L AL E U Q R TO UNE 20 ISSUE 70 J
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ALWAYS ORIGINAL
The last of the great 911s? November 2006
May 2007
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Special Collectors’ Edition January 2007
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TIPEC (0845 602 0052) www.tipec.net All Torque is published bi-monthly by The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club (TIPEC). All text & images are © their authors & photographers. Front cover image: Boxster 986 at Devil’s Dyke, West Sussex by Keith Funnell.
Chairman’s Chat
All Torque is based entirely on submissions from TIPEC members. This is your magazine and we need your involvement! Send in running reports, Porsche-related stories, how-to articles … anything you think might interest other TIPEC members. Please send text and images via email, or on CD/DVD (or paper!) to the address below. Submissions for issue 71 (August) must be in before Tuesday 1st July 2008. Yes, that’s very early; we need the magazine delivered in plenty of time for TIPEC ’08 at Gaydon! All Torque editor & designer Tony Blow tony@typescape.com Flat 1/1, 47 Greendyke Street, Glasgow G1 5PX Printed by The Lavenham Press Ltd, Suffolk (01787 247 436) Advertising in All Torque is managed by TIPEC club office 10 Whitecroft Gdns, Woodford Halse NN11 3PY (0845 602 0052) TIPEC Chairman Sean Smallman (07789 657 522) sean.smallman@tipec.net Vice Chairman Jim Hearnden (07930 353 232) tr7v8@phaetonconsulting.co.uk Treasurer Rich Simpson (07711 581 443) rich.simpson@tipec.net Advertising & Club Liason Clive Gosling (07791 480 999) clive.gosling@tipec.net Membership Secretary Dave Doherty (01423 501 988) membership@tipec.net TIPEC Membership, Alexa House 26 Ripon Road, Harrogate HG1 21JJ Gruppe North Director John Oakes (01132 827 512) john.oakes3@btinternet.com Gruppe Central Director Eric Finley (07971 594 211) eric.finley@tipec.net Gruppe South Director Derek Flanagan (07767 254 820) derek.flanagan@varian.com All Torque & TIPEC are entirely independent of Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG, Porsche Cars GB Ltd and its dealers. All registered Trade Marks owned by Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG, including the word ‘Porsche’, the Porsche Crest and Porsche Script are acknowledged as such and are their property. Whilst all due care is taken in the production of All Torque; neither TIPEC, its officers or the editor can accept responsibility for the advice, information or opinions expressed herein. Opinions contained in any article published herein are of the author or editor and do not reflect the official position of TIPEC, its management or membership, unless clearly stated by a club official.
In my role of Chair there are two days a year which make me slightly nervous. One of those is the AGM. After a restless nights sleep we arrived at the conference centre early to prepare. I read my notes whilst Haley put all the paperwork on the chairs. By 10:00am the room was packed with members, coffee and biscuits were served and the Porsche chit chat started. What followed was unusual for an AGM, the traditional agenda was observed but the formality that goes with it was definitely not. When I asked everyone to read and approve the minutes of the last meeting, Keith Strudwick said “I propose we accept the minutes and read them in our own time.” Graham Waller seconded. 22 seconds for the acceptance of the minutes must be a new record. That set the standard for the rest of the agenda. I was beginning to get worried; after 15 minutes we had completed the agenda with the exception of A.O.B. The meeting was light-hearted and a good laugh. Everyone had the opportunity to contribute, which made for a very successful day. We had a brainstorm about how we can improve the club and the benefits to our members. There is a list of actions that Jim scribbled on the flipchart and we will be working through those in due course. After a very nice buffet lunch, we were given some complimentary passes to look around the exhibits in the museum. Thanks to Paul Bird for preparing and reading the accounts in Richard’s absence and to everyone who took time out of their weekend to attend. TIPEC08 is gathering momentum. Please read the update in the news section for details on the Pride of Ownership competition. We also need volunteers to help out. If you would like to give an hour or so of your day to help make the show run smoothly, please contact club office. If you haven’t bought tickets for the party or the test track, please be aware that they are selling fast.
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TIPEC national event 2008 This year’s TIPEC national event will be held on Saturday and Sunday 2nd/3rd August at Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre
To celebrate the clubs 15th Anniversary, on the Saturday night we are hosting a Back to School Party and quality BBQ. School uniform is not compulsory so feel free to dress up or down as the case may be. This is family event and will be held at the top of the museum which has panoramic views of the Warwickshire countryside. There is an outside seating area to enjoy the summer evening and have a rest from the dancing. There are a limited number of tickets so please book early. Features for Sunday’s show include: • Pride of Ownership concours (details in June’s issue of All Torque) • Porsche only parking • model displays • trade stands • seminars • museum • drive Land Rovers under tuition on the 4x4 circuit (free) • test track parade laps • cars for sale • car clinic • go-karts (£4.50) • play area • bouncy castle
Cost in Advance Adults £8 Kids £6 Family £25 (two adults, three kids) Camping £11 Three laps of the test track £10 (limited numbers) Party £20/£9 (limited numbers)
On the Day Adults £10 Kids £8 Family £35 Camping £16 Test track £15
Tickets are available to purchase from the Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre website www.heritage-motorcentre.co.uk (click on events). Or by telephone Tuesdays only on 01926 645 031 (9am–5pm) We have reserved rooms at The Holiday Inn Leamington Spa at £75 for a double including breakfast. Call 01926 425 522 and quote POR to get that rate. Family rooms are available online www. holidayinn.co.uk Family rooms are also available from Travelodge from £30 visit www.travelodge.co.uk and from Welcome Break Warwick Servies from £40 www.welcomebreak.co.uk
JUNE UPDATE This year’s pride of ownership will follow the same format as previous years. There is no charge for competing but you will need to buy entrance tickets for the show from the Heritage Motor Centre. To enter please contact club office, closing date for entries is 1st July 2008. Please note we will not accept entries after this date or on the day. The competition is again sponsored by Raceglaze, they will provide trophies and prizes to the winners. Mark Savin will be looking after the competition and he will be in touch after we have received your entry. We have a section for Regional parking and your RO’s will communicate how to join convoys, etc.
Petrolheads Spring Cruise On Thursday 10th April, SE Region members joined the seventh annual Petrolheads Spring Cruise from Brooklands to Gaydon Rachel Barnard and Rob Pettifer initiated TIPEC’s involvement after seeing an advert in one of the national motoring magazines. Donations of £65 per driver and £35 per passenger were raised in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief. We met up for the day’s event at the Brooklands Motor Museum at 8am whereupon we were given a rally plaque and vouchers for the day’s events. There was time to admire some of the 60 cars arriving, including a dozen or more stunning Porsches travelling from as far afield as Hampshire and Essex. The Brooklands Paddock in front of the famous clubhouse was brimming with an amazing collection of cars, from an early Alvis through to the latest Bentley GT. The Porsche contingent was strong with 944s, 964s, 968s, 986s, 993s, 996s and a 997 present giving a great opportunity for
Thanks to Robert Shepherd for this photo of participants on the famous Brooklands Banking
TIPEC rally day Following the success of our day at Silverstone Rally School last year, we have been able to negotiate a repeat dedicated TIPEC event on Thursday 24th July, starting at 10am and running to 4pm with a break for a pub lunch. This special programme will include training in some of the techniques of rally driving, including practice in Escort 2000 rally cars and a ‘hot ride’. The special programme is only possible if we book all 12 places at the school at the specially reduced price of £171 per person (excluding lunch). The event is open initially to SE Region members but will be opened up to others if we need to fill spaces. If other Regions would like to show their interest or submit names, we will place them in a waiting list. If you would like to notify us of interest in the event, please contact John Wallin ASAP on 0208 661 1601, or john.wallin@talktalk.net Payment will be required in advance, and is non-refundable.
photographs in the early morning sunshine, followed by a group shot of all participating cars on the famous Brooklands Banking. The Banking is some 30 feet high and just driving part way up it to the assembly point gave a clear indication just how steep and terrifying it must have been to drive on. We headed off on the M25 and M40 to the Gaydon Heritage Museum in Warwick. Our TIPEC group were expecting the ‘Spring Cruise’ to be just that, a leisurely convoy to Gaydon. It was more like a sprint with each of us saying afterwards that we had only seen a handful of cars en-route. That said, we all arrived safely at Gaydon and met up again with the others in a reserved parking area. After lunch we strolled around the museum before heading to the Land Rover 4x4 experience for our pre-booked slots. The day ended with a trophy presentation for the best three cars as judged by the Gaydon manager and staff. First place went to the Alvis, second to the Lotus Elite and 3rd to the Honda NSX. No prizes for the Porsches! Our thanks to event organiser Phil Reynolds for his meticulous planning of the day and commitment to raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Relief. If you would like to participate in next years event contact him at rephotopublishingltd@btinternet.com
Dunlop Tyres celebrate 120 years Drivers planning to travel from the Midlands and above to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed on 11th July are invited to join a special convoy from Fort Dunlop, the historic home of Dunlop Tyres, commemorating 120 years of tyre production. James Bailey of Dunlop Tyres says; “This year is a huge milestone for Dunlop in both motoring and our motorsport heritage. We’re asking anyone travelling from or passing through Birmingham on their way to the Festival of Speed to join us for breakfast and make the journey with us on a petrolheads pilgrimage.” A day pass to the Festival of Speed with Dunlop Tyres will cost £30, with proceeds donated to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Meeting up at 7:30am at Fort Dunlop for a complimentary breakfast with some special guests, all drivers will recieve discount tyre vouchers and a VIP pass to the Dunlop stand at Goodwood, to see historic racing drivers and riders being reunited with their vehicles. A weekend ticket is also available. Registration and further details are at www.driversknow.co.uk/tour120
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Goodwood Breakfast Club On April 6th some of our more intrepid TIPEC members headed down to Goodwood, despite the weather reports hinting at snow. Goodwood Breakfast Club meets are a great way to see an eclectic mix of vehicles, to have a natter with fellow petrolheads and to have a bacon butty whilst viewing the fantastic cars on display. The day started well on April 6th, despite weather reports hinting at snow, with a handful of TIPEC members turning up and displaying their cars on the pit lane straight. The theme for the meet was ‘Modern Sports Car Legends: Great drivers’ cars from 1980 to the present day’. At about 8:30am, snow started to fall gently and then got heavier and heavier until it was difficult to work out which model of car was under which couple of inches of snow! It made for an interesting morning, those that actually managed to get to Goodwood found the atmosphere very relaxed and friendly with much more banter than usual. The weather provided some fantastic opportunities for those of us with cameras, as it added a slightly surreal and grainy look to the photos. A lot of people were defeated by the weather and there were fewer cars than usual. Danny Jones in his 996 Turbo and Gareth McChesney in his 997 were two of six TIPEC members who managed to make it to Goodwood safe and sound. Four of our intrepid members in a 964 (Rob Pettifer), 993 (Rachel Barnard), 944 (David Green) and a 964 Cab (Ivor Heading) stayed for breakfast and then decided to head off in a very cautious convoy towards home. Hats off to David Green in his race prepped 944, getting the clutch to bite at 3,500 revs in order to pull away in the snow on road legal slicks was no mean feat! They all managed to get their cars back in one piece, which is more than can be said for a lot of people that morning as the appalling weather conditions took their toll. Many accidents were passed on the way. Writing & photography by Rachel Barnard
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TIPEC SE karting We had an excellent turnout for the TIPEC inter-region karting challenge with 11 teams (44 drivers) from four TIPEC Regions. We’ve been racing at Filching Manor Kart Track annually since 1999, a superb outdoor circuit with some wicked hairpins and excellent facilities. Unlike our cars these karts have no driver aids, just two pedals. Once you have mastered them you only need the accelerator, with your foot hard down most of the time! After a 15-minute practice which determined grid positions we ran straight on to the two-hour endurance race, determining our own driver changes and refueling strategies. Average lap times are around 30 seconds with only a second per lap difference between the fastest laps from first and last placed teams. A driver change cost 30 seconds (or one lap) and a refueling was equivalent to three. A spin on the track could easily cost another whole lap. This was another great day made even better by the exciting racing, TIPEC friendship and sunny weather. The final placings were: 1. Crazy Gang (Derek Flanagan’s family, SE Region) 2. Dirty Third of a Dozen (Graham & Stewart Hart, David & Max Broughton, SE Region) 3. Robin’s Reliants (Robin Pettifer’s team, last year’s winners, SE Region) 4. Team Chimp (Gordon Collins’ team, Southern Region) 5. Fat Chance (Steve Haylor’s team, SE Region) 6. The Staggerers (Grahams Muncey’s team, from Stenying) 7. No Hopers (Richard Harris & Neil Williams’ team, SE Region) 8. Sandy Racers (Simon Pearce’s team, SELNK Region) 9. The Beginners (Nigel Moore’s team, from Varian Medical Systems) 10. Nick’s Nackers (Nick Ramsey’s team, Thames Valley Region) 11. Jim’s Jams (Jim Hearnden’s team, SELNK Region)
Sad news On Tuesday 15th April whilst on their way to the East Midlands Region meeting Paul Drury and Judy Phillips were tragically killed in a car crash. They were a fantastic, energetic couple whom I met for the first time a few days after they had joined at a SYND Region club night in June 2007. They were over the moon to have bought a 968 Cabby and were keen to get involved and join in events both in the UK and overseas. Paul became SYNN RO in January and Judy took on the role of Treasurer for the region. At the AGM Judy gave me a wooden hammer with which to control the rabble. We miss them dearly, the club has lost two great enthusiasts. R.I.P. Sean Smallman
Insurance Quotes A lot of us use online search engines when looking for the best insurance prices, to compare lots of competitive quotations at the same time. We have set one up on our own website at www.tipec.net Every time someone requests a quote the club receives a small commission. Just click on the QuoteZone advertisment at the bottom of the TIPEC homepage. You might find a great price and you will be helping out the club just by giving it a try.
