Autoart 964RS – more pictures

Thought I’d add a few more pictures of the model. It now has my number plates and a few more specific details.

American Carrera Cup 1992

The one that got away! Built for the cup series that never was, 45 standard RS’s but with US safety equipment were shipped to Andial in the USA.  Andial undertook to bring the cars up to race spec, but whilst this was underway the series was cancelled. Andial then undertook the conversion of these cars to road use.  In the end some 25 cars were converted to comply with US traffic regulations.

The cars were oroginally shipped to the US in a form that enabled them to comply with US Traffic regulations with the following:

Aluminium bonnet

Sound proofing and underseal deleted

Steel gear syncro rings

Revised struts and spring rates

Manual steering

Recalibrated brakes

Electrics Kill switch in the luggage compartment;

Partial electric Carrera Seats

No rear seats

No sunroof or a/c

Smaller battery/alternator

Race spec engine mounts

Adjustable anti roll bars

Seam welding

Engine rated at 256bhp.

So nearly an RS but slightly different to any of the European RS’s!

On arrival at Andial the cars were to be converted to race spec. as  follows:

Full roll cage	Cup spec springs and dampers
Std seats replaced with a single Recaro	Six point harness
Interior trim removed	Front strut brace added
ABS on/off switch added	Rear brake pressure regulator removed
Drivers window net installed	Race exhaust fitted
Heater blower removed	External electrical cut out fitted
Horns relocated	Sintered clutch plate fitted
Studs drilled to accept non-tamper seals	Front oil cooler fan removed

This was over 100 hours work per car for Andial.  Because of the cost involved convertion of the cars before and after export the price of the cars to competitors didn’t look particularly attractive. As a result Porsche found it hard to generate any real interest.  Who knows how much effort went into attracting additional sponsors to try and defray these costs  but with the short timescales involved it would certainly have been difficult.

Toyo were to sponsor the series.  Little heard of in Europe at the time, they contracted to supply their F1-SR, a z rated road tyre with racing compound.  How good this woulkd have been we don’t know but the later Toyo R888 has now become a favourite tyre with the 964RS community.

Autoart 964RS

I’ve more or less avoided collecting model cars. A mis-spent youth making plastic kits was a warning as to how easy it would be to get deep into this particular form of automotive addiction. More recently the fact that there were no RS models – just lots of 964 Cup cars.  Now I succumbed to half a dozen of these but didn’t get hooked. Then, very recently Spark (I think) brought out a 1:43 RS – very tempting! But just before Christmas Autoart released a 1:18th scale model, in four colours and most importantly in Guards Red. That was it – Santa was instructed to get one of these to the Hills of South Shropshire asap. It arrived just before Christmas from Grand Prix Legends

Modestly priced by some standards, at just under £100 this was vastly more than I’d ever spent on a model, but I can honestly say I’m not disappointed.

The detail is good, the interior particularly so. I was expecting a few errors but so far the only real disappointment is the front trunk space – which looks trimmed and the wrong shape. However, I’ll keep the front lid closed and delight in some of the things they got right: the asymmetric mirrors the door and seat detail, engine stickers and correct wheel/brake details.

A few things I’ll do to personalise it, correct number plates, black not silver exhaust tip and black not silver surround to the centre console switches.

Hats off to Rick Pearson!

These 964RS owners are a pretty special lot and get involved in a whole range of petrol fuelled fun and games but occasionally somebody comes along a pushes the envelope! Step forward Rick.

With an entry in the Tunisian Classic Rally but a shortage of rally car Rick pressed the RS into service.

Now when the RS was launched the gentleman of the press tended to think it was to hard riding for the road, only appropriate for smooth race tracks. This obviously didn’t deter Rick – or his wife who accompanied him. The completed the event and the car never missed a beat.

For the full story go to http://www.efgmotorracing.com/

Twentieth Anniversary Update

Things are definitely happening!  Current plans are focused on two days of on track activities at Abbeville on June 15th, 16th and then some touring activities taking in the Sclumpf and Porsche museums .

The 964 Register has teamed up with Easytrack to run the trackday part of the festivities at Abbeville. More details to follow – or check out the PCGB 964RS forum.

