Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - 964 C2 - My first aircooled Pcar Build

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased my first aircooled Porsche in September. She's a stock 1990 C2 5spd Guards Red on tan interior with 32,896 miles at the time of purchase.

I've owned a 997.2 GT3 for the past 3-4 years which I use primarily as a track toy and was bitten by the aircooled bug HARD earlier this year. As many others on Rennlist, I can thank Mooty for that LOL. I'd like to thank Mooty, Cobalt, 911Jetta, Spyrex and a number of other 964 owners I can't remember (sorry) that I've bugged throughout the year with my random 964 questions. Your feedback helped me immensely during my search for the right car.

I bought the 964 with an intention to use it a weekend toy in the mountains. While the GT3 is perfectly fine for that type of driving, it's much more at home on the race track. IMO you just can't safely use all the of the performance of the GT3 on mountain roads. I was using a modified E36 M3 as my weekend mountain toy, but after lusting for a 964 I finally decided to pull the trigger if I could find one.

Like others know, it's not easy finding clean examples of 964s. After a few months of searching Rennlist, Autotrader, and CL and only finding cars at shady "exotic" car dealers, I posted a WTB ad on PCA. I should have done that sooner as a few days after my posting, a PCA member outside of California reached out to me with a car that fit my ad description albeit with tan interior rather than black. After seeing pictures of the car and talking to the owner who had owned quite a number of Pcars in the past, I placed a deposit to purchase the car pending PPI later that week. Fortunately, the car passed PPI with flying colors including leakdown. The issues noted with the car is that it needed a valve adjustment, new plugs, v-belts, and it had a tiny oil leak at the oil tank. The shop also mentioned that the car appeared to have all original paint according to their paint meter which was a nice surprise. We closed the deal the next day and the 964 was shipped out to me a few days later via enclosed trailer.

Below are some pictures of my car the day I got it.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...1d60873ce9.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...ab2f490e01.jpg
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My first impression of the car was that it oozed character. In stock form, the 964 isn't the fastest or best handling car i've owned, but boy did it have character. From the vintage looks and interior, the air cooled sound, it's just a cool car to drive.

Wanting to start my ownership on a clean slate, I brought my car to a local aircooled specialist for some maintenance and a general once over. I had the oil tank resealed to fix the oil leaks, fresh oil change, transmission fluid change, brake fluid flush, valve adjustment, new spark plugs, new v-belts, ss brake lines, fuel filter, and new distributors and coils. The owner of the shop mentioned that I found myself a really nice example and was amazed at the condition of the car. He was a little skeptical about the car having only 32k miles, but once he looked over the car he was positive the vehicle was really a 32k mile example. My wallet was quite a bit lighter from all the work, but the car ran very nicely after the maintenance items.

Having all the maintenance done, just like all my other cars, I knew I couldn't leave it stock. I decided to do some minor mods which included the drilled airbox (thanks 911jetta), rear wiper delete, distributor vent kit, Steve Wong Chip, and Porsche Cup steering wheel.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...ef542269af.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...73c4de05ba.jpg
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Just those mods alone made the car so much more enjoyable to drive. The drilled airbox gave the car some added volume which is was sorely missing, the wiper delete cleaned up the lines of the car, the SW chip smoothed out the power band and added some power, and the steering wheel improved steering feel and response. I was very happy with the improvement of the car with just these few mods.

Next up was to improve upon the rubbery stock shifter and add some more volume to the car. I purchased a Rothsport short shifter, FD golden rod, FD forward rod, FVD cup pipe and FVD cat bypass. I also purchased a black center console and ebrake to get rid of some of the tan. The black console, ebrake, and black floor mats improved the interior imo.

I'm relatively handy so with the help of my cousin (who is now a Pcar convert) we tackled the install of all the parts. The shifter system installation was not hard, but took about 6-7 hours stopping for lunch and a couple of trips to the store to buy the parts. Given my car is a 90, I had to enlarge the shifter tube bushing hole which was the hardest part of the install. After installing the shifter I was amazed at the shifting feel. So mechanical and precise and rivals the feel of my GT3 shifter which has 996 cup shifter and cup cables. For anyone thinking to do the Rothsport/FD setup, do it ASAP. Don't mind the missing shift boot. I still need to have one made to fit the new shifter.

Regarding the exhaust, I first installed the FVD cup pipe with stock cat. To be completely honest I was a little disappointed with the cup pipe. The exhaust note was very similar to stock at idle and was only a bit louder at full WOT. Installing the cat bypass definitely improved the sound quality. The car now has much more mechanical noises coming through the exhaust note and is louder than just the cup pipe throughout the rev range. I'm generally happy with the exhaust setup, but I wish it was a little more aggressive sounding. Maybe I'm just spoiled from my GT3 which sounds glorious from idle to redline. I may do a Rothsport header system plummed to an OEM gt3 muffler, but I'll live with the current system for now.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...8fbb658cb2.jpg
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Next up on the list was for my car to get a spa treatment courtesy of Ian at Carbonite Detailing. Ian's worked on all of my cars and has done awesome work. I had Ian perform a paint correction and ceramic coat the paint. Below are some before and after pictures. Turned out quite nicely imo.

