Porsche 951

This car has been an ongoing development, in both power and general maintenance for the over 22 years of my ownership. Power has been steadily increased to twice what it was today. Being an '86' model year it's light, very light when compared to today's models, and the lightest of the range. I have driven many powerful cars in my lifetime, none have impressed me as much as this and it brings a big smile to my face each time I drive it.

This car is my daily driver for the simple reason that I am a car fan and no other car delivers what the 951 does and thus feels boring in comparison, it's ultra-reliable too even when highly modified. 951 is the factory model number which is used in Porsche circles to easily identify the model, it's also much easier to type than 944 turbo.. the true number is 952 which means it's an R/H drive variant but in general, we just settle with 951 for both.

I have created a new album for the car to show more images but will add more to this page as things change.

Currently, I have been working on the interior, this included a retrim to the dash and centre console, the dash had developed a few cracks which is common for these cars, I had got away with it for a long time so wasn't really surprised when cracks began to show a couple of years ago.

I have now covered the dash and console in stitched black leather replacing the original vinyl. This picture gives some idea of the cracks that had developed on the top of the dash near the windscreen. The cracks here have been cleaned up and opened before filling

Here we see the dash after being filled and sanded, for this job I used a flexible plastic bumper filler which does this particular job very well.

The dash now covered in a stitched black leather kit which I purchased some 6 years ago, only now finally getting around to fitting. 6 years ago is when the car went through it's last round of mods which this time involved removing the engine and doing a complete rebuild, I'll give more details on this at a later date.

And the last picture for the dash showing it refitted to the car.

Lastly for now a couple more general views of the car

engine bay

And those sexy hips which fill the door mirrors when driving

Parked at the famous Ace Cafe for one of the monthly Porsche meets, pre lockdown of course

Some of the images seem to have distorted a little, sorry about that, I have no idea why?

Hopefully, she will be going in for a full respray this June, the second respray in my ownership, the first was over 20 years ago. This time she will have modern paint and a good few coats of ceramic clear coating which means she should still be looking good long after I've fallen off my perch.

Next time I'll give some details on the engine.

Pete

Model engineering ?

Is ithis not the 'vehicle restoration page?

It is see top left.

What a nice looking car it’s the Porsche I would like to own. Interested to here about the engine it’s amazing what you can get out of an old block.

Very nice Peter, a friend has had a few of these, one hard top, the rest convertibles. Well built and as you say very reliable, I think his only real issue was with the electric hood but that won't bother you! Looking forward to seeing more form you and wondering what year the car is?

Thank you.. I thought I was losing the plot for a minute there...

yes, the engine even in standard form is more or less bulletproof if serviced correctly.. The car now has nearly 220k miles on the clock, since engine rebuild it's covered approx 25k so I must have got something right during the process..

Original output was 220bhp, the first round of mods back in 2000 saw this rise to 280 bhp, next round in 2007 bumped it up again to 368 bhp (she was then the 5th most powerful 951 in the country) , today she is close to double the original 220. A lot was changed during the last round and it cost me a pretty penny in parts alone, substantially more than the original cost of the car back in 1999.

I'll write an update soon to give more details for those interested, it could be a long write-up though..

Thanks for the kind words on the car, I hope that you do get the chance to own one in the future, they are something very special and it's getting more difficult to find a good one these days.

Pete

Thank's Henry, she's an early '86' model year, the only year that was homologated as a Group B race car, IIRC there are currently 5 left on the road with a few SORN.. They are approx 100kg lighter than the last in the range.

Pete

Beautiful car Peter. Very Envious. I had a later one (as a company lease car) in 1990-93. It replaced a succession of 944's and was itself replaced with a 968(?). When I left the company they wanted silly money for the 968 - so unfortunately it went back to the leasing firm.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 10/05/2021 14:28:35

Thank you Peter.. a Porsche as a company car??.. it's I who is envious, all I got was a VW golf...

.

Very well said, Peter ... and congratulations on the beautiful work.

MichaelG.

A very nice model 951. Certainly a labour of love.

Some details on the engine, luckily most of this was already written on the PCGB forum so I could copy/paste most of this. Part 1 as the forum won't let me post in one go.

First mod (1999) was a Lindsey boost Enhancer, not a real power gain but it felt quicker

Next (2000) was a Lindsey dual port wastegate with a manual boost controller, this was then mapped on a dyno by Wayne Scofield, resulting in power 282bhp/282torque.

Followed by (2007) 368bhp/382torque

So what do you need to make a reliable 368 bhp from a 220bhp engine?

Block remained standard, it's an 86 car which means forged internals and originally designed for over 500bhp, ( under the 924 GTP guise an engine based on this raced at Le Mans coming in at 7th overall and having spent less time in the pits than any other car in the field, IIRC this engine was detuned down to 420bhp for longevity in the race. later cars used the same crank but not forged components.
Lindsey Stage 2 Head with ceramic exhaust coating and machined valves for greater flow, all ports polished and map flowed.
Cometic head gasket
Lindsey Super 61 Turbo
Siemens 55lb injectors
Lindsey Dual Port wastegate
New standard Hydraulic Tappets
Manual boost controller
NGK Iridium Plugs
Magnecor 8.5mm Red Leads
150mm K&N cone filter
Vitesse MAF with piggyback system
Intercooler: standard
Bailey Motorsport DV30 re-circulating valve
Exhaust: standard
silicone vac lines
Innovate Air Fuel Ratio meter/gauge
Adjustable fuel regulator
8 Hours mapping on a dyno at Chip Wizards Rochdale by the maestro himself Wayne Scofield. The car was set to run on 95 RON ( for safety) at 17psi. For those not in the know for every extra RON grade used you can safely increase the boost by 2 psi, so if I had requested the car set for 98 RON the boost could have been safely increased to 21psi and be just as safe, or so the theory goes, of course, the power would have been a lot higher, Back then I was a little scared of going too far, so played safe, today I'm far more confident in the capabilities of the engine although I still do not intend to use all of the boost available.
Note: If I've forgotten anything I'll add it later

Now before I get started on the new build some things were added to the old spec but never put on a dyno to remap.

