Vandit

The RWB Maritime RS is gonna be something else!

n1ne11

Such wow! Love the Maritime blue RS.

Wondering how much it would cost to wrap a 964 in this color... (if it's actually possible).

964Andrew

Just had a heart attack!

tjb616

Brilliant upgrade, thanks for sharing!

fizzledorf

@vandit - well played. I just laughed audibly loud at work.

fridtjov_RS

Nice change, nice 964 RS :-)

Atgani

Well as the owner hasn't given you his impressions, I will

I've owned 4 of them now. This was the last :







If you know your 964 RS's well, you may well remember the car in it's previous iteration :



I returned it to factory stock as it was a low mileage, undamaged car.

I got some random chap on the Bilstein stand to sign the magazine feature and the service book too .... (a proper gentleman and a lovely chap too)



Anyway, here's my eulogy to them, hope you enjoy it :

For the sake of context, this was written as a response to a comment about an 964 RS selling at a European auction for £220,000 ($287,000) back in 2014 whereby another forum contributor stated the RS couldn't be worth 55 times more than a £44,000 ($57,000) Boxster.

55 times better than a Boxster ? That depends on the criteria you're judging them by. They're 55 times more rare, of that I'm certain. And that, I suspect, counts for a lot.

I'd say they're 55 times more engaging, tactile and "special" to drive than any Boxster too.

0-60 ? Quite frankly if that's your benchmark for what makes a car great (or not great) you most likely won't get the RS.

Overly stiff ride ? Grow a f*cking pair (it's an urban myth, so get one with decent, modern tyres (ie not ten year old Michelin MXX's) fresh dampers, sensible geo settings and ride heights, and you'll find them an absolute blast for A & B road hooning.

Build a rep on the cheap ? yep, course it can be done, but it's the little things that make these cars more than the sum of their parts. Take the ali bonnet for example, lift it up ('cause there's no gas struts to assist you) prop it up using the aluminium strut (who's end goes into a specially formed nut that doubles up as the securing nut for the strut top mount).

Pull on the inner door latch release pulls (formed from doubled up loops of seat belt material) feel the way they release the door latches so mechanically (then try the pastiche of the same idea on the Cayman R and feel how, as a sop to the RS, they've tried to incorporate the same idea into a door trim that wasn't designed for it (neither was the release mechanism) and feel how utterly sh*t it feels in it's action when compared to the original. It's what happens when the marketing men decree what goes into a car, rather than letting an engineer decide.

Put the dainty key into the ignition switch and turn it against the perfectly weighted spring loading of the switch. Just as your wrist starts to run out of articulation, the starter kicks in and the flat six bursts into life. If your foot isn't on the clutch, you'll hear the sound of the gears in the transmission rattling away as the lack of a dual mass flywheel (and the harmonic damping it usually provides) allows the gears to chatter excitedly within their casing.

Sit there and wait for some heat to percolate through the flat six, and soon after you'll be able to hear the thick, glutinous oil coursing through the pipes running the length of the car as the precious life blood is pumped towards the thermostat, only to be sent back to be warmed further without troubling the car's oil cooler.

Press down the floor hinged clutch pedal with it's initially awkward over-centre action, then gently palm the slightly baulky gearlever into first. Press the accelerator expecting the tardy, nee lazy, damped response most modern cars provide, and find this car's powerplant reacts instantaneously and you've just encouraged the rev counter around to 3000rpm, and not the 1200rpm you'd intended.

Try again, but being too timid, you stall it .......

Another attempt, this time you succeed as the car's low down torque aids your franky pathetic attempts to master the over-centre clutch, the hair trigger throttle response and the recalcitrant gearbox.

Out on the open road, the oil temperature gauge shows signs of life, the gearbox becomes less baulky and the steering starts to lighten with speed.

Twenty minutes in and the engine is now nicely warmed through. Let the fun commence ......

