Porsche & Rennline News

This 1974 RS “Re-creation” only lasted for sale two days on the Pelican Parts Forums. But that isn’t really a surprise when you look at the spec list. The short list on the built 3.2l includes Weber 46IDAs, ported heads, new rings and Cosworth pistons on rods forged rods. Big headers and a flowmaster exhaust were added to compliment the K&N intake filters and twin plug conversion. Although not known as the most exciting engine ever bolted into a 911 the 3.2 was claimed by Porsche to be 80% new from the 3.0l, but the best improvement was moving over to a Motronic Fuel Injection from the former CIS setup. This increased output, tunability and reliability significantly over the outgoing powerplant.

To be able to handle as well as it goes, the car received 23/31mm torsion bars and re valved Bilsteins to match. There has been a trend to convert earlier cars to coilover setups, but when properly sized, torsion bar setups are more than capable of keeping up with more modern spring setups. Tarett Engineering Competition Suspension Components​ provided their renowned sway bars to compliment our own Rennline monoballs in both the front and rear. Of course, after these and the rest of the laundry list of suspension upgrades, the car was dialed in with a track oriented alignment.

Our Rennline floor boards were added to the interior to replace the factory plywood units along with a host of lightweight RS parts for the perfect track car cockpit. Although the “driver mod” (aka seat time) is often touted as the biggest factor in lap times, it is important to make sure the driver is able to perform their duties without obstruction. That means floorboards are a critical modification to keep the pedal area clear and the Cobra seats, fire supression system and Momo Mod.07 wheel allow precision control in this Carrera. The builder also chose a Painless Wiring system integrated with the factory Motronic ECU to ensure reliability at the track.

Finally a set of 17″ CCW wheels were stuffed under the fenders sized 8.5″ wide in the front and 10″ fat in the rear. With a high-strung 3.2 all this meat was necessary to ensure maximum traction when exiting turns under power. Any 911 driver (and many, many pundits) will tell you never to lift off the throttle mid turn, so power-on at corner exit is essential to fast lap times and those meaty rear tires allow exactly that. All in all this was an awesome deal, and we hope whoever snagged it is continuing to track the car because, after all, that is what it was built to do!

Even in an industry where most things are pretty cool, every once in a while you get to be involved in a particularly awesome project. One of these came along recently in the form of this beautiful 964 pictured below. Marc Feinstein, owner of German Performance Services approached us with the concept of building a classic 964 911 for competition in Rally America’s Stage Rally series.

Photo by EEuroParts.com

Even if you haven’t heard of German Performance Services by name, you are probably familiar with their work and some of their friends. They have prepared everything from ALMS GT2s, to classic 901s, and the Audi S4 piloted by American rally legend Ramana Lagemann at the 2014 Mt. Washington Climb to the Clouds hillclimb set in the beautiful White Mountians of New Hampshire.

Marc is a seasoned racer, having competed nationally in various SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) and NASA (National Auto Sport Association) events with huge success. When he decided it was time to take to the stages, he obviously needed something German to take on the ubiquitous Subaru WRX/STI and legendary Mitsubishi Evos that dominate American rally racing. Marc got in touch with us along with Braid Wheels, whose line of motorsports quality wheels are also available on our website.

Photo by EEuroParts.com

Stuttgart is closer to our hearts than the Pleiades, but here at Rennline we are a precision machine/motorsports shop just down the street from Vermont Sportscar. They are the shop that prepares the Rally America and Redbull Global Rallycross cars for Subaru Rally Team USA, and we regularly collaborate on production parts. This has made us intimately familiar with the brutal nature of rallying, and perfectly suited to the needs of this particular 964.

To handle the incredibly rough and tumble surfaces on stage, Marc chose a Reiger damper setup to ensure he had plenty of suspension travel and proper valving. He added a Rennline strut tower brace up front which serves the two purposes: stiffening the front strut towers to maintain proper camber settings, and providing a convenient mounting point for the dampers’ external reservoirs.

The unique challenges of listening to pace notes while trying to barrel 10/10ths down a narrow dirt road at triple-digit speeds means driver confidence is key. So we provided Marc with a set of our Full Race Track Mats, a dead pedal, and one of our famously precise steering wheel quick disconnects. A set of our CNC machined floorboards give the co-driver something to brace off and keep the area behind the pedals free of debris.

Photo by Neil McDaid Photography

For safety’s sake a set of our all-steel tow hooks, the same ones used on Subaru Rally Team USA’s cars, were added front and rear. A whole host of other Rennline goods decorate the suspension, engine and interior, and in his first outing in the car he finished 2^nd in Group 5 (higher power 2wd cars) and had zero mechanical problems. This was a completely successful event for all the guys at German Performance Service, by any measure, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this stage monster.

Much conversation and controversy surrounds the move by Porsche towards an almost entirely turbocharged lineup. The visceral scream and responsiveness of the current naturally aspirated engines are already being lamented. But what does this move actually mean for the line up? While the effects on overall chassis balance, drivability and power output are still speculation, we feel confident in making a few assumptions. First is that Porsche has a stalwart commitment to increasing speed, so we are confident in saying the new line of 911s will be faster than the existing models.

Turbo lag is the biggest drawback associated with positive manifold pressure, but it is important to note how far technology has come since the original 911 Turbo aka the 930 debuted. That car featured a single K26 turbo charger based on 70’s turbine technology and had a deserved reputation for building boost in a non-linear way.A simple look at dyno graphs of today’s turbocharged engines should quell some of those fears. A new VW GTI, for example, makes an almost unbelievable 270ft/lbs of torque at just 2500rpm- from just 2.0l and a single turbocharger. With significantly more displacement, Porsche has the option of fitting two smaller, even more responsive turbochargers meaning the torque curve will be much closer to that of a new GTI than the 930 of yesteryear. This should add up to an even more responsive mill with vastly more accessible power and torque all throughout the rev range.

It is true that the lineup will likely loose some of the howl it is known for, but for many the whistles, whines, and wooshes of a turbocharged engine at full tilt- made famous by the Group B rally monsters of the 80’s- might just be enough to satiate those cravings. Personally, the sound of a turbo at full boost, the wastegate screaming extra exhaust gas and a bypass/blow off valve purging excessive pressure between shifts has a strong appeal.

Our point is this: change almost always causes apprehension. It happened when the 996 was introduced and Porsche strayed from its aircooled roots; again when the 991 swelled in size from the 997. But all these cars were improvements on their predecessors, and we have faith that Stuttgart will ensure the new models will be just as Porsche as ever. And almost certainly faster. We like faster.