The detailer also believes the paint is original. He mentioned that the paint depth is consistent across all panels and that every panel he worked on bled paint onto his pads. He stated if the paint was not original, it was repainted a very long time ago when single stage paint was still being used.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...6467141c41.jpg
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After the spa treatment, it was time to focus on getting the old girl some new shoes. After spending way too much time browsing the aftermarket wheel thread and BBS wheel thread, I narrowed my choices down to BBS E26 or BBS E88. My personal preference was E26 as I believe 17s look best on the 964. While 18s look nice, I think they look a tad large on the 964 body. However, knowing how difficult it is to find E26 faces, I was prepared to buy E88. Tough life right?

Luckily, I was able to source a set of E26 faces from J_Mendieta a fellow Rennlister after searching for a few months. Months you say? I actually sourced the set before I had purchased the 964 as I knew they were the wheels I wanted lol.

I had the wheel faces refinished in BBS gold and rebuilt the wheels using new BBS lips, barrels, gaskets, and hardware. Below are the specs and pics. The wheels turned out better than I could have imagined. One thing I realized though with 17in wheels after the fact is that tire choices/sizes are quite limited compared to 18in wheels.

17x8.5 +45 with a 1.5 in lip using 023 faces
17x10 +47 with a 3 in lip using 009 faces (very rare from speaking with BBS motorsport due to the low pad thickness)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...38d816ff79.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...7f26fec168.jpg

With the maintenance, paint correction, basic bolt ons, and wheels addressed, now it was time to get rid of the 4x4 stock ride height. For coilovers, I had looked at the usual suspects including Bilstein PSS9, KW V3, KW clubsport, JRZ RS1. I had PSS9 on my M3 and have ridden in a few other cars with the PSS9 and was never really happy with the valving on the coilovers. I felt like they rode way too rough, so it was down to KW offerings. A number of 964 owners I spoke to loved their KW V3 and Clubsport setup so I was set on going either route.

SonicMS is one of the local shops I use for my cars and would be supplying the parts and install. SonicMS highly recommended the V3 or clubsport kit, but offered up an alternative: AST 5200 2 way with external reservoirs. For the price of the V3 kit when you add camber plates and monoball top mounts, the price of the KW is similar to the AST setup that comes with camber plates, rear top mounts, inverted monotube struts, spherical lower eye shock mounts, and remote canisters.

Having a few M3s in the past, I know AST is well regarded in the BMW community so I know they make a great product. However, I was a bit worried about the AST setup as no one seemed to have these coilovers installed on their 964. I ended up speaking to Ira at Tarret about the AST 5200 and he mentioned that he also does not have direct experience on the kit, but has heard good things. After talking to SonicMS about their experience with the AST system and researching other car make forums, it seems like people have had a positive experience with AST suspension, so I figured I'd give it a try. Also, one benefit of the AST is the spring rates are selectable at the time of purchase and AST valves the shocks according to the spring rates. I ended up going with a softer spring rate than the standard kit comes with given my car will be used mostly for street.

With the coilovers chosen, I then proceeded to purchase Elephant racing sport hardness front control arm bushings and rear trailing arm bushings, RS motor mounts, Rothsport steering rack brace and poly bushings, ERP RSR style inner tie rods, ERP monoball rear spring plates, RS sway bars and bushings, Tarret drop links, new ball joints and outer tie rods.

Below are some pics of the suspension goodies and the isntall.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...866150c2a9.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...b484f954c9.jpg
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I picked up my car last week from SonicMS who handled the installation and setup of the suspension bits, RS brake ducts, and aero mirrors and the car has been transformed. It feels like a brand new car after the suspension work. The steering feel is very nicely weighted and direct. It has one of the best on-center steering I've ever felt. The car just feels so poised now with the suspension work. I'm extremely happy with how the car turned out.

The bump/rebound settings were set in the middle settings as the shop wanted me to drive the car for a few hundred miles to let the spring settle and to get some feedback about what I don't like about the suspension. The firmness of the ride reminds me of how my gt3 rides on stock shocks with some monoball bits in the suspension. I'm confident that the suspension will be very compliant once the settings are dialed in later this week when the car goes back to finalize the bump/rebound.

Below are some pics I snapped last weekend after getting the car back and during some mountain driving I did with some friends.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...068a0f6e29.jpg
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Overall, I'm really happy with how the car turned out and everyone who has seen/driven my car have been impressed by the old girl. I think the next steps are to update the OEM stereo system with a new head unit and speakers.

I also want to put in some bucket seats that are reclinable so that I can fit my daughter's baby seat in the back, but haven't found anything I really like. I'm open to suggestions. As for future mods, I've been toying with the idea of a LWFW, LSD, and re-gear. I may also do the BBi uprights and a brake upgrade in the future.

Thank you all for your time and indulging my long post. I hope to be part of the 964 forum for a long time.

-Carlo