From your gentle fifth gear cruise, change down into third and slowly depress the long travel, floor hinged throttle pedal all the way to it's stop. The induction noise hardens and increases in volume, the drivetrain grumbles as you accelerate through the rev range and the lack of dual mass flywheel creates harsh resonances that sound more akin to a coffee grinder. But keep accelerating and they'll disappear to leave just the mechanical sound of the flat six along with it's induction noise and the cooling fan shifting vast quantities of soothing, cool air over the barrels and cylinder heads buried within the bowels of that nondescript looking engine compartment.

At 6,800 rpm in third the game's all over and its time to start the process all over again in fourth.
A quick, gentle lift of the throttle, along with a short, quick prod of the clutch, allows you to thread the perfectly weighted, short(ish) throw, gear lever through the gate.

A corner approaches, so you lift off the throttle and change down, you get back on the throttle and turn the steering wheel, initially the helm feels stodgy, heavy and unresponsive, you curse the lack of power steering (LHD cars only) as the nose seems unwilling to cooperate with your request for a change in direction.
But wait, the wheel in front of you isn't the sole method of altering the car's trajectory, next time try using the brakes to keep the weight over the front wheels whilst you turn them, then carefully chose the moment to get back on the throttle (hard) to utilise both the grunt of that flat six AND the traction afforded as a result of its position over the rear wheels.

Suddenly 260hp seems more than enough to make indecently rapid progress, but more than that, you're a simply massive part of the process of going fast, you have to be, because without your guiding hand, your perfect timing, your ability to deftly come off the brakes and seamlessly reapply the throttle, this car doesn't steer, it needs, no relies, on you to manage it's imperfect weight distribution.

It's hot sweaty work in the summer, no aircon along with no insulation means that a large part of the heat generated by that 3.6 litre engine finds it's way into the cabin. Soon your back will be wringing wet and that "moist" feeling is only exacerbated by the leather facings on some of the most perfectly formed bucket seats ever to grace a car. Supportive enough to enable you to retain control without having to hang onto the steering wheel, but not so all enveloping as modern race seats.

On the right roads, driving experiences don't come much better, or indeed more intense.

And when you've had your "hit" of the RS, you won't feel the need to race home too, instead you'll be happy to potter at 6/10's, watching as other far more powerful cars overtake you, safe in the knowledge that despite what the manufacturers of their cars may tell them, their owners will have little or no idea what tactility, engagement and fun behind the wheel really are.

Finally you'll arrive home, hot, sweaty and possibly slightly deaf..... You'll undo your seatbelt, remove the keys from the ignition, wind your window up and step out.When you slam the door shut, two things will stand out :

Firstly the delightful noise the door makes when it closes. Partly a function of it's bank vault build quality, and partly the fact that it's unencumbered by door pockets, airbags, central locking motors, electric windows or their switchgear.

And the second thing that will stand out when you slam the door shut ? A light, gentle, barely discernible tinkling noise...... wink

Those that have owned and driven these wonderful cars will most likely know what this "tinkling" noise is, whilst those that think they're an overpriced, underperforming, anachronism, probably won't. But neither will they care........

cobalt

^^^^^^

You even provided its own centerfold!!!

911Jetta

Thank you for that A!

What a wonderful read that was with my coffee on this vacation morning. Now I'm pissed as my car is sitting in a garage 1000 miles away. If I was at home I think you would have inspired me to just jump in the car for a 100 mile back road drive. Damn that was good!

It's definitely a dream of mine to one day drive one. The little things (and there are a lot of them) add up to bring the car it that level you described But, you have to be the type of person that can feel and appreciate it, otherwise the whole exercise is lost on you.

BTW, why your 4th? Have you been in and out of these cars, and keep coming back or just trading one for another over time...(curious, RSs seem like a drug you can't get out of your system).

Thanks again.