Carbon monoxide: A safety warning Many of you will be familiar with the new and used Porsche parts specialists FrazerPart. In March 2006, Robert Schenker, (Bob to his friends and customers) founder of the company, sadly passed away as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was the innocent victim of shoddy building work which saw the chimney of his family home in Peterborough become blocked. The builder in question was eventually charged with and found guilty of his manslaughter in April 2008. Carbon monoxide is an odourless, tasteless gas often referred to as the ‘silent killer’. Whilst this tragic and preventable accident occurred in the home, it is worth remembering that carbon monoxide can be produced when any form of fossil fuel is incompletely combusted. This includes petrol within an internal combustion engine. Porsche enthusiasts and workshop or garage owners are encouraged to tinker with running engines only in well ventilated environments and to invest in a battery operated, British Kitemark approved, carbon monoxide alarm in their garages as well as their homes. It really doesn’t take long for carbon monoxide levels to build up to lethal levels. Once poisoned by the gas, the symptoms are very similar to the flu: namely nausea, headaches, tiredness and lethargy. The Porsche community has already lost one enthusiast at the age of 31, it really doesn’t need to loose any more. FrazerPart is now run by Robert’s brother Max. They are based in Merseyside and their contact details can be found in their advertisment elsewhere in this magazine.
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Centre Gravity: the art of geometry We’re all concerned about the condition of the engine, gearbox, transmission and bodywork of our beloved Porsches. How many of us give the same care and attention to the geometry setup? I am talking about wheel geometry in terms of castor, camber and toe together with the condition of the suspension, anti roll bars and weight distribution of the car. I very much doubt that all of us have had these areas of the car checked. Dare I suggest that some of us could not explain the differences between castor, camber and toe? Furthermore, how many of us could describe how camber, castor and toe can significantly change the handling characteristics of our cars?
Is all this worth doing? Well, I suggest you speak to those who have had such work done. My car goes in on the 21st of May so you may hear more on another occasion. In the meantime you could always go online and ask around on our forum. Forum user Demonfish is over the moon with his car. I met him at Shelley Walsh at the beginning of May, almost immediately after his car was re-engineered, and he now reckons it handles better in the wet than it previously did in dry conditions! So what is involved in setting your car up? Chris starts with a short interview about how and where you drive. The car is then measured and compared to factory settings. The tyres are checked, followed by loading the car with fuel as necessary and adding weight to simulate the inclusion of the driver. Ride heights are checked as well as springs and dampers. The car is set to your personal requirements.
With this in mind, Central Region concluded their technical visits for 2008 with a visit to Center Gravity on April 19th; exactly one week prior to the National Track Day at Bruntingthorpe. Chris Franklin, the proprietor, was kind enough to host the club as well as support and advise TIPEC drivers for free at Bruntingthorpe on the 26th. For all checks Chris uses a Beissbarth Microline Easy Eight alignment rig; the same equipment used by McLaren and the Seat touring car team. Given the nature of the work and the accuracy required, the equipment is recalibrated every two weeks and in addition to this the manufacturer checks the equipment twice a year. For demonstration purposes during our visit, Chris used a 944 belonging to one of our members, as well as his own Porsche and a 997 C2S. On our visit we were given an insight into the adjustment of castor, camber and toe and a number of practical aides were used to explain each characteristic and the effect each had upon a car. We were also talked through the black art of tyre variation for specific applications as well as how to determine the ages of tyres. Chris walked us through four wheel alignment and factory baseline setup using a member’s car (the 944) and finally we had a session using a radio controlled model and Chris’ own car to explore corner balancing, since this can also have a significant effect on left/right turn performance, wheelspin and grip.
You’ve guessed it: not cheap … but then what do you expect? How do you drive? How safe do you want to be? The total cost for the above on a Porsche is usually around £190–£210. The hourly rates used by Center Gravity are comparitive to those used by other independent specialists. Chris is trying to develop menu pricing for the future. Chris has some specific advice to owners of Porsches with trailing arm suspension: pre-’89 911s, 924, 944, 968 and 964. Prior to visiting Centre Gravity (or any alignment specialist) to have your car fully sorted you are strongly advised to remove and replace, one at a time, the six bolts and nuts on the trailing arms on each side of the car. Remember to use copper slip grease. (Equipment probably needed: copper slip, butane torch and an 18-inch bar.) There may be only five on the 964.
These photos show all six bolts marked with white paint on a 944 Writing & photography by Brian Rowledge
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Specialist Cars of Malton open weekend
Simon Poole reports on an unseasonably cold trip to Specialist Cars to see their collection of unique Porsches and take a look around their workshops
This was the first run out that I had organised for the new North East TIPEC Region so I was hoping that it went well, but the weather forecast over Easter weekend wasn’t good. We had arranged to meet at 10:00am. By 8:30 the phone was ringing and I was afraid that those members of the North East Region who had intended going would be put off by the snow. A quick call to Specialist Cars confirmed that the event was still on and that there was no snow on the roads. So it was all systems go! Only Ian was put off by the weather and I can’t say as I blame him. His low mileage 911 Super Sport is immaculate and doesn’t know what rain is never mind snow! That left three brave Porsches met up at the Sporting Lodge on Easter
Sunday. My family with the 968, Albie & Ann in their Boxster S and Paul & Sheila in another Boxster S. We headed off along the road, affectionately known as the ‘Helmsley TT’ by local bikers as it is a particularly enjoyable stretch of road, at what I thought was a sensible pace given the conditions. At one point a hero in a VW Transporter decided that he was in a rush, overtaking all three Porsches in highly inappropriate places. Bet he enjoyed himself telling stories down the pub that night! We arrived at Specialist Cars without further incident and were treated to an excellent display of extremely well presented examples of the Porsche marque, with some very rare models including a 1973 Porsche 911 3 litre RSR IROC car which is one of 15 produced and believed to be the only example outside of the USA.
The workshops were also open for the weekend and the technicians were performing free 70-point checks on cars for anyone brave enough to let them. As my car was booked in the following week to another specialist for a service and some other work I thought I would let them have a look and see if I was going to be in for any unpleasant surprises. After an anxious wait I was given the news that my 968 looked like a good one with only a slight case of plate lift on the rear calipers, a few slight oil leaks, which I was already aware of, and a faded bonnet badge. Phew! After we finished we headed off to Whitby for Fish and Chips and some pleasant chit chat. An enjoyable first event for the North East Region, but where were the rest of you?
Writing & photography by Simon Poole
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Birmingham Motor Tyre Repository BMTR had been on the Central Region’s radar for some time. The name kept cropping up in racing circles and with hardcore driving enthusiasts, so we knew we had to find out what the fuss was about. Brian Rowledge got in touch and a visit was organised for Saturday 15th March
I always try to be early for this type of event so that any new members are welcomed on arrival, so I parked up in front of the BMTR showroom first having passed Phil Mercer’s white 3.2 on the run in from the M6. I was waiting for the arrival of our motley crew, when Gary Hickman came out and introduced himself: Gary is the general manger (and a director) of BMTR. He turned out to be a really nice chap and was genuinely keen to welcome the club for our visit. We spent a few minutes chatting as our cars started arriving and Gary commented that we have some stunning cars in the club. I suggested he should come along to club night in the summer and be blown away by the standard of cars in the car park! Once everyone arrived we were ushered to an upstairs meeting room where the warmth of the welcome extended to tea, coffee, fresh orange, pastries, croissants and muffins. We settled down to be formally welcomed to BMTR by Sales Manager Graham Leggett, who gave us a brief history of the company. The Birmingham Motor Tyre Repository was established in 1935 and has serviced motoring enthusiasts ever since. The company is a family run affair but has grown over the years into a multimillion pound business, carrying 250,000 tyres in stock at all times. BMTR also has a racing pedigree. The Company’s chairman, Don Smith, raced Jaguars in the late fifties and early sixties and the BMTR liveried cars became a familiar sight at race meetings up and down the UK. From this came a club-style service at race meetings, which has evolved over the years into the high tech race services that now carry BMTR staff
overseas on a regular basis. The current managing director, Paul Smith, followed in his father’s footsteps and progressed from karts to become one of the top Formula Ford drivers by the end of the 1970s and then moved into Formula Two. He switched to sports car racing, culminating in class wins at Le Mans in 1982 and ’83 before the growing success of the business forced him to retire from racing. He returned to historic racing in 1992 with an F1 Ensign and so the company has many years of competition experience, during which their knowledge of high performance tyre usage has been honed to a fine art. The standard of work carried out at BMTR is subject to independent review by Pirelli who accredit with a system of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum awards. There are only three companies in the UK who have achieved Platinum status and BMTR are one of them! We were then handed over to Simon Ford and Russell Dibben from Pirelli who showed us a short 10 minute film about the manufacture of tyres, covering the different compounds used and the various components that make up the tyre structure. The film was a bit dated but I guess the principles are still the same, although cars have become faster and wheel rims bigger. These two factors are problem
areas for tyre manufacturers and a discussion kicked off about the various applications for different tyre types. Very interesting, but several weeks on as I write this article the complexities and details are too great to recall. What was made very clear is that tyres have a shelf life, a fact I was unaware of as my tyres never seem to last very long, which could be an issue for those of us with garage queens. Regardless of tread wear, a tyre should be binned after four years. It might be worth checking how old your tyres are! Take a look at the sidewall and there will be a date mark, normally a month and year, indicating the time of manufacture. The obvious issues of not mixing tyre brands and types were discussed with particular reference to N-rated tyres. I had wrongly assumed that this designation was standard across the tyre world but it is not. Different manufacturers use different systems. Another good reason not to mix tyres! At the conclusion of the presentation everyone was given a Pirelli baseball cap and a BMTR information pack before we were split into two groups to tour the workshop facilities. We were given a demonstration of a tyre change using a ‘hands free’ machine and it was most impressive. No levers or metal parts touched the wheel rim. Only a soft plastic guide ran along the rim for the duration, so there is no risk to your expensive alloys! The machine also lifts the rim and tyre from floor to working height and then back on a hydraulic lift. Useful for some of the larger wheels and rims that are now commonplace in the workshop.
We were shown a wheel balance procedure using the Hunter Road Force Analysis system. As well as balancing the wheel and tyre in the conventional manner, the machine runs the rim at speed with a metal bar pressed against the tread to simulate actual road use. This ensures the wheel and tyre remains in balance under load and can highlight fluctuations in the rim itself. Whilst this type of balancing exercise might be a little over the top for the family MPV, high performance road and racecars require far higher standards and as such it is clearly of real benefit. By this point I had decided not to buy tyres from anyone else in future! During our visit, David Yardley’s lovely Guards Red Boxster had been treated to a four-wheel laser alignment and we watched part of the procedure at the end of our workshop tour. BMTR’s alignment specialist is seconded to the local OPC on a regular basis, such is the calibre of the work carried out. TIPEC members have been offered serious discounts on tyres and services at BMTR. Just let them know on arrival that you are a club member and you will be given a very keen price. We enjoyed a quality club visit to a fascinating company and the 22 members that attended had a great morning out. Writing & photography by Paul Bird
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TIPEC’s first trackday Our inaugural TIPEC national trackday was held on the 26th of April at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire.
The proving ground is the largest privately owned vehicle test track facility: a 1950s and ’60s USAF strategic bomber base which has been converted (yeah, right) into a ‘track’ for putting one’s car through its paces. One big advantage of Brunty as opposed to other tracks is that there is plenty of ‘run-off’. This suits novices, as if you completely cock up any of the turns, the worst you can do is cut some grass— there’s no tyre walls or corrugated metal barriers to run in to. The day was organised by the Central Region (thanks Paul and Brian!) and with nearly 30 Porsches there, TIPEC was well represented. We shared the day with other, less-desirable marques (I would say that) which included a race-specced Clio, plenty of Caterham Sevens, a couple of Beemers and even a Skoda Octavia! Altogether, 50–60 cars.
