95ONE

Oh. ok.. I get it. You bought a used racecar and modded it to "DUKE" specifics. ok. For some reason I thought you did all that from scratch. Still, that was a lot of custom work and updating. Once again, nice.

Scott H

Is it wrong that out of everything on that car, the thing that made me go "wow, that's neat" was the full carbon fiber dash?

Very nice, can't wait to see some track videos.

333pg333

The things that make me go WoW are the suspension (inc blade sways), brakes and big diffuser. plus ride height is very low. Assuming the previous occupants had figured out the suspension inc all the roll centers based on some big G loads from their datalogs on tiny tyres then I continue to go WoW. Pretty sure Gustaf is at the track this weekend. Hope all goes well for his first hit-out of his beastie. As per usual requests, Video evidence or it didn't happen.

Dougs951

Duke

I'm back It's been pretty hectic lately.
My HTC phone have a fair bit of wide angle that's why it looks like the car have 15 degrees of camber.
It's cool photo, but it looks more like a cartoon car in that photo than it does in real life (too bad I'd say!)

Duke

Thanks Pete. First the car is super low which means even the front bumber is cut and not the same height as a stock one. So it is not possible to fit a 996 radiator and still keep any type of headlights.
The right light bucket rests on the top of the oil cooler and the 90 deg small radius AN10 fitting on the oil cooler rests on the splitter:


But I agree that it would have been the best setup. But in my case I also had a new Wizard cooling thicker 951 radiator on the shelf so it made sense to go that way. I've never had any cooling issues with my car before.
And now I also have good outlets on the hood and could fit a super large intercooler and place them both on a forward angle to promote the airflow through the intercooler & radiator.
This combined with my big Setrab oil cooler makes me confident. But if not, it could always be changed

So true!

Ah you missed that? I've written it numerous times as I don't want to impose as the original builder of the badass stuff on this car. It was done by way better people than me



I was indeed at the track! The first shakedown went very well. In my world that means a) I'm alive. b) The car did not blow up or burst into flames c) The car is not totalled.


Some mine issues but no biggies. I was missing the little o-ring on the dipstick tube so it leaked a tiny bit of oil there. Not enough to leave stains, but enough to scare the crap out of me when I slowed down and a small puff of smoke entered the cabin (which is not airtight). I started to look at the control panel for the onboard fire system
I also had misfires around 4000 rpm for some reason, but above that rpm area it was fine. No strange things in the datalog so not sure what is the issue. Seems ignition and missfire related since it revs nicely at idle.

I drove very slow just to try to get used to the car and see that nothing weird happened. It felt like trying to learn how to drive again. It is not like something I've driven before given it has no fundamental 944/968 stuff in it when it comes to handling.
I also drove on 2-3 years old tiny 205/55-16 (!!!) R-spec tires.

You have to understand that this car was initially built to be the very best it could be for a certain set of regulations. The regulations stated maximum 205 wide R-spec tires and a 2l N/A engine.
That's why the suspension setup is above and beyond anything else I've seen on a 944/968. That's the lengths you have to go to when you cannot slap on a set of 12" Hoosiers all around and still be pretty quick even with angle iron istead of dampers.

Initial driving impression is that this car turns in like crazy. In fact it turns in so well and rotates so quickly I always thought the rear end had came loose. It's super nimble and does pretty much anything I want to as a driver. But getting used to the standing pedals and lack of boosted brakes was harder than I thought. It felt like I had no brakes at all so it will take a lot of time to adapt to that.

I checked half the car yesterday and almost surprisingly found nothing strange at all. So far so good! I'm busy now preparing some minor stuff on the car for a 2 day track testing at Gotland which is Sweden's biggest island. There's a great track there. More pics will come.

Duke

Photo courtesy of DLS, snatched from the Swedish 944 forum



..and I would guess this is the photo we can see being taken in the photo above

Thom

Congrats for this first successful test drive.

Some random thoughts :
- Pictures of the engine bay suggest the engine was moved backwards, closer to the firewall. If yes, should this prevent you from mounting some brake booster?
- Side pictures suggest the wheelbase is slightly shorter than on a 944?

Duke

Thanks.
The engine position and wheelbase is stock. I actually have more room in the engine bay above the downpipe as the firewall has been somewhat altered.
The brakes are setup with twin master cylinders and a balance bar at the pedal box so it's a bit complicated to add a booster (but not impossible).
It's a proper race setup and obviously real race car drivers can manage so I guess it's mostly a matter of getting the driver up to spec!

DLS

The link to my picture on 944sverige don´t seem to work so here´s the picture

Thom

The non-assisted set up was probably manageable with the power of a 2L NA engine, but with the additional grunt you have just added I can't help thinking that a bit of braking assistance should help when you may spend much less time between corners...!

reno808

AWSOME great to hear. Any video. Gotta start working out those legs

333pg333

Love the pics and great to hear you made it home in one piece! Onward and upwards.

Duke

I've going through the car now and everything looks good. No leaks, no loose stuff, no hoses or cables that has rubbed against anything etc. A very good start.

The dip stick tube was missing it's little o-ring so that tiny oil leak should now be gone. The suspected misfire also seems to be gone from checking the logs from my last session. I'm replacing some stuff anyway to be sure. I've now lowered the front 5 mm and picking up a set of Kumho V70 medium compund in 255/40-17 tomorrow to mount on a set of 9.5x17" wheels. Then it's ready for a 2 day track event this weekend. Hopefully I can get the rusty driver a little bit back into the game.

I checked my GoPro HD cam from this weekend but since I was never really "on it" there nothing to show. Due to the mighty Fuelab fuel pump along with the electrical power steering pump mounted in the cabin you cannot really hear the intake and exhaust sound. While driving the car the sound on the inside is more of what you except from a 800+ hp Jap car than a 951

Gator_86_951

That thing really is something else. I might be in stockholm towards the end of this month/early next month. Would be very interested to see this awesome "creation" but I expect you are not that close to downtown (having not been there before).