nickson motorsport 944 turbo track car build

[nicksonmsport]

today i started with a s2 engine, and ended up with this !

thought i would keep the 3 litre crank to one side ready for a stroker build on the sideline ready for a swap in the winter!

i now have available for sale everything from a complete s2 engine apart from the crank! all ancilleries, block, pistons, rods, head, cams, loom, sensors, bellhousing, flywheel,injectors, inlet etc etc, pm if you need anything

 

[333pg333]

I have those fender flares on my car and you can fit a pretty wide wheel/tyre combo depending on offset, spring diameter, geometry etc. We modified the fronts to sit further forward as this is where you will run out of space if/when you do.
I would advise mounting the rear flares as far forwards too, but it might depend if you're planning to use the rocker panel between front and rear flares?
Not sure if you're intending on mounting a big rear wing as shown on that picture but I'd advise waiting until you have at least 400whp. They will produce a lot of downforce but also a lot of drag. You need plenty of hp to push through that drag to make the most use of those big wings. Of course you'll need a big front splitter and the practicality of this on the street is poor. Even just to and from the track will be impossible with anything but a modest splitter. There are options out there for a fairly easily removable splitter for race days. Have a look on this website. I've communicated with Scott who is also a very handy steerer and good guy. He is a re-seller of the front splitter I mention. http://www.goodaero.com/JSG/GOODAero.nsf/Products?Open

 

[nicksonmsport]

hi patrick, the wheels currently sit around 50mm outside of the arch, with plenty of clearance on springs and brakes, they even seem to turn onto full lock without any issues. we will either run the broadfoot arches with rocker panel, or fabricate custom ally arches. depending on time really.

as you say the wing on the back of that car is slightly ott but i do intend to run some sort of adjustable rear wing, i may just modify a bridge type spoiler for adjustable tilt and see how that works, then when the car has more power go for a bigger wing.

the front bumper has a splitter which protudes about 3 inches from the bumper, but i intend to make a removable and adjustable secondary splitter that mounts to the chassis properly to provide a more solid platform for downforce and pushing the front of the car into the track. with adjustable front and rear wings/splitter you can dial out understeer/oversteer, as with anything the ratio of front to rear grip is a balence that can really effect how the car drives.

 

[PSH]

ORIGINAL: nicksonmsport



as you say the wing on the back of that car is slightly ott but i do intend to run some sort of adjustable rear wing, i may just modify a bridge type spoiler for adjustable tilt and see how that works, then when the car has more power go for a bigger wing.

Hi Nick

Regarding a suitable adjustable rear wing perhaps try the 968 turbo rear wing, IIRC there was an aftermarket copy that all the 944T racing cars used for the Porsche Cup series.

Pete

 

[PSH]

Google came up with this... http://www.deutschnine.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=porsche-transaxle&Product_Code=D9-968-TRS-V2&Category_Code=porsche-transaxle-986-aero-dynamics

Regards

Pete

 

[Diver944]

Call Simon at Essential http://www.essentialstyling.com/

He supplied an indentical adjustable rear wing years before D9 made theirs and at half the price. Peter Empson and the long departed Fen both have them on their track cars

 

[nicksonmsport]

yes somethign similar to the 968t spoiler was what i was thinking! i have already been to see simon as i bought the front bumper/splitter from him! i doubt i will pay to buy one as its the sort of thing i can easily make up myself from a std bridge spoiler.

 

[nicksonmsport]

sorry for the delay in progress been a busy week and started repairing my caterham 7 aswell! to many projects!!

received this the other day, its a 21mm adjustable rear arb from 944 turbo cup car! very rare

also got a new header tank as mine was bulging a bit

hopefully have some more updates in the near future
thanks
nick

 

[Big Dave]

That looks farmiliar...[][]

Glad you got it ok....[][]

 

[nicksonmsport]

yes many thanks dave, i totally forgot to acknowledge i had received it. cheers

 

[Hilux]

If you are genuinely serious about the handling save your hard earned money on road type ARB`s and listen to Neil (who races 944`s) and fit Weltmeister Bars , the MO30 bars are fast road and seriously soft in comparison.

I fitted them to mine and I can't tell you how far away they are from the 20+ year old Mo30 - flat cornering (on KWV3) even tyre temps and wear (with not a lot of camber) and reduced understeer. In fact it meant that I had to upgrade to serious tyres as it showed up tyre deficiencies.