We started the day off with an all-driver safety briefing, including track etiquette (overtake on the left, enjoy your cornering, allow faster cars to overtake on the straight, and don’t aim for anyone in a yellow jacket) after which the novices (myself included) were given the chance to be taken round in a Honda Aerodeck or Mitsubishi Shogun, just to see the layout of the track. We were given a brief insight into braking points and shown the laid out turn-in and apex cones on each corner. The staff had made life a little more interesting by laying out cones out on the wide runway sections so as to provide some extra corners, rather than a straight up and down. Before anyone was allowed out, there was the obligatory noise test, just to make sure there were no regulations broken, and each and every driver was double-checked to see if they had attended the briefing. There was an open pit lane procedure which basically meant that 25 cars were allowed on the track at any one time, with one being allowed out as one came in to the pits. This worked very well indeed and there was hardly any waiting time to get on to the track. You could also go out on the track as many times as you wished. You could have stayed out all day with just a break for lunch, if you thought your car was up to it.
Once we were flagged out by the marshall, it was pedal to the metal and aim for the first sweeping lefthander. Off the next bend, slam on the anchors for a right, avoid the drains, floor it, ease off another right, then a bit more right into the chicane, right, left, right, clip the corners but avoid the concrete, down the hill into a deceptive right where you don’t think you’ve the space but after a few laps, stick it down and let the car wander out wide. Over to the right hand side, ease it round the cones then BRAKE HARD! My God, that’s a sharp right … accelerate, then another coned chicane, left, right, brake a bit, right again, aim for the turn-in cone, brake, hang on for a sharp but fast right, then stick that pedal down again for a long, long straight before getting back to the initial left-hander. Wow, that was fun, think I’ll go round again … For those real novices, who managed to pootle around at sub-90 mph (yup, that’s me!) there was tuition available. The kindly man takes your passenger seat for twenty minutes and shows you around the circuit (in your own car), teaching you the difference between braking for the corner and stamping on the brake pedal. That keeps the brakes in contact for less time, and less prone to overheating. He also tells you the importance of not braking and steering at the same time. After this, my God, what a difference! So much more confidence hitting the corners, I reckon I shaved about 20 minutes off my lap time.
Chris Franklin from Center Gravity was on hand during the day for technical advice. He assisted with a number of vehicles, checking tyre pressures, wheel alignment and suspension set-ups to ensure that the cars were running at optimum performance. Chris very kindly provided this service for the princely sum of £0.00. Yup, totally free. Obviously time was a constraint, so the number of cars was limited, but I’m sure the drivers who benefitted from Chris’ wisdom were very pleased. Now, then … Paul … what can I say? Our chairman Sean has said that there are clubs that would not kick a man when he was down … but we’re not one of them! Paul organised the event (did I say thanks?), he got his 944 ready for the day: cam and balancing belt, tensioner gear, front brake disks, red EBC pads all round, brake fluid swap, braided brake hoses, swapped tyres and wheels for the trackday set … but then on the Thursday prior Paul hit a pothole the size of a mineshaft, breaking his front anti roll bar. So then, that’s why you’ve got two Porsches. Out came the 928. Got to Bruntingthorpe okay, but as soon as he pulled on to the track, it died. Oh well, better luck next time eh, Paul? What can I say? I went there a little nervous about the damage I could cause to my pride and joy, but came away thinking that you don’t have to worry too much. Your car is in your hands. You, the driver, decide how hard to push the car and yourself. I cannot fault the day; my thanks again go to Paul and Brian for organising it, to the Bruntingthorpe crew for making us feel welcome, and to everyone who coming along. It was a fantastic day out, with wonderful weather, and I shared my birthday cake with all present.
Writing by Graham Waller. Photography by Graham Waller, Tom Klimes and Sean Smallman
All Torque 70 page 15
Fifteen years of TIPEC This month TIPEC celebrates it’s fifteenth anniversary. Derek Flanagan (founder member number 76!) looks back over the history of a club punching well above it’s weight, run by volunteers with a passion for all things Porsche. For a small independent club like TIPEC to survive and prosper for so many years is a testament to those volunteers who have stuck to the club’s independent principles through some difficult times. We have had changing faces, disagreements, clashes of personality and financial issues. We are all indebted to the pioneers who ran the club in its formative and stormative years and made it what it is today. As a founder member (Number 76—and I have still have the T-shirt issued to all founder members to prove it!) and the proud owner of
every single copy of the club’s magazines, I have developed a knowledge of the club from its beginning and thought this anniversary would be a great opportunity to share the history of TIPEC with all our current members. In these 15 years I have enjoyed working with six chairmen (plus one caretaker chairman), eight secretaries, five treasurers, and an amazing 16 magazine editors, all of whom have had their own unique character and style. We have also had five different club names and hence five different club logotypes!
Club logotypes through the years: 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2006 and 2007 … squeezing more words (and a wider range of Porsche models) in as time goes on
Our founder and the early years The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club started life as the ‘924/944 Club’. It was launched in June 1993 by Gary Downs, from his home at Woodford, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Gary owned a 944 and wanted to join a club that shared his enthusiasm for this model. At the time, nothing existed that met his needs. The Porsche Club of Great Britain seemed dedicated to the worship of the almighty 911 and did not offer a great deal of support and camaraderie for its water cooled stablemates. Nature abhors a vacuum, so Gary set up the 924/944 Club to address the issues that were important to real people running the older water cooled models on a tight budget. It seems Gary was not alone, and very soon membership grew—so much so that by November 1994 we changed the club’s name to ‘The 924 to 968 Club’ to incorporate 928 and 968 models (thus covering all water cooled Porsches) and we were growing rapidly, with new regions springing up all across the country.
In August 1994 Gary was in discussions with Steve Carr regarding the integration of the club within Porsche Club GB, as the 924–944 Register. This was challenged by the Regional Organisers thanks to the intervention of Barry Hart and the club retained its independence under his chairmanship. Barry was also our original technical helpline as he was running his own independent Porsche garage: Hartech Automotives. The first thing Barry Hart did as Chairman was to form a Committee to run the club, which had already grown to over 700 members. The secretary and club office manager was Jackie Butterfield. Membership and regalia was managed by Lynn Reddall, advertising was dealt with by Alan Clarke, and the magazine editors were Mark Moss and Jackie Butterfield. In 1996 the word ‘Porsche’ was added to the club name and we became the Porsche 924–968 Club.
Club chairmen through the years: Barry Hart, Chris Mellor, Stephen Taylor, Ian Hicks and Sean Smallman (we couldn’t source a picture of Gary Downs) In 1998 after four years as our chairman, Barry had to stand down to focus on his growing business activities and spend some time stripping and rebuilding his Carrera GT. He was succeeded from June 1998 to Oct 1999 by Chris Mellor from the South East region. Chris was also editor of the magazine Club News for a year or so, then stood down for personal reasons. Our Club was (and still is) the friendly face of Porsche ownership: non-elitist, serving the needs of ordinary people with a common passion. Before long, our winning formula was so popular that with 924, 944, 928 and 968 members upgrading to 911s and wanting to stay with the club, we had to change our name again. In June 1997 we became ‘The Porsche Enthusiasts Club’. Under this new title, we now embraced all Porsche models in the same spirit that Gary started the ball rolling with in ’93. In August 1999, chairman Chris Mellor had prolonged discussions with Porsche GB lawyers over our club’s name. During this period they were cracking down on independent garages using the name Porsche. We decided to change our name again by adding the word ‘independent’ to eliminate all possible risks of being sued for Trade Mark infringement. Thus we came The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club, affectionately known as TIPEC. Chris stood down at the 1999 AGM and was succeeded by Stephen Taylor, North East Region RO, which at the time was the most active region in the club with over 100 members, many from the North East Porsche Drivers Club. Stephen became our longest serving chair to date and his enthusiasm was infectious. He also became editor of the club magazine, taking over from Matthew Davies who was the Thames Valley RO. Stephen left for Kazahkstan to work in the oil industry, but even then he remained our Chairman and editor, often working through the night to meet a magazine deadline enduring enormous travel and communications difficulties due to his location. In one week in 2001 I can recall Stephen travelling 1,500 miles in his purple 928GTS to attend the inaugural meeting of the North Scotland region, travelling back down to Newcastle for the NEPD regional meeting and WOTY, coming further south for the Walton Hall planning meeting at Stratford and then attending the TIPEC stand at the NEC Classic Car Show! With Stephen being moved around to different locations by his company, he eventually had to stand down. From April 2005 to June 2006 Ian Hicks (Central South region) held the position as chairman, but he too had to stand down due to changing jobs and was succeeded in August 2006 by Sean Smallman. Sean has an excellent financial brain and has put the club on a very firm financial platform to continue to grow our membership.
Around our regions Seven original regions were formed in 1993 with new regions being added each year. The seven founding regions were: • Sussex, later renamed South East (RO Alan Clarke) • West Midlands (RO Lynn & Tony Reddall) • Cambs & Lincs (RO Mick Tyers) • Beds, Bucks & Herts (RO Jackie Butterfield & Mark Ross) • Cheshire, Lancs & Merseyside, latterly North West (RO Barry Hart) • Devon & Somerset, latterly Devon & Cornwall (RO Steve Fuller) • Hants & Wilts (RO Roger Raggett) The Thames Valley region (RO Sharon Spooner) was formed in 1994. The South West (RO Nathan Healey) and Humberside (renamed Yorkshire) regions (RO Stephen Branford) followed in 1995. In 1996 the Scotland region was formed (RO Karl Galloway). We had our first overseas region set up in Switzerland by Adrian Streather in 1999. Adrian was a quite a guru on Porsches, especially the 964 for which he was writing his book The Essential 964 Companion. In 2004 he became editor of All Torque for 15 months. As an author Adrian had a very special attention for detail and accuracy in the magazine.
Club Secretary and Club Office It soon became clear that the club couldn’t be run single handedly and a secretary was required to handle memberships. Jackie Butterfield became our first secretary and after one year handed over to Lynn Reddall. As the club grew it became increasingly difficult to manage this activity from Lynn’s home. In 1997 the Club Office moved to dedicated leased premises at Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees with Karen Sewter employed as a part-time paid administrator/secretary. This office was within the printing business of Dean Watling, City Image Print, which produced Club News (predecessor of All Torque). After a year Dean took over the role of secretary as well as publisher. Between 1999 and 2003 Alan Wells (or Sharky) from the North East region was appointed club secretary, with the club office at Alan’s home. Alan was succeeded by Trig Ellis of the SYND region, again running the club office from home. In 2005 our expenses for the club office and magazine were becoming untenable and our new chairman Sean Smallman used his financial and management experience to reorganise the club. Sean runs the club office and has streamlined the administrative activities. Sean handed the secretarial reigns over to Dave Doherty in April 2008.
All Torque 70 page 17
Issue 1, 1993
Issue 20, April 1998
Issue 23, October 1998
Issue 34, August 2000
Issue 55, Autumn 2005
Issue 59, January 2006
ALL TORQUE RUARY 200 ISSUE 68 FEB
LIVE AND BREATHE THE MARQUE CLUB WEBSITE & ONLINE RENEWALS AT WWW.TIPEC.NET
Issue 68, February 2008
8
Our club magazine With 16 editors in 15 years it’s not possible to cover all of them here. In the first year, three issues of the club magazine were produced in A5 format by Gary Downs in three glossy colours (red, yellow and black). Each packed in 44 pages of information, covering technical articles, regional reports, tips, news, motorsport, books and a what’s on guide. After the reformation of the club in 1995 the magazine became a bi-monthly A4 publication named Club News of a simple photocopy standard until the end of 1996. Produced by Barry Hart, some issues stretched to 58 pages thick. In 1996 the magazine returned to a three colour glossy front cover and in 1998 (with issue 23) Chris Mellor took over and introduced a full colour cover. Chris was followed by Matthew Davies, supported by Stephen Taylor, who eventually took over from Matthew until he was able to persuade Brian Ringshall (East Anglia RO) to learn the QuarkXpress desktop publishing software and take on the daunting task. In 2001 and 2002 the magazine frequency was varied as we had four editors: Richard Edgar, Stephen Taylor, Dave Watson and David White. David had been in the publishing business and took on this role for the next two years, introducing the first all colour issue (#50) in 2004, and raising the magazine’s standards even higher. During David’s reign we reverted to a quarterly magazine and introduced a six-weekly newsletter to provide up-to-date details of forthcoming events and activities. David was succeeded by our Swiss RO Adrian Streather for the next 18 months, a perfectionist at everything he did. Each editor applied his own design ideas and format for both the cover and contents. Our current editor Tony Blow took over from Chris Kenward in October 2007 and you are currently reading his fifth issue. I can confidently say that our magazine has evolved into a publication fit to join all the motoring magazines on WH Smith’s shelves. It’s a benchmark for other car clubs to emulate.