Janspeed twin rear exhaust section
Piper Ram intake system, custom install
Apex-i AVC-R electronic boost controller
Engine loom fully rewired using Lindsey components and covered in 1200 degree sheaving.
All sensors renewed
Dump to atmosphere Cosworth type dump valve
Stepper motor boost gauge with record
89' Turbo gearbox with LSD

I think that's covered most of it, I haven't gone into brakes and suspension, I think this intro is long enough I don't want to bore you guy's on the first page now do I... I will add though that as far as bodywork is concerned the car remains standard.

Part 2 coming up

Ok, so that's the 368bhp covered, now onto the beast.

Block: bored/skimmed out to 101mm *
Con-rods to remain unchanged although will be checked for balance, whilst researching the options the general consensus is that you can't beat the original Porsche forged items as used for the Turbo cup cars.
Pistons: IASA 101mm full race spec forged pistons with extra machined grove below the first ring, this allows a far higher boost without risk of blow by past the rings.*
IASA gudgeon pins*
Crankshaft machined undersize 0.25mm , both main and rod journals*
Raceware Head stud kit*
Raceware Main stud kit*
Raceware rod stud kit*
Genuine Porsche 0.25mm oversize Main/rod bearings*
Crankshaft scraper*
replaced water pump/belts/tensioners/pulley's
Lindsey Turbo super 61 rebuilt
Vitesse + V-flex MAF for ignition timing
3" custom made Magnaflow free-flow exhaust including the all-important turbo downpipe*

Of course, a lot of what was already on the car was reused after a good clean or rebuild where needed.

Recently I have also added...

80lb injectors

race-spec high temp fuel lines

map adjusted and the Vitesse chipboard now switched to a more aggressive ignition profile, I still have one more setting for what the creator describes as an extreme setting... Basically, the chipboard has 8 jumper switches, some are written to run the smaller 55lb injectors which I used when running in the freshly rebuilt engine. The other setting gives a more aggressive ignition of for when running on race fuel. Everything is controlled through the piggyback via laptop.

The air filter has now been moved to just behind the lower front apron, it's the biggest filter that K'N produces. The last 6" cone which had been fitted higher up inside the wing was sucked too hard and collapsed a number of times so clearly couldn't handle the amount of intake force being produced. Not the first time as the earlier Piper ram air intake had it's bonded foam filet within sucked out and damaged the turbo and destroyed the intercooler. Porsche originally designed the intake to run via a snorkel which takes cold air from the passenger wing, this hole is 3-inch dia and so I have now run 3-inch reinforced ducting throughout the intake system. down to the air filter. produces a lovely roar which when added to the burble from the exhaust on overrun and the whoosh when changing gear from the dump valve makes it a real head-turner long before they actually see the car.

Well, I think that covers most of the details, there is bound to be something that I have forgotten, will it now stay at this level? now there's a question, I'm over 60 now and too old for boy racer antics, even my wife says that I drive like an old man these days. This is a very fast car, not much out there to bother it, it will fly past 180 mph with ease and who knows where it stops when finally restricted by the wind. In the USA with similar power levels, they have seen 200+mph. The fastest that I have driven her is a recorded 174mph on one of my trips to Le Mans, back then she only had 282 bhp...recorded by sat nav, not my speedo which at the time was bouncing off its 170 mph pin and still accelerating hard until the column of cars backed off a little...

She is a beast, I would guess the 0-60 time is safely under 4 secs, in standard form auto road tests of the day cars managed 5.9 secs, and according to one auto mag the fastest speed at that time of any car roadtested on the autobahn in 1986 at 159 mph. The best thing about these cars, is they are just as planted on the road at 140mph as they are at 40mph, I can attest to this having driven much faster and never feeling light at the wheel.

Ok, I think that covers it, you can perhaps see now why I still have this car after so many years of ownership, it would be a very hard act to follow and it's 35 years old?...

Pete

thank you,

Pete

Apologies, I hadn't realised that there was a Vehicle Restoration Page. Sorry

Roy

No apology needed Roy, I didn't realise that this thread existed until recently either..

Pete

The rather motley collection of ‘forum topics’ can be found here: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/

MichaelG.

Very nice car you have there.

I used to fancy a Porsche 928, but even before my geriatric state, I found it difficult to get in and out of. Also very tight in the cockpit, especially with the sunroof.

I believe your (original) engine was designed as one bank of the v-8, but stand to be corrected.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Edited By steamdave on 10/05/2021 16:19:07

Roy - following your concern about 'model engineering'

Just imagine you are standing at Edge Hill just before the civil war battle. Charles's army of cavaliers is poncing about, and into the field marches Cromwell's new Model Army. 'Goodness me' says the King, 'They don't look like models to me. We are in for a full-size fight indeed'. 'Quite right, Sir,' says his ADC - 'I was expecting a load of skinny tarts ...'

There are many words that have two or more meanings. Model is one of them.

Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 10/05/2021 16:37:02