ActionTrack

Hello all,

I recently picked up an 87 944 turbo from my father's friend here in Denver, Colorado. I am trying to find out more about this car, its history, and the build so am looking for any information, ideas, contacts, forum posts, links, etc... you get the idea.

Here is what I know/have been told:

The car and vin come back as an '87 944 turbo. The few records I do have include a bill of sale from Graham Gillies out of CA to Steven Avery in Colorado. Other than some minor shop work, I have no further info.
The engine is badged as a 3.0 turbo. The block is stamped M44/41 42L03431. I was told that this car could have been/ was built by Chris Cervelli when at Technodyne. Some further research came up with Graham Gillies and his 89' 951 built from Powerhaus. I am not sure what path to dig into or where to reach out as both Chris and Graham have been unreachable for me.

Any contacts or information would be great, I just want to learn more about the car and what went in to it!

zmf

I don't have specific information, but I suggest you get in touch with folks in the Rocky Mountain Region PCA, centered in Denver. Chris Cervelli works (may still work) on some of their cars, and occasionally shows up for HPDE's. The chief driving instructors for RMR might be particularly helpful with info about Chris.

Good luck with getting things sorted out.

ActionTrack

Thank you. I have joined the RMR region and am planning on attending an event this weekend. Hopeful to get some further information from some of these meets.

zmf

Good. Maybe see you at High Plains Raceway for a HPDE when you get the car sorted out.

ggillies

Hi,

Purely by accident, I found this thread, I am the original owner, (Graham Gillies). I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about that car. Give me a phone call, or email me, and if I can remember all the details, I will tell you everything I can.

415-271-4394

Cheers.

czentner

Wow. I love this board! It's a shame that so much of car culture has moved to Facebook where threads just disappear after a day.

333pg333

Please feel free to post information about the car in this thread too. Always enjoyable to read about special builds.

ActionTrack

Graham, this is amazing. I actually think it is crazy that you stumbled across your old car. I will give you a call this week and maybe send over a few questions via email or pm so I do not verbally bombard you, haha. (Shoot me a pm with a good email maybe).

I have done some additional work on the car, will post below.

ActionTrack

Current update:
I have done some work on the car from the state that I bought it in so thought I would share.
- The first issue I took care of was replacing the belts on the car as I had no idea their age. I did not replace the water pump as the previous owner did not notice any premature signs of failure or any current leaks. Really hope this does not come back to bite me but if it does, guess I will have a new water pump.
- We noticed that the car was and IS STILL running very rich according to our air-fuel ratio sensor. In our hunt to figure out why we examined 1) the MAF in the build which was a Pro Flow Sensor (now Pro-M). We found the MAF sensor was dead and did not work at all. 2) The car had an Autothority chip in it 3) the o2 sensor cable going towards the firewall had a blue clip, which seemed to be in place to act as a splice for the wiring. I have no freaking clue why it was there. All I know is my air-fuel ratio sensor pulls from the o2 wiring so if something is off here, could put inaccurate readings out.
-The car runs great but this weekend we think we found a vacuum leak. There is a hiss coming from the engine bay, possibly under portion, when under acceleration. Still trying to find this as there were no leaks present when I completed a pressurized leak test.
-Cracked the windshield when replacing hood struts. I have been looking for a fairly priced replacement for over a month now, no luck.

What I have done so far:
1) I put a Vitesse Racing VMAF+ system in the car. This has taken out the faulty MAF system along with an updated chip and map sensor.
2) Updated fuel injectors with the Vitesse kit to replace old injectors
3) Ordered new vacuum lines for the car
4) Of course I put some new wheels and tires on the thing. a set of nice chrome twists

Any new ideas or suggestions for the rich a/f readings, windshield or where the leak might be coming from are greatly appreciated.

ggillies

Great, I look forward to talking with you.

I also have a few copies of the Excellence Magazine that the Car was featured in; I think they are down in my Garage, I'll try and dig them out for you.

Yup... found a couple.

Original magazines.

ggillies

Can't seem to PM you, so contact me at ggillies@comcast.net. Cheers!