Writing & image sourcing by Derek Flanagan
All Torque 70 page 18
Our club website Our first club website (www.porsche-enthusiasts.freeserve.co.uk) set up my Mathew Davies (London RO) was created in 1998. We actually had our first website before the mighty PCGB. A great achievement thanks to Matthew, who also set up an online chatroom. With our last name change we changed our website address to www.tipec.co.uk (later corrected to www.tipec.org.uk). In March 2002 the website was upgraded to enable online membership applications. The club benefitted from the I.T. experience of Chris Kenward who became our webmaster and set up the www.porsche-1.net forum which was adopted by many TIPEC members from 2004 until the TIPEC web site changed to its current address (www. tipec.net) and developed a web forum of its own. Our current website is managed by Jim Tarrant and Carl Rose from the Southern Region and a grand job they are doing, too.
Our annual national event moved a little north to Elvaston in 2006 and further north to Thoresby Park in 2007, where we suffered badly with wet weather, which is why have moved again to Gaydon in 2008 to provide hard standing and indoor facilities. In August 1998 we attended our first Goodwood Festival of Speed with yours truly supporting our RO Neil Relf and Bob Stephens. It suffered from even worse weather than Thoresby last year with torrential rain producing shoeswallowing gooey mud, requiring thousands of cars to be pulled out by tractor. This didn’t deter us and to date we have had club stands at seven Festival of Speeds and will be entering again this year.
National days and major events
Our other major event is the Classic Car Show at the Birmingham NEC, where we have gained a number of awards for our stand and our club magazine. I recall Dave Watson getting involved in the NEC in 2001 within a month of joining the club and assisting Stephen Taylor before taking the leading role at the NEC for future years. It wasn’t long before Dave became the Cheshire, Staffs and North Wales RO and our deputy Chairman, before a demanding job forced him to take a less active role.
Our First National Event was held in July 1996 at Walton Hall celebrating 20 years of the 924. This event stayed at Walton Hall until 2005 with Paul Chare (ably supported by Paul Keeling) running these high profile national events for us, which became our majority revenue stream.
There are a lot of names mentioned in this article but it has not been possible for me to mention everyone involved in administration of the club over these 15 years. Please accept my apologies for any unintentional omissions or inaccuracies, my memory is not as good as it once was!
TIPEC ’08 NATIONAL EVENT – SUNDAY AUGUST 3RD 2008 HERITAGE MOTOR CENTRE, GAYDON (JUNCTION 12, M40) 10AM START Pride of Ownership concours Porsche only parking areas Model displays Camping available (Sat–Sun)
Car clinic and seminars Land Rover 4x4 off-road experience World’s largest historic British car collection Play area for the kids with bouncy castle
Trade stands Test track parade laps Porsches for sale Outdoor go-karting
Tickets from www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk (or 01926 645 031 Tuesdays only) Advance tickets £8 adult, £6 child, £25 family (2 adult + 3 child), test track laps £10, camping £11
TIPEC ’08 is sponsored by and supported by
Restoration report: Adam Jackson’s 924 Just over four years ago, my good friend Neil showed me a 1978 924 that he had in his garage. He told me it had some family history with his late brother. It hadn’t been touched for eight years and by then the car was too far gone for him to restore. He was unsure what to do with it. After a good talk and an offer from me to buy it, I was given the car as a gift. Myself and my father managed to move the car to his garage as I did not have one at the time. I told my Dad it wouldn’t be there for long. It ended up being there for three years. I had always done regular servicing on cars but nothing major. I bought a Haynes manual and started stripping the car to a shell. Both front wings were removed, front valance, both doors, front and rear bumpers, glass rear hatch, bonnet and headlight units. My Dad enjoyed helping carry all the heavy parts, as the mountain of scrap panels grew in his back garden. The main floorpan turned out to be sound and just needed repainting, but it had received a bump in the rear badge panel and the roof panel was rotten at the sunroof drains. At the rear end, the car was all filler. I managed to source a second hand badge panel and roof panel, then started the long job of drilling out all the spot welds on both parts, cleaning them up and then doing the opposite on the car. The plug welds took about two months to do on the car. Grinding the excess welds off to a factory finish was fun. The roof panel was the
hardest part to weld as the 924 sunroof aperture is only welded at the front and rear (whereas on a 944 it is front, rear and both sides), so the internal bracing supports required welding as well. At the same time I converted it from electric fittings back to manual catches. I had quite a few nights scratching my head at how to do this. I then removed both front steel arms and managed to source new items. The shocks were removed, shot blasted and painted red with Gaz adjustable inserts fitted as well as 35mm lowering sport springs and new bolts to the hubs. The front hubs were refurbished and new back plates, lower ball joints, track rod ends, bearings and new discs were fitted with refurbished callipers. The rear took a bit longer as everything was removed apart from the prop tube and the fuel tank wiring.
The rear arms, anti roll bar and torsion bar carrier were sent for shot blasting and powder coating in red. The fuel tank was replaced with a newer unit. Fuel pumps, regulator, main fuel lines all the way to the engine bay and fuel filter (including new braided items from the metering head) were replaced; all sourced from my main dealer. The gearbox was checked and new mounts and gear linkage adjuster washers were fitted with refurbished drive shafts and gaiters that I put on for myself. I was going to re fit the rear drums but had a change of heart and fitted five stud hubs from a 924 Turbo instead. The rear hubs were refurbished and new bearings, seals, discs and callipers fitted. Also all the bolts on the rear were replaced with new items as some of the old bolts were very rusty on removal. This meant I had to change the front hubs, discs and callipers again, including new bearings and a 924 Turbo anti roll bar. The exhaust was replaced with a new standard unit but painted in heat proof red paint and all the heat shields were also replaced with new items as most of the old ones had turned to dust! The engine was serviced and turned over easily but I replaced the starter motor, alternator, water pump, radiator, all main hoses and spark plugs anyway, and fitted a high power coil. I also removed the plenium chamber and rocker cover and polished and replaced all gaskets.
The interior should have been brown but was too far damaged to repair, so I sourced good condition items and managed to change it all to black as well as having a pair of rare Porsche scripted door panels. The only items that are new are the heater control knobs and surrounds, steering wheel, window winders and four-speed Hurst gear lever. The entire interior was refitted after the full exterior respray. All the rubber door seals and window seals and scrapers have been replaced with new items and the rear hatch locking pins and front door B pillar pins have been replaced. Also both front door handles and lock sets are new. A good tip for the door handles are that MK1 Golf door handles and they are identical but a lot cheaper to buy. I found a local Sprayer who was willing to take the car on as a weekend project. Originally I was intending to have the car sprayed Lamborghini Californian Orange, but while the car was away being primered my father passed away with cancer quite suddenly. I asked them to leave the car as it was and it sat there for around five months while I came to terms with my loss.
I bought an old set of cookie cutter alloys and had them refurbished at a later date as I have always thought they are an underrated wheel. Even now they are hard to replace. The bodywork took a bit of a change when I purchased a pair of 944 rear fibreglass arches on eBay. I drilled and bolted these in place to the rear arches in a motor bike style with fancy alloy bolts on show. The rear wings were also bonded in place and the rear panel lines redefined properly in the filler join. I sourced a Turbo bonnet with the air intake, better front wings and valance and two very good condition doors with manual winders. The wing mirror holes were removed and carbon race mirrors fitted.
All Torque 70 page 21
After a lot of soul searching I thought of all the good times I had working and talking with my Dad about the car and realised I needed to finish it. After discussing the car with my sprayer we both decided that it needed a better paint job to suit the car and I came up with using the martini style from a 935. I think it really suits the car and it has also let me put my Dad’s name on the roof as well as my friend Nigel’s late brother’s name. The brake pipes have been replaced with a X split system from the 944 and a new master cylinder and brake booster have been sourced from America. The main issue I have had with the brake master cylinder is that the 924 has two pressure brake light switches but the 944 doesn’t. I have overcome this by splicing two T pieces into the lines next to the master cylinder and screwing the pressure switches into them. Thankfully this has worked and the system and brake lights work perfectly. All the windows are now fitted, and the latest addition is a Twin Weber 45 conversion fitted to a proper Porsche inlet manifold adapter. I feel it should make an interesting conversion as all the magazine reports from the early eighties state that it will result in a faster top end than a 924 Turbo. It sounds really nice but it has shown that I have a few parts
Writing & photography by Adam Jackson
All Torque 70 page 22
still to fix. It requires a new expansion bottle for the radiator and also a new fan. I will probably fit a larger Kenlowe fan with inline temperature sender to keep things properly cool. When I took on this project I didn’t really realise what it would entail, but am glad now that it’s nearly finished. It has let me join a really good club and I look forward to showing you all the car at shows this year. I want to thank my wife for letting me spend just over four years in the garage. I’m now going to try and figure out how to fit two baby seats in the back … Thanks to Derek at The Wheel Specialist (offering discount to TIPEC members on 08454 654 866 or 07768 844 217 if you give him my name), Martin at Curbishley Automotive Refinishing for the great paint job (07812 942 097), and thanks to James Mclauchlan, Chris Kenward and all the other TIPEC members I have met so far.
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964 DIY brake discs and springs change Rob Pettifer’s plan was to replace the front brake discs and track rod gaiters on his 964, but it soon became apparent that more was going to be needed. Fortunately I have a good friend that has garage space enough for me to leave the car up on jacks while the work was carried out (thanks Scott) which took about three weekends. We (Scott & I) started at the front. The new plan was to replace the discs, gaiters, disk guards and lower the car as well (seeing as all the parts would be out of the way). I purchased most of the parts in advance from Design 911; the rest came from Porsche and Parr throughout the job. The springs are H&R and were green when they arrived (if you want to lower by 40mm). I didn’t like this so I resprayed them yellow before I started the work. The other things I prepared were cleaning agents such as Gunk, White Spirit, brushes, newspaper and plenty of rags—this was going to be dirty work.
The stone guards are another story. There are three bolts holding these on but they are steel and the heads had corroded so much that there was no hex left. These were cut off using an angle grinder. Fortunately they had been coated in copper slip anti-sieze compound, so the remaining stud could be removed with pliers. We then removed the shock absorber. The shocks are still serviceable for now but will be replaced, maybe with Bilstein as they are compatible with H&R springs, sometime in the future. Now the cleaning could begin. I had, in the past already cleaned the wheel arch to reveal the paint work but now it needed degreasing. Scrubbing liberally with Gunk revealed components that I thought would never again see the light of day. We removed the ABS sensor and cleaned it thoroughly.
We took off the front wheels after supporting the car on axle stands. To remove the calipers without disconnecting the brake line it was necessary to slot the brackets that are on the shock absorbers.
Stripped out front wheel bay
Cutout for brake line and missing threaded collar First, prize off the spring clip, then using a junior hacksaw cut a slot big enough to pass the pipe union through. This saves a lot of time if you have no intention of replacing the brake fluid. This done, the caliper can then be removed from the disc followed by the disc itself.
Once cleaned, I started on the shocks disassembling, cleaning, rust removing, rust killing and respraying. Removing the aluminium adjuster nut was very tricky and was only achieved on one of the four shocks in a serviceable manner. My advice is to buy four new ones before you start the job. For some strange reason you can only buy the adjuster nut for the front, you can’t buy the threaded collar that is bonded to the shock. For the rear shocks you can buy both. We used heat to free the nut from the collar
but this loosened the bonding between the collar and the shock so we had to remove the collar as well. No problem, after I cleaned the shock we rebonded the collar back to the shock using epoxy.
Refitted threaded collar It is easier to cut the adjuster nut off, being very careful not to damage the thread on the collar. Prize it off and clean the thread thoroughly so that the new nut can rotate freely. Be sure when reassembling the shock to apply copious amounts of copper slip to the threaded collar before winding the adjuster nut on. Before reinstallation of the shock, a new foam seal was stuck to the underside of the shock tower in the wheel arch. Now came the fitting of the track rod gaiters. The removal was fairly simple but trying to prize the wide end of the gaiter over the retaining ring was a lot trickier. I have no easy fix for this just perseverance. The bolts that hold the front disk guards in place are M6 x 12 and as previously mentioned there are three per side.
Front stone guard fitted using stainless steel bolts
I replaced these bolts using stainless steel ones supplied by my local fastener company as the manufacturer’s ones cost £6 each. All bolts were coated in copper slip. Having cleaned the ABS sensor this was refitted with a new cap head screw and a light coating of copper slip to the sensor and the screw. The earth wire that comes from the electrical connector also had a new stainless bolt fitted, again with copper slip. The disk was fitted to the hub with new cross head counter sunk screws (don’t forget the copper slip). Refit the calipers, I reused these bolts having cleaned and copper slipped them.
