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911R Front Drop Links. Ends are titanium coated in titanium nitride. Intermediate piece in green is aluminum. Before anyone asks, I made the conscious decision not to do these in carbon fiber as a nod to the past and, candidly, to add a bit of color to the underside.
Those are truly gorgeous Robert, love seeing the updates. I hope you're staying healthy and safe out there of course, and thanks for giving us a smile who are following your amazing thread.
Thank you. That hope goes to and for all of us including those at Porsche AG and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates (remember, while the end products of Porsche are cars, behind those cars are the real assets and soul of Porsche, its people), without whom all of us on Rennlist would have less pleasure, enjoyment and fun, and less about which to occasionally argue.
Though ultimately the 911R is about driving and the driving experience (and weight reduction enhances the experience as well as calls to Professor Piëch's 1967 versions), this 911R is also about fun and a part of the fun is, indeed, about color and materials - exterior, in the cabin, in the engine compartment, gearbox, suspension, wheels, brake calipers and even in the "frunk". My high school art teacher said that I had "less artistic talent than anyone he had taught in 40 years". No doubt, he was correct. Among others, this 911R is, in small part, another one of my feeble, albeit subtle, attempts to refute that appellation.
Although I have not mentioned it before, we are addressing a number of the pieces below the front and rear bumpers for manufacture in carbon fiber including the crush pontoons (cans) on either side of both bumpers.
Brian:
First, in truth, even if you change to a lithium battery, a lightweight exhaust, PCCB and magnesium or aluminum wheels (the "Four"), the weight savings is barely enough for you to feel the difference (except, of course, in your mind and in your bank account). As such, if the Four are the only weight reduction modifications that you will do to your car, then the extra money for BBS Magnesium Wheels over BBS Aluminum Wheels for an additional approximately six pound weight (albeit rotating weight) saving cannot, rationally, be justified. Of course, I would argue that, even together, the Four cannot be truly justified vis-vis real (vs. imagined) performance. In other words, save your money and simply enjoy the car. On the other hand, many people make these and other modifications not because of performance but because, often under the guise of performance, (a) they simply like doing it, (2) want to, verbally or on forums such as Rennlist, show (i.e., at Cars and Coffee) and/or tell others what they have done, (3) post pictures on Instagram, Facebook, etc. and/or (4) are sold into doing it by a shop and/or a manufacturer. On the other hand, if the weight reduction is about achieving real gains in performance, you will have to go after many, many more weight reduction targets and this will be very time consuming and very expensive (particularly because, in most instances, each incremental pound of weight saving will cost more, in some cases, very significantly more, than the previous pound of weight reduction) -- and, if the goal is substantial weight reduction, then that approximately six pound reduction for approximately $11,000 additional is reasonable as there are few big wins after the Four. But, I say again, do none of it and enjoy the car.
Agreed whole heartedly. Rarely post but this pandemic just means lots of time to fill.
What I tell people about optimization is the fact of diminishing returns. May seem pretty easy to gain 5% efficiency at first but it quickly becomes exponentially harder. The same effort to gain the initial 5% efficiency very quickly will yield only 0.5% as you try to optimize.
Dont get me wrong though, what Robert is doing is just incredible! 👍
Agree, in almost every case, that extra pound (ounce, gram) at the margin will cost (in design, engineering, testing, manufacturing, etc.) more than the previous one, sometimes exponentially more. In F1, for example, the cost of one pound of weight saving can be $50,000 or more. In short, if one wants to save a clearly noticeable (when driving) amount of weight in a Porsche (i.e., the "Four" referred to above, alone, do not constitute noticeable), be prepared to spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars (and more) and do not expect any shop or tuner to have canned (ready-made) solutions as (a) they usually do not have the design or engineering expertise, (b) do not have a large enough client base to justify the cost even if they had the expertise and (c) in general, very few people have either (let alone both) the desire or the budget to eliminate hundreds (or more than a thousand) pounds from a Porsche, particularly a 911, other than an amount of weight that they can eliminate by stripping components from the vehicle which (beyond the Four) reduces creature comfort (of course, I would argue that certain exhaust modifications that increase sound also reduce such comfort) and, in many instances, reduce drivability and/or safety.
P.S. It is possible to reduce the weight of a 911 by 1000 pounds without eliminating creature comforts.
Last edited by Robert Linton; 04-04-2020 at 10:28 AM.
Though ultimately the 911R is about driving and the driving experience (and weight reduction enhances the experience as well as calls to Professor Piëch's 1967 versions), this 911R is also about fun and a part of the fun is, indeed, about color and materials - exterior, in the cabin, in the engine compartment, gearbox, suspension, wheels, brake calipers and even in the "frunk". My high school art teacher said that I had "less artistic talent than anyone he had taught in 40 years". No doubt, he was correct. Among others, this 911R is, in small part, another one of my feeble, albeit subtle, attempts to refute that appellation.
One of my high school English teachers (who won the district's Teacher of the Year award, and probably deserved it) kicked me out of AP English senior year and left me with a crystal-clear impression that I was going nowhere in English. So I entered college as a Business major...
My take: High school teachers are poor indicators of teenagers' futures...as are teenagers.
As always, love seeing pics of your projects, which allow others to reach with their art.
One of my high school English teachers (who won the district's Teacher of the Year award, and probably deserved it) kicked me out of AP English senior year and left me with a crystal-clear impression that I was going nowhere in English. So I entered college as a Business major...
My take: High school teachers are poor indicators of teenagers' futures...as are teenagers.
As always, love seeing pics of your projects, which allow others to reach with their art.
Wow,
That's amazing that your high school teacher kicked you out of your AP english class, but now you make your living with writing!
Agree that high school teachers don't know anything, but in their defense neither do teenagers.....
My high school AP english teacher wanted to kick me out, as I was a troublemaker in the class. He was certainly surprised when I passed the AP test.
04-01-2020 | 02:40 PM