(good to see it back to the stock look also)

HiWind

Vandit lol .. Atgani loved that (#nailed it)

Atgani

Thankyou for your kind words all. They are indeed very special cars.
The 964 RS was my first Porsche after a deeply upsetting experience with an incredibly rare (1 of 16) Subaru (it got stolen a month after I purchased it)

At that time (2000) in the UK there was an epidemic of Subaru thefts, cars being hijacked at stop signals, houses being broken into whilst owners were asleep to enable theft of the keys and thence the car itself. The unlucky owners who woke up often found themselves staring down the barrel of shotgun or threatened with a baseball bat. The thieves would stop at nothing to ensure they got what they'd come for.

Mindful of this, I decided Subaru ownership just wasn't worth the risk, and so I started looking for something "hardcore" that would "fly under the radar".

In 2001 only the Porsche cognoscenti knew what a 964 RS was. Back then the cars were cheap ($31,000) as trackdays were still in their infancy and the RS was slated at its launch for being too hardcore for the road and poor value for money when compared with the 965 3.3 Turbo. In short, nobody wanted them .....

Thus values had slumped to close to a third of their original purchase price when new ($81,000) when they were 8-9 years old.
I remembered reading an article in 911 & Porsche World back in 2000. It featured a Midnight Blue 964 RS, I also remembered it being low, it's front and rear fenders being crammed full of beautifully sculpted and simple looking wheels. The inside looked minimalist and even back then, incredibly focused for road car.

I found a car for sale, the owner had used it, and used it hard, with several visits to the Nurburgring and Spa Franchorchamps and numerous trackdays at UK circuits.

I was smitten the moment he reversed the car out of his garage, and was pretty sure I was going to be buying the car come what may ! !

The road test was horrendous, squeaky brakes (Pagid blues) badly worn clutch, frequent stalling (my own ineptitude along with the usual 964 RS lightweight flywheel stalling issues) poor steering lock and heavy unassisted steering (the vendor took me through a busy village with several mini-roundabouts on a Saturday morning) boneshaking ride, and a gearbox I struggled with (as a result of it being a left hand drive car).

In all it was an unpleasant and somewhat testing experience, but ..... despite all the above, I could see what a fantastic concept it was, and the ethos behind the car. Oh, and the induction noise was something else (a previous owner had drilled the airbox)

I bought the car and the vendor took it to a well regarded Porsche repair shop to sort the numerous issues on my behalf.

What appeared from the shop a couple of weeks later was a complete transformation. New brakes, new clutch, de-cat/remap (286hp), Cup steering wheel etc etc.

That was the start of 15 years of 964 RS ownership (on and off) and four different cars. My passion for them remains undimmed to to this day. Whether I'll be able justify (or indeed afford) to get back into one, time will tell. But as anyone who has driven one on a fast, smooth twisting A or B road will tell you, they are truly wonderful cars.

My Porsche ownership can be seen here : (scroll down to the Slippydiff post)

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...t=1625433&i=60

Back then I was a firm believer that "variety is the spice of life". So along with the 4 964 RS's, there have also been 4 Mk1 996 GT3's, 2 996 GT2's and a couple of 997 GT3's .... however at the ripe old age of 53 I've reached a point whereby I'd like to find a car that I grow old with and stays with me until I pass off this mortal coil.

And having got the more modern and really quick stuff out of my system, I now appreciate the more visceral, tactile and engaging character of the aircooled cars, and specifically the 964.

J richard

I totally love the direction this thread has gone...

but:

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/c...185921898.html

A914MAN

The main thing is that you like it. Seems well done to me, and I appreciate the look. I've seen several different cars built in a way that I didn't care for, but they were well done and built the way the owner wanted, which I think is the most important thing; whatever trips your trigger is what you need to build. The "Ricky Racer" look is well executed for sure. Huge wheels!

I take issue with a roll cage in a street car, but that's any street car. Unless you plan to wear a helmet all the time, they can increase your risk of head injury, in the event of an accident.

HiWind

^^ it only has a rear cage doesn't it?

https://images.craigslist.org/01414_...Nk_600x450.jpg

Ken D

Bravo, Atgani!
As one of the few people lucky enough to have owned both a 964 and 993 RS, how would you compare the two?