Reassembled front offside Before refitting the wheel, we measured the distance from the bottom of the threaded collar on the shock to the bottom of the adjuster nut using a vernier caliper and made the distance the same both sides. The car will need the geometry reset anyway but at least they are the same to enable travelling to Porsche to do this. This now done we refitted the wheels and lowered the car. The wheel now sat much higher up in the wheel arch. We then started on the rear shocks. Having jacked up the rear, sat the car on axle stands and removed the wheels, we could now inspect what we could see. Here came the surprise. Looking at the heat exchanger through the near side wheel arch, a rather large hole could be seen. Although made of stainless steel it had corroded right through at the point where the three exhaust pipes exit the heat exchanger. This is not good as the hot air that is used to heat the cabin is pushed through the exchanger. With a hole in it, it is also taking fuel and oil tainted air into the cabin. Fortunately Scott came to the rescue again as he had a spare heat exchanger that needed a little work but was in a much better condition than mine.
While Scott repaired the exchanger my better half, Rachel, and I cleaned the rear wheel arches, swing arms and anything else that was filthy. This done and the heat exchanger repaired, Scott and I removed the shocks having first taken off the calipers, disks and stone guards. To release the shocks you have to remove the air filter cover on the right hand side of the engine (if viewed from the rear) and remove the heater blower on the left. This then gives you access to both top mounts. Having removed both lower bolts it just left the three nuts on each tower to release the shock. I then did the same job on the rear shocks as I had on the front.
Rear shock components minus adjuster nuts Again the adjuster nuts had seized on so we cut them off and replaced with new. I also took this opportunity while the cat, under tray and heat exchanger were off to clean and visually inspect the engine. All seemed okay, so we refitted everything. Shocks first. If you have a 964 maintenance manual from Porsche as I have, here’s some advice. We printed out the page that shows how to reassemble the rear shocks. ‘Great’ I hear you say until you come to use it. It indicated the adjuster nut should be threaded onto the collar with the shoulder downwards giving the spring the flat face with the part number to sit on. This is wrong (in my opinion); the shoulder should go upwards so that it sits inside the spring thus protecting the thread.
Don’t trust Porsche drawings
Then came the stone guards: these have M6 x 20 with both washers and lock nuts. Again I used stainless steel and copper slip. Next came the disks and calipers followed by the heat exchanger. On removal of the heat exchanger two of the studs had come out. I replaced these with new ones. I also replaced the four barrel nuts that are fitted through the heat exchanger, always coating with copper slip. With the heat exchanger now fitted, we reconnected it to the exhaust and cat, replacing a couple of missing jubilee clips.
Refitted heat exchanger We refitted the under tray, wheels, heater blower and air filter cover then removed the jacks and lowered the car, she was now good to go. One thing I wasn’t prepared for was the amount of smoke when I fired her up. When the heat exchanger had been reconditioned I had coated it in rust inhibitor, sprayed it with VHT high temperature paint and then sprayed it with engine enamel in an effort to protect it from further corrosion (Porsche also paint it). Anyway smoke belched out from each wheel arch and even came into the cabin. This soon wore off and I drove home. She is now booked into Mid Sussex Porsche for the geometry, and I have been informed by Parr in Crawley that unless you are going to track your car you don’t have to have it corner weighted.
The finished article
Writing & photgraphy by Rob Pettifer, except final photo by Rachel Barnard
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Running report: Gordon Collins’ 911SC Last year ‘the baby’ gave up the ghost. I was pootling toward Blanford Forum when she started to miss like a good ’un. I turned round and limped her home. I set about resetting stuff and within a matter of mere months, using my highly imaginative skills as a mechanic, got her going again. This lasted for about two months then she went offline in a big way. I managed to get the car down to Jon Mitchell’s where she stayed for a very long time … so long in fact that she became a bit of a standing joke on both the TIPEC forum and within our region. During this time we moved to Christchurch and many of the members claimed we had only moved to be closer to the car for visiting purposes. There may be some truth in this! The delay in getting her sorted was, I think, mainly my fault. I told Jon that I wanted to be there to help, to do things myself, to become involved in the mechanical processes, to be the all-round enthusiast. After seven months I began to feel Jon would like the workshop space back and was sick of pushing her back in and out every night. We agreed it was a job for the professionals but as Bodie and Doyle couldn’t make it we settled on the real Porsche mechanics at the workshop. Jon assured me he had never been beaten by a car. “There’s always a first” said I, but the glare I got in response made me realise this was a serious man. So began the magical mystery tour that was getting ‘the baby’ back on the road again.
Firstly the car was compression and leak down tested. No problems there, in fact better than expected for a car of its age. I felt quite proud. Then we had to change the fuel pump as the old one just decided to pack in. A new pump was duly sourced and fitted, then new plugs, leads, rotor, and cap. These were all attached to an MSD ignition box, a device the Wayne Dempsey book A Million and One Things To Do To Your 911 When You’ve Got Bugger All Else To Do describes as “a great upgrade”. This replaced the old and dull CDI (capacitive discharge) unit that Porsche fitted. Well what a pile of poo it was. The car hated it. I had a fire in the inlet manifold (when I was doing something, not when the pros were) and the car would just not run with it. So back we went to a CDI, sourced from Paul Kemp, a Southern Region guy who replaced his with a MSD and carbs and never looked back.
With the CDI whistling in the engine bay the car was okay-ish. Then I get a call: “It’s a wonder your car went at all. We had your injectors out and sonically cleaned them, now we are throwing them away as they’re useless. We also cleaned your fuel metering head and the filters in it were ******!” With the injectors replaced, and metering head cleaned, the whole thing was better but still not right. From somewhere in his Aladdin’s Cave of parts Jon dug out a warm up regulator and idle control valve. On they went. Hooray! A running, sorted SC … oh hang on, what’s going on with the brakes? They won’t bleed up, even with the new and refurbed calipers on them. Oh dear the master cylinder is shot! So now we have a new master cylinder, new callipers and new pipes, and finally two new front discs. These came from the guy who owns the Cadbury purple 911 that many of you may have seen at Elvaston and Walton hall. I can only relate the story of how they came outside of the printed media! Add to that new anti-roll bar bushes and away we go. Then the car was set back up on gas analysers etc to ensure she was running right. M.O.T. day … horrible feeling as she went off down the road … but she passed! Yes! Yes! YES! During the time the car was off the road I had fixed the speedo, which had suffered that annoying cog snapping on the odometer, so that went back in and off I drove very proud indeed. A word of warning came from Jon though. “You will need to bring her back soon, as when she has run for a while and has burnt off crud, reseated rings and generally settled down, a retune is in order.” I asked when. “Oh you’ll know” was the reply, tempered with a knowing look.
The car was great fun to be in and drive, if you don’t include driving in the dark for the first time and then having to source a load of 12volt two Watt bulbs (bayonet type) for the instrument cluster … not being able to see the newly installed speedo at night was a bit of a bugger. After 150 miles of fun the car started to miss and splutter horribly. I suspected the worst, booked it in for the following Monday and waited for the inevitable news that it was another big job. Tuesday I got the call I had been dreading: “Can you please come and get your car, it’s in the way.” A typical wind up way of telling me it was fixed again! This was the retune I had been warned about. All done and fettled and I drove her again today for the first time in anger. What a superb car, what a difference. It’s like driving a different machine. Thank you to all at Jon Mitchell’s for letting me make coffee, scrounge fags off them, and generally be a pain. Jon, James, Mark, Declan and Jamie. They all deserve the name check. Jon is contactable on 01202 488 800 and will chat with any Porsche owners. He seems to have a lot of Boxsters at the moment but also builds awesome 944 3.2 Turbo conversions. An awful lot of work I know and the total cost of all this? Even from Jon at his special TIPEC rates it still cost about a kidney in today’s value… but boy was it worth it. Writing & photography by Gordon Collins
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Running report: Brian Rowledge’s 993 Following on from Brian’s last running report, now is the time to reflect on the first few thousand miles of driving the dream When I bought my 993 Targa, it was fitted with N3 tyres on the rear and N2 tyres on the front. At the time I didn’t understand the fundamental difference between the two but the inspection by Martin Brown advised a change to N3s all around on the grounds of safety … the front tyres were also approaching my age, albeit still road legal. So did this affect the drive of the car? At moderate speeds on well-surfaced roads there was no problem. However, as confidence grew I could not resist the temptation to drive on country lanes to explore the handling characteristics. This is where my problems began. Due to my old age I suffer with the onset of tiredness in my right leg and foot. This results in a tendency to involuntarily press heavily on the gas pedal. On one particular occasion I discovered the car had just exceeded the speed limit (hope you believe this) and the car began to yaw when near slight ruts or on painted lines and the steering lost its feel. In addition to this the car suffered from wallowing when on clean, well surfaced sections of minor roads.
My advice therefore is to fit identically rated tyres all round and make sure that they are blessed with good tread (three millimetres minimum even thought the legal limit is 1.6mm all round on the central 75% tread pattern of the tyre, I think) and less than five years old. The date of manufacture can be found on the sidewalls and will be of the form XX/YY where X is the week and Y is the year of manufacture. With new front boots the car is different but still not right. Better but not right, for me, is not good enough. By the time you have read this article I am hoping that the car will have been set up in wheel alignment, suspension and chassis together with corner weighting to suit my gentle style on driving and my body weight when alone in the car. On the 993 Targa the wheels are model specific and virtually unobtainable. They appear to be split rims but are not. In addition to this they are extremely difficult to maintain and I have been unable to find companies who seem interested in renovating them. The dome headed bolts and nuts (24 on each wheel) are almost impossible to remove and probably need replacing at approximately £4 each if you decide to go down that route. For me this meant a winter DIY renovation with the bolts and nuts in situ, which is now complete to a reasonable standard. It took about 20 hours work on each wheel just to thoroughly remove baked on dirt, brake dust, road tar and glue from numerous tyre weights. For this I used domestic scourers and toothbrushes along with kitchen cleansing cream so as not to damage the rims on the inside. Where there was minor blistering on the insides of the rims these areas were cleaned using model makers ultra fine files. The rims were then washed, clayed, primed and painted. They were then washed, paint cleaned and waxed. A very laborious task but they are now much easier to clean, so that they can be preserved. Enamel paint was used where the internal faces of the rims needed attention and each stud and bolt was given two coats of black enamel paint using fine model makers brushes. The next issue to address is that of paint loss. My car is now suffering from a loss of paint on the nearside. The main areas are the rear of the front wheel arch and the lower body forward of the rear wheel arch. There is also minor paint loss on the bonnet This is no doubt due to the problems with my right foot and leg together with the poor condition of our minor roads, which seem to suffer from a proliferation of grit and gravel after a long departed surface dressing programme. Therefore my advice to garage queens is to stay off minor roads and especially the minor roads near to me, namely North Warwickshire and the adjoining western areas of Leicestershire. My next piece of advice is to those of you who are not garage queens. Just do it. However, please be careful in my neck of the woods just in case I am coming towards you in the opposite direction.
Writing & Photography by Brian Rowledge
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Gruppe North Scotland RO Stewart Gordon 01698 841 692 (evenings) 07974 808 342 (mobile) flashgordon944@blueyonder.co.uk ARO Alan Neilson 01324 871 543 07793 234 096 (mobile) alz1933@alanneilson.fsnet.co.uk ARO Neil Fraser 0131 660 0143 07946 616 782 (mobile) neil@fraser72.freeserve.co.uk Meetings are held first Wednesday of every month 8pm at The King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn, Stirling, FK7 0LJ. We started our year with the Isle Of Skye trip in April, a truly brilliant weekend, and the first opportunity to unfurl our new regional banner flags. A big thank you to Wilma & Bill Thomson for all their hard work putting them together. Also thanks to our TIPEC committee for funding them. What a fabulous weekend, with wall to wall sunshine. We based ourselves at The Kyle Hotel in Kyle Of Lochalsh for two nights, setting off on the Saturday morning over the bridge onto Skye for a visit to the Talisker Distillery. Most of the group went on the tour and was a great insight on how the golden liquid is made. At the end of the visit we were offered a small glass of the juice, but as it was before lunch we declined
Scottish scenery and an open road …
(well, most of us did). After that we left for a visit to Dunvegan Castle, caught a bite of lunch and a walk round the castle and grounds: a fabulous setting and still sunny. We travelled round to Portree, the main town on Skye. Those roads are just made for Porsches. I think treble figures were indicated at times, just in time to dive into a garage to give my engine a very much needed top up of oil (no leaks) and sat in the square in Portree soaking up the sunshine before heading back to the hotel for our meal and liquid refreshments. Sunday saw us firstly over the bridge again to Kyleakin for a group photo shoot and the unfurling of the brand new banner flags.
