other ratios ended up one ratio lower with "top gear" being equivalent to the stock 4th gear- no idea what the reality was. I also seem to remember that Kim Crumb ran with something similar- maybe that is the example I am thinking of.
Do you feel comfortable telling us the deceased owners name. There were most likely very few racers in the Omaha area, plus if he traveled to other tracks someone is bound to know him and have some details. IIRC Dave
Roberts was involved with that 3.09 differential swap. Try contacting Dave.
Do you feel comfortable telling us the deceased owners name. There were most likely very few racers in the Omaha area, plus if he traveled to other tracks someone is bound to know him and have some details. IIRC Dave
Roberts was involved with that 3.09 differential swap. Try contacting Dave.
No issue at all, John Opfel, and the vin on the 928 is WP0JB0921FS861784
Thanks for asking
^^ looks like they swapped the ring and pinion gearset out of a 3 speed auto to get that. Those have 2.75 gearing from the factory.
For some reason I have it my head that the manual S4 diff cannot accept the gear from an auto diff unit. Given the GT final ratio is 2.75 maybe they simply transplanted that or it was a special order- is it possible that the CS and SE variants had 2.75 and that was ordered for this build?
05-01-2019, 02:06 PM
Uncovered 2 928s, trying to find a past Devek contact
