Living with a Porsche 944

Brands Hatch's Summer Wednesday's are back so I booked a taster session to give the 944 a good shakedown! A good friend of mine came along as co-pilot and to enjoy his first track experience. We signed in, did the drivers briefing then had the noise level tested - and passed at 96 decibels. We even got a sticker! Each stage was building towards our time on the track and so were the excitement levels! a When the first round of cars hit the circuit for their sighting laps we rolled the TheHoff into one of the empty garages to wait our turn at 6pm... Our chariot certainly looked at home! Soon enough it was our turn so we fired up and burbled our way down the pit lane and joined the queue of other cars waiting behind the pace car for our 3 sighting laps after which the pace car would reel off and we'd continue for 20 minutes lapping the Indy circuit. Exiting the pit lane and swinging into Paddock Bend and into the infamous hill was quite...

Managed a few minutes in the garage chasing down a slightly hunting idle. Went through all the vacuum hoses and gave them a tweek and found one small connector, erm, disconnected...sorted that and there was a minor improvement. Dang... Next was to check the idle control valve, so I disconnected that, started the car and let it run for a moment then switched it off. Reconnected the ICV and started TheHoff up - purrs like a young lion. Result! Then it was onto the jumping temp guage. Checked the two spade connectors under the manifold, they were a-ok. So to the guage console I went. Removed the 6 screws holding on the binnacle and then the four securing the gauges. Gave the temp guage brass connectors a good clean with brake disk cleaner as the contact cleaner was finito... Put it all back together and... Perfect!

A trip to the Ace Cafe is always a welcome excursion and being the first time I drove TheHoff for anything further than the recent trip to the MOT station down the road. First things first though - some Vpower... All in all I did 150 miles there and back and it was a thrill - I even managed to miss all the M25 crashes and tail backs...I'm very happy to say that my 944 drove like a dream, sounds fantastic on the open road, sits just right and is all I hoped it would perform like after being off the road for 4 years almost to the day. STOKED. The conundrum now is how much more do I do to TheHoff - I had some more mods planned to make this 944 a lighter weight "Club Sport" but after driving a good distance and considering how immaculate the interior is, I'm having some major reservations about stripping stuff out like the carpets. I'm going to have to think of a compromise because I've got the hankering to build...

Fixed another one of those little things - the glove compartment light. As it turns out the bulb is not something your local motor factors or Halfords carry - it's 29mm x 7mm 12v 3w Festoon bulb that eBay offered up thankfully. One moment later...  The final part to fit was the anti-roll bar and assorted clamps - many moons ago now I had a lot of the old parts powder coated in accordance with a strict policy that reflected "eighties excess". It makes me chuckle thinking that on the outside this 944 looks stock but under the skin it's all a little crazy and fun. Anyway back to the ARB bits...   The problem was that the middle clamps had become distorted - not sure when but I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have sent them to powder like that. So I got some new ones from my OPC with a set of OEM rubber bushes as you can see on the right.   The trick to fitting the sway bar end mount bushes is - freshly boiled hot water to soften the rubber and ...

Quite a satisfying afternoon today! Fitted a replacement LCD to my "never worked while I've had it" digital dash clock. Was a bit fiddly taking the unit apart and placing the new screen. At first there was no life after connecting it to the wire behind the dash, but the fuse had gone...replaced that and hey presto! Working digital dash clock at long last! Now to finish off the anti-roll bar!

What a momentous moment an MOT can be! At 203,757 miles my Porsche 944 is now road legal again. The last MOT test was November 2010 - that's a fair amount of water under the bridge, and an enormous amount of joy and frustrations along the way to get TheHoff to this point where I can cruise the tarmac again. After the MOT was completed the wheel geometry was checked and all alignments done. I have got to say that the 944 got a lot of looks and everyone in the workshop come over at some point to give TheHoff a looking over - especially when they saw the colourful goings on underneath, all the new suspension components and, heard the rumble and burble from the exhaust. Lots of appreciative comments and a reassuring "She's totally solid mate"! This is the first time I've had the pleasure of driving this Porsche 944 on the road in more than 3 years - the sense of satisfaction and pure driving enjoyment has made the journey worth it...

After sorting the S2 intake bits it was time to find and fit a new air filter. The original air filter position on the S is underneath the front badge panel - a rather awkward place when it comes to replacement. I'd therefore elected to fit mine behind the NS headlight and after some careful measuring found an ideal candidate in a foam filter from RAMAIR. Positioned where it is should ensure it gets some cold air from the large hole in the side panel. I plan to make a heat shield of some sort to enclose it too.