Posing for photos by the bridge We all set off from Kyleakin on a glass bottom boat to see some of the wildlife, saw some seals, some diving birds and the bottom of the sea. Our on-board guide was brilliant, and certainly kept us well informed and entertained for the one-hour sail, then we set off back over the bridge onto Skye and down to The Clan Donald Centre at Armadale. After some negotiation on the
entry price we all went for a visit and a walk round the castle gardens, still the sun was shining. After the visit and as time was marching on we decided to meet up for a chippie at Fort William, and from there it was a straight run home. Thanks to all who attended, and for those who didn’t come along you missed a cracking weekend! Never mind, there is always the trip to Northern Ireland in September. Have you put your name down yet? Next we were out at the East Kilbride Classic car show on the 4th May with 15 cars on show. Thanks to Neil & Alan for taking the club out as I was unable to attend due to a wedding. We had two new members joined up, Alistair McLeod & Mark Wyn. Welcome to you both. The attendance at the monthly meetings is ever increasing. May saw 27 members attending and a car park full of some really lovely machines (excluding the RO’s scabby 944). Talking of car parks, we may have to change our monthly meeting venue in the near future as the hotel car park is becoming a bit too crowded. We have a venue in mind and will keep you posted. In the meantime, log on to www.tipec.net and click on the link to Scottish region. Go to the diary of events and keep up to date on what’s going on. Next outing is to the Bridge of Allan Classic show on the 18th May, so get polishing and hopefully we will see you there. June 1st Thirlestane Classic 8th Knockhill Speedfair 29th Moffat Rally & Auto jumble July 6th Ford Classic Show (Bridge of Allan) 20th Beach BBQ & run (East coast) 27th Coldingham ‘Sporting Bears’ Charity Show August 1st–4th TIPEC National Show (Gaydon) 23rd–24th Culzean Autoclassica (incuding TIPEC Scotland Regional concours) September 12–15th Northern Ireland road trip 21st Selkirk Classic. October Waterside Classics showroom visit (TBC)
North East
North West
RO Simon Poole 07759 694 059 audisi@btinternet.com ARO Andy Blythe 01642 809 031 ac.blythe@mbro.ac.uk
RO John Pye 01706 712 491 07957 818 636 (mobile) tipecnw@sky.com ARO Brenda Marginson 0125 483 1766 brenda.marginson944@virgin.net
Meetings are held first Sunday of every month 7:30pm at The Sporting Lodge, Low Lane, Stainton Village, Cleveland, TS17 9LW, just off the A19. Another slight change at the North East Region this month: Andy and I have switched roles as I have a bit more spare time to dedicate to the Club. Our first run this year was to the Specialist Cars Open Day on Easter Sunday. Despite the weather forecast there was no snow on the roads and it was followed by an equally enjoyable run to Whitby for fish and chips. Our second run was a joint visit with the SYNN region to Gmund Cars at Knaresborough on April 6th. Unbelievably, it snowed again! There were many Porsches on display in the showroom and also a bright orange Koenigsegg which attracted a lot of attention (must have been the colour!) Albie’s Boxster came in for some close attention as Andrew (one of the owners) demonstrated how to correctly clean and wax. He also managed to remove a couple of scratches while he was on. I should have jumped in first and got the demo done on my 968 as it is suffering from swirling, but never mind. The planned drive around the Dales was cancelled due to another blizzard. We will be having a run to the Classic Car Show at Harewood House on June 15th, so please can anyone interested in attending let me know. I would like to thank the SYNNers for arranging the Gmund event and allowing our region to tag along. This was the first time I had met Paul and Judy and their untimely deaths a few weeks later came as a great shock. They were great enthusiasts and will be sadly missed. June 15th Harewood House Classic Car Show & Subaru Club annual event, Lightwater Valley July 20th Bradford Classic Car Show & Newby Hall Classic Car Show 25th–27th Silverstone Classic Event August 2nd TIPEC 15th birthday party, Gaydon 3rd TIPEC national day, Gaydon
Meetings are held first Monday of every month 8pm at The Thatch & Thistle, Chorley Road, Blackrod BL6 5LA. When this falls on a Bank Holiday, we meet on the second Monday instead. Unfortunately for the first time in 11 years we are not going to Tatton Show in June as the organiser has overbooked it. Apparently there are four regular clubs that have failed to get a place, as some have been taken up by clubs who only do one day, which seems ridiculous. John has managed to get us in for one day the Saturday but there is no camping. Please contact John or myself for tickets. We are very disappointed as this is one of the highlights of the year as we meet up with old friends from around the region.
the first event they have attended, so we welcome them and hope we haven’t put them off coming to more events and shows! We had three teams: Rubber Cheques (Bob & Petra, Mike & Lisa and Ray & Carole), Split Pins (John & Marie, Louise & Jenna, Steve Davies & Jennie) and Cooking Flueless (Graham & Chris, Steve & Caroline & Nick). Individual winners were: 1st Place Graham Scatt (234 points). 2nd John (221 points). 3rd Nick (219 points played by his team members as he had hip problems). 4th Caroline (217 points, she will kill me if I don’t give her a mention.) I’ve worked out team winners by dividing total score by number of players as the Cooking Flueless team were imbalanced! First place goes to Place Cooking Flueless with a score per person of 207. Second place was The Rubber Cheques with an average score of 192 per person. In third place Split Pins with an average of 179.5. We are hoping that in the coming months more of the our region’s members join us at the Thatch and Thistle on the 1st Monday of every month. We have a good turn out but will always welcome more. July 7th Regional Concours 12th Hoghton Tower Fireworks & Music 20th Hoghton Tower Car Show
TIPEC Northwest at Bolton Abbey Bolton Abbey was our first show of the year and a new one for us. Although only five cars where on the stand (those being John Pye, Bob McWilliams, Albert Walsh and Mike Grimes in our Porsches) we did have a 993 join us and we signed up a new member for two years (a very warm welcome to you, hope to see you at our regional meetings.) There was a good selection of cars including Aston Martin, Audi R8, Lotus, Dodge Viper, Noble, TVR, Lamborghini & Ferrari to mention a few of the more memorable ones. One of our members failed to make the day in his Porsche due to a flat battery (you know who you are Nick) he did turn up, though we won’t say what in! As is usual for the month of March we had our yearly Ten Pin Bowling challenge with a good night was had by all 17 members, including Steve Davies & Jenny who have been members for five years—but this is
August 2–3rd Woodvale & Camping Car Show 3rd TIPEC national event at Gaydon 17th Ripley Castle Show November 3rd Regional quiz night December 5th Christmas do at The Viking, Blackpool
Lincolnshire ARO Mike Daniels 07770 968 159 (mobile) mike@jwhartonagriculture.co.uk Meetings are held second Wednesday of every month 7:30–8pm at The King’s Head Inn, Kingsway, Tealby, LN8 3YA. RO required, to host monthly meetings at a local pub/hotel with support from the members and attend/organise local events with the assistance of the ARO.
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Cheshire & Staffs RO Steve Taylor 07774 912 069 (mobile) stephen_taylor@datascope.com ARO Dave Watson 07901 928 356 (mobile) watson1970@aol.com Meetings are held third Tuesday of every month 8pm at The Whipping Stocks, Stocks Lane, Over Peover, Knutsford, WA16 9EX. The region has had a great start to the year, club nights are being well attended with an average of 24 members per meeting. We have had a few new members coming along too; Terry, Ben and Nigel, as well as regular support from our long standing members. Our new venue has really made all the difference, if you have not already been along we meet at the Whipping Stocks, Over Peover, near Knutsford on the 3rd Tuesday of each month from 8pm. Please feel free to come along and join us. In recent months we have had several things going on. At April’s Club Night we had NIPHOS a metal finishing company from Crewe come along with samples of their work, we had a very informative evening and learnt a lot about various electro depositation processes and metal polishing. We also recently had another visit to Douglas Valley Breakers, Nr Wigan. 11 members descended on the Saturday morning armed with our tool boxes. The breakers had had recently taken in some new cars which we have not seen previously, so there were plenty of bits not already taken off. Geoff Tatton was straight in with the spanners and screwdrivers for a perfect Club Sport steering wheel and a replacement digital clock for his 944, whilst Barry Stenhouse and Dave Mercer set upon a 964 for its driver’s door, having to remove the glass, door mirror and handle first. We are certain to return the yard again later in the year, so I will keep you posted. By now everyone should have got their cars out from the garage and taxed & tested ready for the summer, perfect for our first show for the year which was on the Bank Holiday Monday 5th May, at Gawsworth Hall, Nr Macclesfield. Jointly, Cheshire &
Staffs and the North West region had a great display of cars, the weather stayed kind to us, and the rain held off ’till late afternoon. Over the next couple of months I am trying to organise a karting session at the Speed Karting Circuit in Warrington. I currently have 16 members committed and need another ofur to place the booking. It will now be sometime in June, so if you have not already got your name down and would like to come please get in touch. Thanks to all our region’s members for their continued support and I will keep you up to date via e-mail as events come up. Stop Press The Cheshire & Staffs region are running a trip to the Classic Le Mans in July and currently have a spare ticket to the whole event. If you would like to go and thought it was to late, please contact myself or Dave Watson ASAP for the details.
Yorkshire RO John Oakes 01132 827 512 john.oakes3@btinternet.com ARO Dave Doherty 01423 501 988 enquires@alexa-house.co.uk
and one guest interested in joining. With four Porsches in the car park, you can tell the weather is improving! Glyn O’Donnell from Caronoisseur (www. elitedetailer.co.uk) joined us to talk about detailing and handed out some free samples of a new shampoo for us all to test. Honest Glynn, I will wash mine soon and that does not happen too often. New member A big welcome to Ian Garner from Huddersfield we hope to see you and your car at a club night soon. New venue when John returns from Oz we will start to look for a new venue for club nights, somewhere in the Leeds area. If anyone knows of a suitable place to meet please contact us. June 8th Harewood House Show. Always a good day out with lots of Porsches and other cars (around 400-500) including free food and drinks supplied by Strasse of Leeds. There will be a 928 meeting in the main arena, please just turn up on the day. 8th Harewood Hill Climb The Jim Thompson Trophy Meeting 15th Harewood House Classic Car Show
Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month 7:30–8pm at The Windmill, Hull Road, Dunnington, York, YO19 5LP.
July 5–6th Harewood Hill Climb MSA Championship Meeting
John is still away in Oz, fighting off the flies and trying to avoid the police speed cameras, so it’s my turn to pen some words here.
11–14th Classic Le Mans Event Although some time to go to this event it’s time to book your Ferry if you fancy going there? We have booked for the 7.00am Ferry from Dover to Boulogne with www.speedferries.com. Returning at 13.30pm on the Monday, the cost so far is £77.00 per car.
On April 6th David Jupp and I joined Paul, Judy, Dean and quite a few other SYNNers at Gmund cars in Knaresborough to ogle at the motors and lust after several that we will have to wait till we win the lottery to buy. Not a nice day but a good turnout never the less. The following weekend it was a drive down to Gaydon for the club’s AGM. Any excuse for a drive out in the 3.2. Very interesting meeting and I am sure that there will be a report elsewhere so nothing else from me about it. April saw four members and two guests interested in joining. May saw five members
Ticket price for the whole weekend is about 45 euro and camping costs about 25 euro each near the Dunlop Bridge. The distance from Boulogne to Le Mans is about 250 miles which should take about 4.5 hours or quicker with the new motorway been built in the last few years that goes straight to Le Mans. Please let John know if you fancy coming along for the trip, so far there are ten of us. 20th Bradford Classic Car Show
Gruppe Central South Yorkshire & North Notts. ARO Dean Lancashire 07860 198 627 (mobile) dean@tachart.com Meetings are held first Sunday of every month 5–5:30pm (meeting proper begins 7pm) at Ye Olde Bell Hotel, Barnby Moor, Retford, Notts, DN22 8QS. Since our April meeting we have attended several events, the first being a visit to Gmund Cars in Harrogate on the 6th of April. Gmund kindly provided a buffet lunch and gave a demonstration of various cleaning techniques. Following this we pushed on to the centre of town so the ladies could shop and the fellas could have a refreshing fruit cordial.
A few of us attended a small classic car show at Gainsborough Old Hall on the 4th of May to look at the cars but also to look round the lovely Old Hall, which is well worth a visit. Dennis Smith was showing his beautiful Mercedes 190 SL, now we have two reasons to envy him. Our monthly meeting at the Old Belle followed, a good turn out but a bit subdued given recent events. For the present Dean will remain as ARO and Dave Warren kindly offered to take over the Treasurer role, with other members arranging events as and when. We had an impromptu collection and raised £140 to donate as per Paul and Judy’s wishes. We will have another collection at the next meeting 1st June and if anyone would like to donate and can’t get to a meeting please contact Dean. On the 5th May we were well represented at the 25th Classic Car and Bike show at Thoresby Park with eighteen Porsches of varying ages on show. The weather was glorious, a complete change from last years National Day at the same location. We also gained several new members so welcome to them.
