Recaro Pole Position seats fitted (Jun 08)

Although the standard seats are in good condtion and comfy I wanted something more suitable and lighter for track work. After trying a few seats out I plumped for Recaro Pole Position racing shells in black leather with black suede cushions. To fit the seats I needed new double locking sliders and side mounts. Here's the mounting kit that was bought from Southbound Trimmers:



And here's the kit being checked out for fit in the car after removing one of the original seats:



I took the opportunity to give these areas a good clean out but was disappointed to find only a grand total of 7 pence that had been lost down there by previous owners. Once I'd worked how everything went together it was a simple case of bolting them in:





At the moment I've just got the normal 3 point seat belts installed but with a bit of luck a set of Sabelt 4 point harnesses will be arriving this week in time for its next trackday.

Fixing a buzz in the dash (Jun 08)

Over time 964s develop a lot of little quirks, one of which is a buzzing noise from the dash board. The buzzing starts as soon as you turn the key and carries on for 20 minutes even after the ignition is switched off. This is caused by an air sampling fan at the back of the climate control unit. So today I took out the unit (comes out like a radio) and took apart the fan.



After removing nearly 20 years of dust and fluff, the little fan know runs quietly and the buzzing is gone.

Evening track session at Silverstone (May 08)

To say it was wet would be an understatement. The circuit was effectively a giant skid pan for the evening and I learned more about the handling of this car in those 2 hours than I have in the year or so that I've owned it. Even on a circuit that I'd never been on before, the car behaved impeccably. Yes it wagged its tail a few times and yes it aquaplaned a few times and the ABS had real problems coping with standing water (being Porsche's first production ABS system it's a bit agricultural by modern standards). But saying all that the feedback through the steering wheel and chassis was remarkable. Measured use of the throttle and smooth steering inputs was all that was needed to make increasingly brisk progress around the circuit. It was great fun balancing it on the throttle and feeling the limit of grip.

The reduction in the weight (particularly the lighter wheels) have given the car a greater urgency out of the bends. It would quickly reach 100 mph down the hangar straight with plenty to spare before the braking zone - It wouldn't have been wise in the conditions to go any faster than that. Hopefully next time I'll get to do Silverstone in the dry because it's definitely one of those circuits that really suits a 911.









The morning after, still sporting the trackday numbers.

Sprint Day and Clutch bleed (Apr 08)

I joined the Lancia Sport club for an afternoon at Curborough sprint circuit. This turned out to be a great little circuit to test the agility of the car. It's not possible to go at high speed but testing the handling throught the sharp hairpins was great fun. A great day out in the company of a load of Delta Integrale fanatics.







However the car developed a problem with selecting first gear half way through the day when the car got hot (no problem when it had cooled down). I suspected this was due to very old fluid in the clutch slave cylinder. I'd had a number of goes before at bleeding the slave with no success. Simply because some prune had in the past rounded the edges of the bleed valve. The best of ring spanners (7 mm) wouldn't turn it and there is no room to get mole grips or similar on it.

I feared that I would have to replace the slave completely and that is a painful job to do with the engine/gearbox in place. Yesterday I found and bought a 7mm hexagonal ring spanner and thought I would give it one last go before buying a complete new slave cylinder and it worked. So now all the nasty, smelly old fluid is out and the clutch pedal is so much lighter than it's been since I bought the car. Persistence and a bit of patience has finally paid off.



There's some footage of the Curborough event and the car on Youtube:

In action at Curborough