nickson motorsport 944 turbo track car build

[nicksonmsport]

just weighed what i stripped from the doors. including side impact bars, mirrors and glass your looking at 30kg from the pair. massive weight saving !

glass will be replaced with poly, and lightweight mirrors will be fitted.

 

[nicksonmsport]

small update from today. i stripped the sunroof panel of all uneccessary weight, got it from 10kg down to 4kg. this will be bonded into the roof skin and sealed shut.

i also removed the rear hatch motor, bonnet hinges, and a load of wiring as well as all the fuses and relays from items no longer in use.

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[Neil Haughey]

Out of interest what did you use to cut out the inner door panel and bar?

 

[944Scott]

Do i spy sunroof gate guide in the pile at the top of that picture?

 

[nicksonmsport]

the door inner skin was cut out using a 115mm cutting disc on a grinder. they are 1mm thick and cut through anything like a knife through butter. at the min its just a rough cut to get rid of the majority of the material, i will be shaping and deburring at some point soon.

the impact bar is bolted in mate, so youu just need a multi spline set to unbolt the bar.
the bar is surprisingly heavy itself.

944 scott are u after some bits?, im not entirely sure which bit u mean. but i ave quite a few spares from this car and an s2 i broke up.

cheers

 

[Neil Haughey]

Tempted to gut my passenger door over the winter, will see what she weighs after the repair/rebuild and how the season ends. Cheers, I had hoped it would come out with an angle grinder, I have one, a bench grinder and engine crane sat at my parents pretty much unused except for very occasional stuff my brother does. ISTR from my weights thread a complete door is something mental like 27 Kg, I can remember holding mine when we originally unbolted them from the road car and being stunned by the weight. Mine on the race car are currently only about 2 Kg or so lighter as the CL stuff and wiring is all binned along with the handle and bin on the door cards, apart from that my car has stock doors.

 

[944 man]

GRP doors are only £350 a pair from Pro-9, Neil. The wally wont ever give a straight answer to a question, so I cant tell you what they actually weigh, beyond 'a lot less'.

 

[nicksonmsport]

tbh i had a set of fibreglass doors to compare to, but once the steel doors are stripped there is barely anything in it weight wise. so i decided to use the steels as they fit better, and provide better protection than fg items that basically turn into a pile of dust on impact.

 

[333pg333]

Nick, did you happen to weigh the stock door before you stripped it? I picked one up the other day and couldn't believe how heavy it was. Felt like about 25kgs? I got a set of c/f doors made up that I haven't used due to a couple of reasons, but they weigh around the 2kg mark with plastic windows attached! They're crazy light but as you mention, don't appear to offer much protection in the event of a crash. Having said that, I am glad I had my door bar in the stripped stock doors when I had my crash. Amazed to see just how strong those bars are and just how much impact they survived while also keeping the cage totally untouched inside. Made me think that if I continue to use the stock doors that I might just keep the door bars intact. Note what appears to be an imprint of the roll cage in the door is actually the bar.

 

[nicksonmsport]

im afraid i didnt get a chance to weigh the stock door, i just thought i would make it as light as possible! the impact bars are surprisingly strong like you say, but i am going to be extending the doorbars right out to the outer door skin so the impact bar will be next to useless and in the way. this way the doorbars are as far away from the occupants as possible, and give protection to the sills etc as the doorbars will be the first point of impact. obviously people running fg or cf doors will not be running the impact bars in the doors anyway, so the cage becomes the protection.

 

[nicksonmsport]

few small updates from today.

mounted the fire extinguisher nozzles, just need to route the main line from the extinguisher to the t piece once the car is painted.

i also checked the vacum lines and realised something was wrong when i spotted 2 lines missing from the setup altogether!
removed the inlet manifold ready to remove the boost control cycle valve and venturi lines, to simplify things and then redo all the vacum lines correctly with a boost controller and dual port wastegate.

can any1 tell me the name of the sensor with the 2 broken vacum lines in it, in case i need to order a new one.

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[944Scott]

The two plastic bits bottom right of the top pile of parts are the gate guides, these are what the two geared arms sit in two push the sunroof up.

 

[nicksonmsport]

ok well those are damaged im afraid, they have some cracks in them. i have another complete sunroof mechanism if your after one.

 

[944Scott]

I am, drivers side as mine is knackered.

 

[nicksonmsport]

all the carbon cannister components removed along with air con compressor and pipework to the bulkhead.

saving another 11 kg !!

will make up a custom alternator bracket and tensioner system now the ac has been removed.

 

[nicksonmsport]

bits i removed today!
not a particularly interesting photo but at least its on record lol

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i have almost decided that i want to pull the engine from the car now! this way i can make sure everything is put back correctly, and replace any worn components along the way. along with a basic engine refresh for the time being, headgasket/belts/gaskets/clutch etc.
it also gives me clear access to the engine bay and its components again, so i can check and replace anything needed. and whilst im there i could seam weld the engine bay and give it a lick of paint!

i like to do things properly! it does mean the car will almost certainly not be ready for track use this year, but it also means the car will be tip top once its all done and i will have piece of mind the car (hopefully) wont blow up first time on track! i can then set myself a more realistic target of having the car finished just before the track day season starts next year.

the plot thickens!

 

[Neil Haughey]

Very sensible, its only going to be done once in the life of the car after all so always best to do it up front.

 

[nicksonmsport]

plus half the front end and engine bay is apart already so it will save me a lot of time removing the engine now rather than when the car is put back together. managed to remove the engine from an s2 i broke in about 3 hours so isnt a massive job really.

 

[nicksonmsport]

quick update to let everyone know the project hasnt stopped lol, again just a manic workload at the minute so the porsche is getting very little attention at the minute! i have made up all the rollcage mounting plates that need to be welded to the body, and i have also started reinforcing the rear damper mounts on the chassis rails.
i will be fabricating the rollcage from lightweight t45 steel which i have sorted a decent sponsership deal from my supplier so once i get a chance the material will be ordered and progress shall start! in the meantime im currently fully seam welding a brand new focus cosworth shell that has just come back from dipping!

thanks
nick

 

[nicksonmsport]

bought a nice big turbo on a whim as it was a good price, so the power may be rising slightly in the near future once supporting mods have been sourced. hopefully get some rollcage done soon! very busy atm!