Cleaning the cars at Gmund On the 20th April The Traditional Car Club of Doncaster invited us to join them on their St Georges Day run from St Georges Minster in Doncaster to Elsecar Heritage Centre, a handful of hardy SYNNers braved the elements, although it was a drizzly day there were some interesting cars on display including Dennis Smith’s 356 which, as usual, took first prize Sadly our next group event was to attend Paul and Judy’s funerals. TIPEC were very well represented, as expected on this very sad occasion. Many tributes have already been paid, suffice it to say we will miss them both very much and I am sure both SYNN and TIPEC will miss their enthusiasm for the club and it’s members.
Bristol RO Paul Harrison 07884 116 971 (mobile) paul@harrison167.freeserve.co.uk Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month 8pm at The Fox, Easter Compton, B35 5RA, one mile West of M5 J17 (Cribbs Causeway). By the time you read this, we will have visited Prescott for our annual run up the hill in the local Rotary Club event. Let’s hope that the weather was kinder to us than last year! Things are looking good as I write this piece. So what have we got to look forward to this summer? Well, obviously there’s the monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of the month at The Fox in Easter Compton. Next month, when you’re feeling tired and grumpy after a long day at work, come on down to the pub. Bring your other half, relax over a drink and enjoy an evening of all things Porsche. It would be good to see you! If you can’t make the Tuesday evenings, there’s always the weekend events. Next up is the Sunday car run on June 8th. Basically it’s a drive around the Forest of Dean in your pride and joy with lots of other car enthusiasts, with a picnic, ending up at a pub. You can find the details on the website or drop me a line. In July, it’s the Le Mans Classic of course. Planning is well advanced however it’s never too late! If you’re interested, pick up the phone.
The SYNNers at Thoresby Park By the time you read this we will have had our WOTY to the Cotswolds, a report will follow in the next All Torque, but if you don’t want to miss one of our trips you can check out our very informative web site at www.synn.org.uk June 8th Kexby and Lincoln 11th Renishaw Hall Classic Car Show 22nd Porsche tractor museum
August is the TIPEC National Day at Gaydon, and in September, we intend to visit the OPC at Cribbs Causeway. Now, I know you’re reading this in the magazine, but if you don’t get e-mails from me, then I don’t have your address and you’re missing lots of reminders and additional info. If you want this extra stuff, drop me a line with your details. If you do have internet access, have a browse of the TIPEC website, in particular our Bristol page and the forums, where you can pick up all sorts of useful info. Happy motoring!
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East Midlands RO Chris Belfield 01530 413 527 07720 471 150 (mobile) kathy.belfield@virgin.net ARO Graham Waller graham.waller@polypipe.com Meetings are held third Tuesday of every month 7pm for food (meeting proper begins 7:30pm) at The Field Head Hotel, Markfield Lane, Markfield, Leicestershire LE67 9PS. Please note the new location for our club nights. We had our first gathering there in April and it was voted an excellent venue providing nice surroundings, excellent food and a good size car park. The April club night was once again very well attended with a number of first timers in attendance. A warm welcome was extended to Geoff Booth (911 Speedster), John and Shirley Osbourne (Boxster), Phil Sterne (964 Carrera), Andy Whitehurst (currently without but has had Porsches in the past and intends to buy another one soon) and Larry & Helen Goff (various Porsches). With the light nights upon us at last and the evening being dry for a change the new attendees gave us the opportunity to look at a few different cars in the car park. Sunday 18th May Drive around Leicestershire/Northampshire. Meet at Alan Fullers house 9.30 am for 10.00 am start. Route to be followed will be handed out and drivers will be set off at 2–3 minute intervals. First stop will be Foxton Locks. Here we will take a short walk down to the Locks and take refreshment. (South based members can meet us here and join the convoy for part two of the drive.) We then will move on to Rutland Water and/or a garden centre before finishing at a country pub for a meal. A prize will be awarded for the driver who completes the drive nearest the distance previously measured. Names are required of who wishes to attend in order that tables can be reserved for lunch. Further reminder will be sent nearer the date. Sunday June 1st We are arranging a visit to the car show at Wollaton Park, Nottingham. This is an excellent show with good stalls and nice surroundings and is always well attended.
The new venue’s car park allows for a great line-up of East Midlands TIPEC members’ Porsches Sunday 22nd June Richard Simpson has arranged a visit to Promax. Names for attendance to confirmed nearer the date (other Regions will be in attendance also). Usual arangements for the next meetings at Ashby Folville on May 13th and June 10th. Meet outside the pub at 7.00 or 8.00. Graham Waller and Richard Simpson attended the April meeting and reported it was pretty quiet (maybe due to the showery weather?) but with summer now almost with us the next few meeting will no doubt be packed so get there as early as possible if you want to park in the best parking area (the cricket pitch). Helen Goff proposed we drive over to RAF Cosford (near Telford) for one of their open days. This sounds like an excellent day out and it was agreed we would visit the venue on 29th June. More details later. Geoff Booth advised that he had contacts at Jaguar and Aston Martin and he could arrange for visits around the respective factories. It was agreed to do this later in the year when we are not so busy. Other issues discussed: Discounts at driving schools, one-to-one driving experience (Sean to advise of opportunities), Stoke Golding Show, SYNN WOTY 9–12th May including Prescott Hill Climb (if interested contact Chris B), SYNN organising trip to Nurgburgring in September (contact Chris B if interested). Finally, we have been invited by Paul Bird to attend the Central WOTY in early October further details of which will be published when known.
We are coming up to the best part of the year now with regard to events and opportunities to get out in our cars so hopefully we may see a few more newcomers at our forthcoming club nights (20th May and the 17th June).
Central RO Paul Bird 01922 428 409 07831 877 983 (mobile) paulpsb928@yahoo.co.uk ARO Brian Rowledge MyMerak@aol.com Meetings are held second Monday of every month 7:30pm onwards at The Red Lion, Lady Lane, Earlswood, B94 6AQ. Sunday 15th June Trentham Transport Festival. Classic show at Trentham Gardens Stoke-on-Trent. Download entry form here: www.transtarpromotions.co.uk Fill in and send off as per instructions. Please email Paul and confirm attendance to aid planning. Sunday 22nd June Cotswold drive out culminating at Bourtonon-the-Water to visit the Cotswold Motor Museum, Birdland or the shops in the village as you wish. Saturday/Sunday 5th & 6th July Cars in the Park, Lichfield. Great Classic show with Paul Keeling playing host to a club stand for 20 cars on both days. Contact Paul Keeling for details on 01543 271 116.
Monday 7th July July club night—date moved so as not to clash with the Le Mans trip. Thursday 10th to Monday 14th July Club trip to the Le Mans Classic including a convoy drive from Dover to Le Mans and dedicated club camping at Tetra Rouge corner. Details on Club website & forum. Sunday 27th July Silverstone Classic August Sunday 3rd National Event at Gaydon Sunday 17th August we are supporting the Northampton Balloon Festival September Thursday 4th Curborough Sprint Day (This event is subject to confirmation) Saturday 13th Trip to Coventry Motor Museum October Friday 3rd–Sunday 6th Weekend of the Year (WOTY). Book now. Hotel rooms are reserved but if not taken they will be cancelled in July. If you have not received details by e-mail then contact Paul or Brian ASAP. November Friday 14th–Sunday 16th Classic Show at the NEC Sunday 22nd Curry Night December Monday 8th Christmas dinner at the Red Lion.
Historic military vehicles made famous by the film and television industry at History on Wheels The collection includes vehicles used by Madonna in Evita, Gruber’s ‘little tank’ from Allo Allo and General MacArthurs Cadillac.
most fascinating of World War Two sites, where the German cipher codes were intercepted and de-coded.
Also in March, Mike Holmes managed to secure a trip for 10 people to go around the Red Bull F1 factory in Milton Keynes. We may not be invited back however as Steve was asked how their factory compares to Williams F1 and he replied that their trophy room was much bigger!
Sunday 17th August Northampton Balloon Festival A large and colourful event with something to offer all members of the family and TIPEC will have their own dedicated parking area in the centre of the event. The finale of the day is at 6.00pm when all the balloons are released into the evening sky. Bring the family, a picnic and don’t forget your camera. Lots more details of this event can be found on their web site www.northamptonballoonfestival.com
South Central
TIPEC Porsches at the Red Bull F1 factory
RO Geoff Cox 01235 815 880 07740 452 586 (mobile) geoff.b.cox@btinternet.com ARO Debbie Oakley 0160 486 2285 theavonlady@tesco.net
Sunday 15th June Supercar Sunday @ Gaydon Meet up on site for this day when Gaydon becomes swamped with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, TVRs and of course lots of Porsches. We will probably need to pre-book, so again if you are planning to attend please let me know. For all details see www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk
Meetings are held fourth Tuesday of every month at The Chequers Inn at Weston on The Green, which is just off the A34, south of Junction 9 of the M40. Our most important note is a change of venue and dates for club nights. We have moved to The Chequers Inn and changed to Tuesday nights, so as not to clash with Champions League football events. In March we went to History on Wheels near Windsor to view a unique collection of military vehicles used in the film industry.
Sunday 29th June Prescott Hill Climb Park your Porsche alongside the start line and enjoy watching the Midland Hill Climb Championship at this most picturesque location, just north of Cheltenham. See www.prescott-hillclimb.com Sunday 13th July Bletchley Park Classic Car Day Simply turn up with your picnic and enjoy the classic vehicles and look around this
North London & Herts RO Gary Adams 07799 895 274 (mobile) garyadams_1980@hotmail.com ARO Neil Pargiter 01920 872 365 07515 337 073 (mobile) ncp.944@hotmail.co.uk Meetings are held third Thursday of every month 7:30pm at The Robin Hood, The Ridgeway, Botany Bay, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 8AP.
International RO Dave Warren Dave will be the new point of contact for members in Wales, Ireland and overseas.
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Gruppe South Cornwall & Devon RO Steve Switzer 01208 816 397 07867 556 869 (mobile) steve_switzer@mac.com Meetings are held third Sunday of every month 12:00–2:30pm at The Winds of Change, South Petherwin, Near Launceston, Cornwall, PL15 7LP. Please contact Steve in advance so that he can advise the pub of probable attendee numbers. April saw a slightly quieter meet than the last one, problems with work being carried out on a car being the reason for one less than normal in the car park. This was more than made up a prospective new member arriving in his rather nice velocipede …
Don’t forget the next meeting third Sunday of the Month at the ‘Winds of Change,’ as per the web-site. Let me know if you’re coming as I will need to book you a seat, it’s a busy pub. We’re going to continue meeting in the pub rather than the restaurant, it means a different choice of food, rather than a more fixed menu. But Sunday Roast is also available if that’s your preference.
Anglia RO Mark Flintham 01473 735 497 mark.flintham@tecnisis.co.uk ARO Keith Strudwick 07803 462 522 keith@hitcham.info Meetings are held fourth Tuesday of every month 7:30pm at The Flying Fortress, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, IP31 2QU. www.theflyingfortress.co.uk By the time you read this we shall have held our first meeting of the newly combined Anglia Region (covering the areas of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and North Essex).
The new arrival flanked by the old guard Tony Cocks tells me that it’s a Mark 1 996 GT3 ‘Comfort’ version. Registered 1st March 2000 to former World Rally Champion, the late Richard Burns. Arctic Silver, with black bucket leather seats, black carpet/dashboard etc. Factory fitted carbon fibre pack and silver dashboard dials. Absolutely beautiful, the spoiler is like a sculpture. ‘Wheels 2008’ at Wadebridge now looms in terms of organisation. We have three members interested and hopefully several more yet to declare their hands and come along. It’s a great day out for any car enthusiast and for the car, driver and passenger is actually free entry. The permanent showground has a good infrastructure and metalled road-system within the site, so no off-roading is necessary.
Hopefully, we’ll have been overrun by all the enthusiastic Independent Porsche owners in this area, who happily find this club a home for their interest! Plans will have been discussed and arrangements made for future Club nights and Outdoor events. If, by any chance, you did not make to join us at the end of May, your next opportunity to attend will be 24th June, and failing that the 22nd July.
SE London & North Kent RO Jim Hearnden 01634 308 062 07930 353 232 (mobile) tr7v8@phaetonconsulting.co.uk ARO Paul Greer 07799 412 870 (mobile) prgreer@blueyonder.co.uk Meetings are held first Friday of every month 7:30pm at The Bull Hotel, Bull Lane, Wrotham, Kent, TN15 7RF. Meetings at the The Bull seem to be getting better attendance, a good turn-out for April & May and we’re now up to around 30+ members. Now all we have to do is get more of them along to meetings! The latest calendar is out for all of those with a valid email address. It is in Excel format and I know some of you have a problem viewing it. You can download a viewer from the Microsoft site if need be. Please advise if you’re interested in any events so Paul & I can inform the venues of numbers. There are two or three members whom I don’t have e-mail addresses for. If you have an e-mail address and don’t regularly see mails from me, then please send me a mail to tr7v8@phaetonconsulting.co.uk and I’ll add you to the list. That applies to people in adjacent regions who would like a copy of our calendar. March Well the karting on March 30th has been and gone for another year and with blinding consistency the SELNK team I was on was again last! Simon Pearce headed up the other team and they did much better, finishing 8th overall.