Twentieth Anniversary

Belive it or not, next year will be the 20th anniversary of the launch of the 964 RS.

Ideas are circulating within the 964 RS register to make sure we mark this occasion in a fitting manner.

‘The Book’ was released to coincide with the 15th anniversary – that and a cake at the Silverstone meeting was about it. Twenty years is a bit more of a milestone so something rather more is called for.

Whatever the celebrations, a re-release of  ‘The Book’ is planned; revised, expanded and hopefully with colour and hardback binding. There’s also the possibility of something else rather special, more news as things get firmed up.

964 RS Market Report

The need to get the car valued for insurance purposes prompted me to have a look at what’s currently for sale and at what price.

Now any review of car values needs a note of caution somewhere – to the effect that asking or advertised price and the actual sale price are not always related. Furthermore valuation for insurance needs to reflect the cost of work and the fact that some parts are now only available secondhand – NOS if your lucky.

You have been warned. Do not assume cars can always be bought or sold for the prices quoted here!

Ok, there are currently not that many cars on the market –Europe seems to have slowed somewhat due to general Euro worries but there are a few notables in the uk.

Pride of place probably has to go to the RHD lightweight at Cotswold Motor Group, with less than 3000miles on the clock.. It certainly looks good but is it worth £120,000? I’ll leave you to decide.

For myself I have two reservations about very low mileage cars, regardless of price.

First unless your going to lock it away entirely – which is a shame you feel a bit guilty about using such an ‘unused’ example. Secondly, it’s an 18 year old car with 18 year old seals etc – start giving it serious use and some rapid deterioration is probably to be expected.

So, probably one for the serious collector.

What else? A RHD lightweight in ‘monkey bum’ red with 70k miles at £500 under £70k. Said to be ex Porsche GB. If this really is the road test car J365 SMO  then it’s the subject of at least 7 magazine road tests. Presumably, it’s lead a quieter life in recent years – hence the reasonable mileage figure.

A search on http://www.mobile.de throws up 41 cars, including cup cars, replicas and look-alikes.

Clubsports seem to be more plentiful than lightweights at present.  Thomas Schmidt still has a number of remarkable low mileage or special cars but there currently aren’t that many cars out there. This is not unusual, spring and autumn tend to be the main selling times but the worlds financial problems are probably contributing.

The market does seem to have softened slightly – the exceptional cars are still rising but good average cars are available for prices pretty close to last year. I’m going to keep an eye on this to see if things start to move again by the autumn.

It Just Gets Better

The latest copy of Excellence dropped through the door yesterday. I’ve always regarded this as the cream of Porsche mag’s, certainly the best English language one.  Now it’s got even better – how?  Well two things really, first the website has been redesigned and is now much more of a valuable resource. secondly and more importantly Chris Harris is now writing for them. Formally of Evo, Autocar and the much lamented online adventure “Drivers Republic” (real shame that disappeared – I’ve still got the sticker on the RS!).

There’s a lot of people writing about cars these days but sadly much of the material is repetitious and often contains silly errors (the whole topic of the quality of motoring journalism is worth another post at some point – for those of us raised on DSJ and LJKS things ‘ain’t got better!). But Chris is one of a limited band of new writers (I can say he’s new because I’m heading for bus-pass time!) who are enthusiastic, articulate and rigorous in what they write. In Chris’s case he’s also a fairly capable racer too. His first couple of articles look ,er, excellent! So looking forward to more, the report from the ‘ring 24hr should be good, one of Chris’s co-drivers is Walter R. himself, 964 RS owner and hero. It’s a shame Chris sold the green ST, that would have fitted into Excellence’s style beautifully.

Oversteer/ Understeer Table

This table provides a guide to the effect of various components.  It should only be seen as a guide The degree of change will vary and more importantly the ‘feel’ as each driver interperets it will vary.