 

[rsmithinfo]

This is a great thread thanks for sharing Nick.

Early in the thread you were getting rid of a lot of crap after the standard interior strip and seam welding - as a mechanic novice, was that strip just for weight? And from what I can see the weld is for stiffness? I only ask as I did the standard strip plus getting rid of all the fluff but then just painted - should of I gone much further?

Thanks again - great thread I'll keep following!

 

[nicksonmsport]

hilux, i agree the M030 arbs are a compromise. although the rear is a 21mm adjustable bar so i imagine thats much stiffer than the 19mm M030 bar. i will see what happens with the front bar, at the minute i want to get the car on track asap, so it may just end up being m030 bar for the minute. but i shall upgrade or fabricate my own custom arb at some point.

the seam sealer strip was for a few reasons, mainly being appearance, weight, and a possible interior seam weld. yes your correct the seam welding will increase the strength of the chassis.

today i finished cleaning up the interior ready for welding/cage/seat rails etc. this was an absolute nightmare, but im quite pleased with the result now. i have saved a fair amount of weight, and it will look nice once its all painted up

the next step is seeing how the interior seams weld. the problem being that a lot of it has underseal the other side of it, which basically makes for a horrible weld! and i dont want to start getting involved with stripping the underside. sometimes you can gently heat the inside of the panel and it pushed the underseal on the other side away from the floorpan which means you can then weld without it spitting it back at you.

then seat rails will be welded in to mount the sparco evo bucket seats. along with some eyebolt spreader plates for the 6 point harnesses

thanks for looking
nick

 

[nicksonmsport]

it does need a final wash over with thinners and a good hoover out as there is still a lot of dust in there. i will then quickly go over the areas with paint still attached with a da so the paint has something to grab onto.

today i also removed a lot of uneccessary bracketry from the interior to save weight and simplify things a bit. passenger rear seat mount was removed, drivers side left in place as its a nightmare to get at due to the fuel filler. i simply welded the insert in place to stop it rattling around while driving

 

[944 man]

That looks like a bitch of a job (actually I know its a bitch of a job). Did you use a flap wheel and lots of patience?

 

[nicksonmsport]

it really is! this is how i went about it! stripped all the sound matt using a heat gun and scraper. i then stripped as much of the seam sealer as possible, again using a heat gun and scraper.

the fluff on the arches i attacked with a wire brush on a drill. this removed the furry bits. i then soaked the left over adhesive with thinners and scrubbed until it went away. same with the leftovers in the rear inner arches. soak with thinner, scrape as much off as poss, then finish of with a thinners soaked rag.

once the majority of the seam sealer was removed with a scraper. it was then down to the real nitty gritty! basically armed with a couple of different wire brush attachments on a drill i worked away at the leftovers. i did this by leaving nitromoors on an area for 15 mins, then it all came away quite nicely with the wire brush attachment, then the leftovers were wiped away with thinners. did this step by step in each section of the vehicle.

once the lot was done, i then attacked it with a angle grinder with an abrasive pad 80/60 grit to get rid of any left overs and give a bit of a key for the paint to stick to. i will go over the rest of the painted areas with a 120 grit on the DA.

the real savour of this job was the nitromoors, it really does dissolve the lot very well, all the foam/adhesive and even seam sealer was eaten away very nicely, so the wire brush just swept it away. as you say, this really is a job that requires patience, but it will give a nice finish in the end. i spent a few hours each eve doing it, and then spent the day on it today. you will get blisters lol!

 

[edh]

...and that is why my track car has carpets []

 

[944Turbo]

Nice work!

 

[Big Dave]

Nick. It wouldve been easier to remove ALL the stuff in the car then get the car / shell dipped. That way itd be fully stripped and a whole lot easier to seam weld it...
Possibly quicker too....[][]

 

[nicksonmsport]

dave, dipping the shell wasnt an option, i really dont want this project to turn into a full stripdown and rebuild. i have decided against seam welding the interior now anyway, as race regs dont officially allow seam welding, and the interior will be very obvious, underside always gets done but gets covered in seam sealer so no1 ever knows lol!

spent some time today offering up the seats and have a plan of action in place for mounting directly to the floor to increase headroom