This Region can only succeed if you, the members, want it to prosper. Your input is vital, and your ideas for its future will shape how we proceed.
George Campion wasn’t expecting to be there and ended joining up with the guys from the south to place even higher … Grrrr.
Please contact either one of us if you feel we can be of help in any matters Porsche. Your ideas for the future development of our region are eagerly awaited.
I got T-boned well and truly by one of the other karts and ended up with some very nice bruises. Pictures can be provided but they’re not suitable for under 18 year olds!
April The April club meeting had a great turn out, to the point where we had to take chairs from the restaurant! Discussion covered the normal Porsche type subjects plus a fair smattering of non-Porsche and even nonmotoring subjects. The other point I’d make is that this is not a male orientated evening, we get wives and partners along as well. The visit to the Highways Agency on April 6th started with a bit of a shock. At the Hearnden household we drew back the curtains in Chatham to find snow falling hard, not settling on the roads, but the Porsche was a white 944-shaped blob! When we arrived at Godstone we found that everyone else had made it despite the weather. We were given a warm welcome by Dominic Haydon, Operations Manager. He gave a very good overview of the centre and it’s methods. One very scary part was how ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) had progressed. It can not only read numberplates but also identify outlines of vehicles and some of them even recognise colour! They then do a comparison at the level of (for example) Silver BMW 3 series, Reg XX12ABC … is this the correct registration for a BMW 3 series in Silver? Then is the driver banned or wanted for any other offence? Big Brother was not here in 1984 but it is definitely here in 2008! After an hour and a half we moved off to our lunch venue, which was the White Rock Inn at Under River. A fantastic drive with very picturesque views as we drove down narrow lanes with all the overhanging trees covered in snow. Lunch was excellent and we’ll probably visit this venue again. On April 25th we tried a new venue at the Cobtree Golf Club course. It seemed an ideal venue, however the members who were there weren’t impressed, so the hunt is still on for another venue, although at present the Bull Hotel is still quite happy to have us. April was busy with another event on the 27th, a Treasure Hunt organised by Andy & Jean Waters. Despite their efforts at organising this turn out was rather poor, with only four cars turning up to enter. Unfortunately one of these promptly broke down (not a Porsche, happy to say), so we transferred the people from here into mine and David Lawrence’s cars and off we went. David’s car and mine scored equal points, however Simon Argyle and friend took it very much more seriously. They scored 76 points, winning a bottle of wine and a very
nice LED Torch donated by OPC Porsche Tonbridge. Thanks for Andy & Jean for doing this and thanks to those that turned up. May Another fantastic turnout for a club meet, welcome to John & Row our newest attendees. June Saturday 7th Visit to OPC Tonbridge, details TBC but normally starts around 10:00. Sunday 15th Fish’n’chip run to Dungeness, this year to the Pilot Pub (Names to Jim ASAP) July Saturday 12th 19:30 50’s 60’s & 70’s Night on the Kingswear Castle a traditional Paddle Steamer on the Medway River (Names to Jim ASAP) Friday 11th–Sunday 13th Goodwood Festival of Speed. August Saturday 2nd–Sunday 3rd TIPEC ’08 at Gaydon. Tickets and hotels now being booked, details in All Torque Sunday 10th Leeds Castle Classic Car Show, pre-booking essential, names to Paul
Thames Valley RO Nick Ramsay 07973 183 220 (mobile) tipec@witzendcs.co.uk ARO Jason Gibson 07958 459 725 (mobile) jasongibson@blueyonder.co.uk Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month 7:30pm at The Red Lyon, Henley Road, Hurley, Berkshire, SL6 5LH.
Several Thames Valley members also attended an extremely enjoyable trackday at Bruntingthorpe on April 26th, including Jeff Maynard in his immaculate 997 GT3RS. Sadly I have no pictures as I was too busy enjoying myself in the morning & having taken some pictures of a Victor bomber over lunch, my camera decided to expire!
Southern RO Gordon Collins 07835 798 734 (mobile) gtsc.dkm@virgin.net ARO Jim Tarrant 01202 601 886 jim.tarrant@hotblack944.fsnet.co.uk Meetings are held first Tuesday of every month 7:30pm at The True Lovers Knot Pub, Tarrant Keyneston, Nr Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 9JG. The southern region continues to grow, we had 15 Porsches at the True Lovers Knot for the May meet, 21 members and partners and a visit from the local PCGB organizer. The region has its big events of the year to come and the latest meet was pub based but with lots of tyre kicking and car talk. It was nice to welcome back a few old faces. Steve and Carol who were first timers received hats (as donated by Brett) for their magnificent showing in taking part. The main prize, a real Pirelli calendar, was won by … er … Dekkie … but she owned up to having been helped by Karey so Nick and Karey are now the proud owners of said artwork (or dirty pictures of women, however you want to look at it.)
Due to the recent change of ownership and the unfortunate menu choices made by the new management, we will (hopefully) have a new venue organised in time for the June meet. Please watch your email for an announcement!
We were happy to pay into the club regional account a donation of £150.00 from Jon Mitchell’s independent garage which we will put to many good uses. Jon is a stalwart if shy and retiring supporter of the region and our thanks go out to him. His number can be found in the technical advisors section of the magazine.
An intrepid band of Thames Valley karters (Paul Mabley, Jason Gibson, myself and my daughter) attended the Inter-Regional Karting tournament on March 30th. This was superbly organised by Derek Flanagan, who had even laid on unseasonably good weather. Sad to say we did not emerge covered in karting glory, but we all had a great day out and at least we weren’t actually last!
We are trying to organize a run to Portland. Jim has done the route but with so many other events going on we are having difficulty pinning down a date. Nick is avidly looking for a decent Karting venue and we are still challenging any other regions to compete. We are also preparing for Poole Quay and the fun Friday that it will be. I will post more pics etc of this on the forum and in the next magazine.
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South East RO Derek Flanagan 01342 717 754 07767 254 820 (mobile) derek.flanagan@varian.com ARO Keith Funnell 01293 886 601 07790 753 697 (mobile) keith.funnell@btinternet.com
own or desire and you will be guaranteed to receive a hearty welcome. You also have the opportunity of winning our own regional lotto with all SE Region members going into the hat each month, but you have to be at the meeting to win if your name is drawn out.
On the SPC dyno at the start of May
Meetings are held second Wednesday of every month 8pm at The Shipley Bridge Inn, Antlands Lane, Burstow, RH6 9TE, on the B2037, off the A23, one mile North of Crawley M23 J10.
On Saturday 10th May we have been invited to join PCGB to a special Porsche Open day at SL Restoration, our local official Porsche approved body repairer and paintshop in Crawley.
Our events calendar continues to expand and our Regional monthly meetings are becoming a real buzz of activity with Keith and yours truly performing a News at Ten style double act providing members with the latest national TIPEC news, details on region events, general Porsche news and members stories … as well as holding the monthly lotto which has rolled over again to £30 in May with Ken Ferrier’s name pulled out of the hat in April but sadly not in attendance and therefore not eligible for the prize.
We finish the month over the weekend of 30 May to 2 June with our 2008 WOTY to Exmoor, North Devon, to enjoy a relaxing weekend for great food and our obligatory cruise around the Exmoor National Park.
With 30 attendees at the April meeting, we had another small group of PCGB members checking us out. We were pleased to welcome Patrick Coghlan as our guest speaker from mail order ‘Renovo’ products who gave us an informative presentation on his protective treatment products and plastic screen cleaners. See their website at www.renovointernational.com for details of their products. By the time you read this report we will have held an incredible three regional events in the month as well as a special club night with passenger car rides where we are giving members rides in other members cars, so that everyone can experience a drive in particular models that they may not have previously been in. We are also grateful to our local OPC, Mid Sussex Porsche, who have agreed to bring along a new 997 C4S Cabriolet, Cayenne GTS and Cayman S for drives. A full report will be published in the next issue. On Saturday 3rd May, Andy Brown’s SPC (Sussex Performance Cars) in Horsham held a TIPEC rolling road morning at the special price of £35 per power run, including diagnosis and print out. Again we will report in the next issue of All Torque.
Looking further ahead to Sunday 29 June, our organiser is John Wallin who is now taking bookings for our annual Narrow Boating day, which this year will be commencing at Pitstone Wharf on the Grand Union Canal. This event is always popular and is a great relaxing day with the obligatory stop at a canalside pub for lunch. 11–13th July Goodwood Festival of Speed The SE Region have now booked a stand at this year’s Festival of Speed which is entitled ‘From Hawthorn to Hamilton’. I am seeking volunteers over the three days of the festival and a few cars to display on the stand. Please contact me if you are interested in helping and/or offering your car for display. SE Region member Ivor Heading and his guards red 964 Cabriolet were featured in the 16 page 911 cabrio article in the May issue of GT Purely Porsche with some great photos taken in Ashdown Forest. Club Nights The above is just a small selection of the forthcoming events. See the TIPEC web site for the full listing or come along to our club night where we will issue the calendar of events, provide full details and take bookings. For those of you who haven’t made it along to a monthly meet yet, we always welcome new members and prospective members. Come and see if you like us, we’re a friendly bunch no matter what model of Porker you
Wessex RO Pete Blackler 07779 203 278 (mobile) pete.blackler@freenet.uk.com Meetings are held fourth Tuesday of every month 8pm at The Wheatsheaf Inn, Braishfield Road, Braishfield, Romsey, Hampshire, SO51 0QE. Club nights continue to be well attended. I have missed a couple due to work, my apologies to everyone, but Gary has done a great job in my absence. Now the summer is here (hopefully) we may see a few more cars in the car park and a few more chats around the cars, although mine is again in the doghouse with suspected alternator failure. I have put this in for a rebuild to a local specialist in alternators and starters, he made a great job of my starter a couple of years ago. We have a few events coming up so anyone who would like to attend any of these please contact me, all regions are welcome. The Poole Quay event was particularly good last year and we will tie up with the Southern area for this one at the end of May as it is in their region. See you all at the next meeting. July Sunday 13th BBQ at Pete & Carol’s August Saturday 2nd–Sunday 3rd TIPEC national weekend at Gaydon Sunday 24th Broadlands Show, Romsey September Sunday 14th Drive and lunch TBA November Possible visit to VSF Classic Restorations Company TBA December Friday 5th Wessex Region Christmas meal at the Hunters Inn, Swanmore with TR drivers club 7.30pm
www.TIPEC.net You can use the TIPEC website to register or renew your club membership, advertise (or buy!) cars and parts for free, download old issues of All Torque, and keep up-to-date with events in all of TIPEC’s regions. Additionally, if you look to the bottom-left of the homepage, you will find a link to TIPEC’s online discussion forum. This is the place to trade banter with fellow club members on a day-to-day basis, ask questions and share knowledge, up and down the UK (and worldwide!) Here’s a recent example from the 924/944/968 section. Forum: 924/944/968 Topic: 944 Values Flipatron: Where do you think prices are going? 2.5/2.7 Lux prices seem to be on the floor at the moment. The S2s still seem to be fetching decent money but even these are slipping. Turbos can be had cheaply but seemingly only rough ones. Cabs still the strongest it seems. The question is, do you think values will start to rise as the cars get rarer or are prices doomed to remain low due to the VW/Audi link our cars have? tr7v8: There are very limited VW/Audi links on all but the earliest 924’s really. I think it’ll be the same as the TR7 market: values fall, hit a low where cars are worth peanuts, then people realise
they’re disappearing and the good ones left start to rise. I still find people are quite startled when I tell them how cheaply a 944 can be run for. zola1: I just sold a friend’s very clean original 944 Lux for a just over £2,500. It will provide years of fun for next to nothing, what a bargain … they are great value for smiles cars. J.J.: Everyone wants cars that can do 50+mpg with free Road Tax. On Autotrader you can find big cars with less than 80,000 miles for as little as £2.5k. With prices like these it’s not hard to see why 20 year old 944s have bottomed out. Don’t think things will improve until petrol drops and the economy picks up a bit. Might take a while.
Li Moo Bai: I think the market value of the 944 will always be significantly less than the equivalently aged 911, and that will not be changed dramatically even when there are only a few left. I think it’s reasonable to say that with 944 prices so depressed (are they now at the bottom of the curve?) you can expect to get a good proportion of what you paid for it back at resale, but only if you have invested some time and money in maintenance of the car during your period of ownership. Gazza944: I bought my 944 for £2,000 and when it was crashed into it was valued at £4,000. So it seems that if you want to make a profit, you should tidy it up then get a people carrier to drive into it!
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