sbarracl

Absolutely stunning. The work they do is truly amazing. Any plans for special set of wheels?

JDHertz11

Jager's going to be pi$$ed!!!

MarkD

finally!!!!

you must be sleeping much better now JP

I cannot wait to see it in person. Now we can finally plan the FDM BBQ

Chuck W.

Same here. I have come back to this thread four times to go over the photos.... amazing!

JPP

Thanks, Brian. You own my two other 'Bucketlist' cars .. and I wouldn't change the color on the Carrera GT ... LOVE it!!

Hi Chuck! Thanks my friend. One of the first things I did when I got home was to put the BHP license frame on the back plate ... a little tribute to her past.... but I moved the front plate down to the lower opening .. so now I have a spare frame!
Can't wait to meet you in October as well, I suspect the days will fly by now ...

JPP

Thanks Renaud .. a little more radical than an 'HID upgrade ... so I needed some help .. To be frank, I'm semi-retired and I knew this would be a stretch, so I needed to make a serious budget and try to stick as close as possible to it so not a lot of 'wiggle room' for extra goodies, not that I wouldn't have liked to go down that road .. Just the cost of shipping in a private 20' container wasn't bad .. BUT the Marine Insurance, total loss only was $1000 each way and the cost of getting the car in and out of the container on both ends ... add another $1500 .. then there's customs duty on the U.S. side plus a Custom's Broker that's mandatory and they take a % 'Bond' of the total value of the goods ... NONE of that expense was disclosed to me while discussing shipping costs with the carrier .. of course. Otherwise, nobody would ship anything anywhere ...

Hi Ed, As I said above, I had a very strict budget, but 9m's quote for the engine rebuild was actually quite good. I just needed all of the rest of my resources for 'hidden problems' and they showed up in spades. Here's a picture of the 3 pistons they had to replace ..

Obviously some previous owner missed a shift ... and then fixed the resulting leaks with RTV sealant! So, to ensure there wasn't any contaminant damage in the lower end, we had to open it all the way. Fortunately, all of the damage was isolated around the valve train. There was a chipped cam that had to be replaced and several valves and lifters AND missing hardware and brackets everywhere this genius worked .. luckily 9m has a LOT of very low-mile used 993 engine parts available .. and Marc did a beautiful job putting it back together, the engine looks 'as new' now with the clock set back to zero.



Honestly, it's more affordable than you think. I spent several days at 9M listening to Colin turn his magic in the next room with 400+hp normally aspirated motors on the Dyno .. the sound in an old brick pre-war building with 30 foot ceilings and cement floors takes your breath away ...

Thanks Keith!

I will, well ... with this much invested, I better ...

Thanks :-)



Gotta get that hat in there somehow ..

Thanks Graham! I know I said it before, but it was a REAL pleasure meeting you and your car .. I'll never forget our day at Oulton Park watching the race there ...

Hi Viggo! Damn, I thought I was going to be in Stockholm this fall, but the meeting as been moved to the U.S. I could have met the Black Pearl ..
Anyway, thanks and yes, it's been quite a journey .. but I think worth it. The steering wheel was one I bought from a company here in the Bay Area. They take standard 3-spokers and rebuild them with bigger diameter and more 'ergonomic' grips .. but honestly, their leatherwork was crap, so 9M's trimmer recovered the leather sections to match the rest of the interior. I really like it. Now if I could just find a cheap leather airbag .. but that's an oxymoron methinks ...

Yes, I was doing that almost every evening as Colin would send me that days progress in pictures. Some nights I went to bed thinking .. 'oh my god, .. I must be crazy .. '

Thank you.

Yes, I've got hedonism and spendthrift down to a fine art!!

curve lover

Jon Paul-- Wow, your 'quintuplet' grew up to be quite the fox
Welcome to your beautiful SpeedArena! ... plus HUGE congratulations to you & the British boys for the breathtaking transformation -- RLers Colin, Graham, etc. have reason to be proud.
Darin said ^^ what the lucky few 'in the know' have thought. It was a privilege that you let me in on your secret early, asking for my time & insights. As you found, I'm the eager little kid thrilled another friend's finally getting an amazing new toy, & to later share the resulting exuberance in person. Always happy to help other RLers spend their hard-earned money, too
Although complicit in your 'downfall' (& hopefully more RLers to follow), it's been a blast keeping you away from the "Speedsterholics Anonymous" meetings ... much more fun to feed the need
After 2-3 years of trying to spread my 'disease,' I'm glad the sickness has finally spread to this side of the ocean!

Thanks for keeping me in the loop during the process, even allowing some insight & advice from experiences with my red jalopy. Speaking of experience, I've always been in awe of your decades of being a Speedsterholic, back to owning 356 Speedsters. You've taken that passion & created a work of art. You've been through quite a journey, & really deserve to enjoy such a jewel.

Let me know when the kids can get together to play -- Speedy has a new friend From Arpad's "another 993 speedster is on the way" thread...
Also gorgeous with the top up:

JPP

I am one of the lucky ones .. I really like the stock 'Twists' .. always have so no plans. Having said that IF I went down that road, I would probably do a wheel with an offset rim and paint the centers body color ...

Yes! Let the party begin!!

SSSHHHHhhhhhhhhhh ......

ryano

this is awesome. I opened the thread up expecting a "i want to build one" post. Cant believe you kept it a secret this whole time!

race911

Revisiting this again, can you guys imagine what kind of a POS wannabe I can make out of the abandoned '92 targa shell I've had sitting around for 7-8 years?

Now that I understand a bit more on the engine mechanicals, it never ceases to amaze me how some of the cars (ALL Porsches, just not 993s) are treated when something happens relatively early in their lives. Then it's all about forensics, and an owner with the budget to properly fix what's wrong AND a shop who knows what to do. A low number on the odo is one of the most meaningless stats available when assessing a car's condition.

mcipseric

holy moley!

chris walrod

+1

Awesome build!!

No HTwo O

JP, the Porsche community is so fortunate that there are owners and enthusiasts like yourself; willing to put in the effort, gain the knowledge to get the job done right, and have the resources, to preserve the rolling art as you have done.

JPP

Hi Jäger! I thought you had abandoned me here ... you know how insecure I can be :-)
Yes, I couldn't and wouldn't have done it without your influence, that's for sure. And thanks for all your help along the way .. like where and how to attach the vin number ...
another bit of 9M custom ingenuity ..

Anyway, I'm assuming we will finally meet in October at Laguna Seca .. or I better cancel that extra room reservation...

Me neither! There were a few little 'clues' in other 9M threads where the car was "inadvertantly" photographed in the background .. I wanted to keep the whole project in stealth mode until I knew exactly what I needed to deal with bringing her back into the U.S.

Exactly!


Thanks Chris! Are you going to Rennsport Reunion?

JPP

Thank you. To be honest, my family doesn't quite see it as a Character strength, and I'm seriously out of resources ... but I can say 'It's been FUN!'