	Suspension Setup
Understeer		Oversteer
More to front	Weight Distribution	More to rear
More Understeer	Front Suspension  Component	More Oversteer
Lower	Front Tyre Pressure	Higher
Stiffen (Thicker)	Front Ant roll Bar	Soften (Thinner)
Smaller	Front Tyre Width	Larger
Harder	Front Shock Setting	Softer
Toward Toe-In	Front Wheel Alignment	Toward Toe-Out
More Positive	Front Wheel Camber	More Negative
More Negative	Front Wheel Caster	More Positive
Heavier (stiffen)	Front Spring Rate	Lighter (soften)
Narrower	Front Track	Wider
Smaller	Front Spoiler	Larger
More Understeer	Rear Suspension  Component	More Oversteer
Higher	Rear Tyre Pressure	Lower
Soften (Thinner)	Rear Anti roll Bar	Stiffen (Thicker)
Larger	Rear Tyre Width	Smaller
Softer	Rear Shock Setting	Harder
Toward Toe-Out	Rear Wheel Alignment	Toward Toe-In
More Negative	Rear Wheel Camber	More Positive
Lighter (soften)	Rear Spring Rate	Heavier (stiffen)
Wider	Rear Track	Narrower
Larger,  more angle	Rear Spoiler	Smaller, or less angle
Straight line stability, slower to turn		Quick turn-in, nervous
Faster turns  – more understeer desirable		chuckability – more oversteer desirable
Understeer		Oversteer

An example of how different people look for different thinks in this ‘feel’ can be illustrated by the following suggestions to roll bar settings for Spa.

Common roll bar setting for Spa tend to be (for a 964 RS) middle in the back (not full stiff) and full stiff at the front (or one off full stiff).
Though it is ultimately down to driving style, these settings are those used by most european regulars, for neutral behavior in the long curves, where most time is gained.
An alternative (from Paul Howells)  will provide great turn in for slow to mid-speed corners but could be “interesting” in Pouhon, Blanchimont and Raidillon.
Paul’s Dry settings: rear full stiff,front ,one off full stiff,if understeering,soften front one more hole,with rear still on full stiff.
Paul’s Wet settings: Front full soft,rear full soft, or on the rear disconnect one side, will cause understeer at limit of grip, instead of oversteer, safer for a slippery track.,until you get used to your car etc

Long Time Coming

For some time I’ve been looking to find a set of wheels to save the standard RS mags. For even longer I’ve wanted a set of Dymag magnesium wheels but the factory wanted to sell them in three’s – no, not three wheels, three sets, 12 wheels!  No way was this  an affordable option.

Anyway time passes, for a while I had a set of Mille Miglia replicas – don’t really know why I sold them but I did. Then I bought some 18″ PWS Veloce speedline style, one piece replicas of 3 piece wheels. These were nice looking but some 25kg the set heavier than the RS wheels!

The weight worried me so  I kept looking and eventually found a set of Dymags, new old stock – 8″ and 9″ 17’s completely unused – but in the states! I looked at these for sometime,  worried about the import cost, whether they were genuine, whether they would fit!

8x17 Dymag on the front of the RS

Eventually  I bit the bullet, the vendor in the states was very helpful and the price – even with shipping and import duty was less than anything similar.

So finally a set of 8×17 and 9×17 wheels arrive, offset of 58mm caused a bit of thought but in fact the wheels were fitted with 2mm steel spacers. these were perfect for the front except that because the wheel centres were thicker than the Cup wheels the studs weren’t quite long enough!  This has been fixed by fitting 66mm wheel studs but it’s unsightly really. At the rear the wheel thickness again raised it’s head. Now I’d already got longer studs to accommodate the 18mm spacers I’ve been running with the Cup wheels so didn’t want to fit even longer ones. Solution (thanks to Robin at 9m) remove the 2mm shim and fit 15mm spacers.

So  that’s it, Dymags fitted and the good news  the fronts are 1kg per wheel lighter including the steel shim and the rears are 1/2kg lighter, a 3kg saving in unsprung weight. Bad news is that the Kumho V70’s I’ve fitted are relatively heavy – so more than half the weight saved has gone again!

That was a few months ago, have been very pleased with the results, the additional offset at the front, although making the car a little more ‘darty’ has lightened the steering! My only compaint is the way the Kumho’s pick up tiny stones, much more so than any similar track orientad tyre I’ve used – Oh well I guess some people are never satisfied!