[Julian Allen]

Several of you have asked for some insight into my building the 968 turbo RSR. I'll add some photos once I figure out a place to store them.

A few years ago I put my track time on hold. I had been racing a 951 S, going to 5-6 events a year. The car was tired, and I had two in college at the same time. And then a wedding. And then another wedding. Long and short of it was, there was not cash to keep the car in good form. So, I embarked on upgrades and rebuilds. Until an eBay ad showed two 968 chassis, one a turbo S and one a turbo RS. Seems the cars had been Freisinger's and they found their way into the states. The RS of course had a cage, but it wasn't the newer cage on the red or the white car. And I had some cagey ideas of my own. So, I watched the S closely, and bid to win. I brought it home about eight years ago.

I started by taking lots of pictures. And got lots more from the fellow who bought the RS chassis, as well as Bruce Corwin when he owned the white car. Searched for factory solutions to roll cages in coupes, and made my plans.

I cut out the rear deck, fueling hose covers and the spare tire well. I removed the coil and power steering pump brackets. And the parking brake stuff. And the hood release brackets. The car already came without a lot of undercoating, and a sunroof delete roof. I bought some steel and borrowed an hydraulic bender. Made mockups and patterns, and (a large pile of misbent tubing later) managed to create a cage that looks a lot like the modifed Matter cage you see in RS's 1 & 4, with the braces to the front strut towers and to the rear shock upper mounts. I seam welded, well, nearly everywhere. I built brackets for a dry sump tank in the passenger foot well, and isolated it from the rest of the cockpit. I put in a mount for a fuel cell.

In the 951, rear tire width was always an issue, particularly when the car was lowered and given negative camber, because the tires always rubbed on the inside of the rear wells. I sacrificed the 951 to see how the rear elements were put together, then modified the 968 to accept Kevlar tubs. I added flares like you've seen on the yellow car Kelly-Moss participated in, and, well, can you say 335's in the rear? They're a snug fit, and the final rubber is still quite a ways off, but I now have that flexibility.

The factory RS's have air jacks, so I added the tubes to mount them. Only the factory gave three and I couldn't put the rear one in because I wanted the fuel cell to be a little further back. So I put in four, at the corners of the floor.

In the 951 I successfully used the front "frame" elements as a channel for air to the brakes. Always liked the carbon fiber ductwork you see on 996 and 997 race cars, but that sort of one off work can break the bank! So I inlet a 4" tube ahead of the wheel well, and inside the well forward of the strut. 4" ducting is much more flexible and doesn't kink as much as 3", so I could deliver more air to the front brakes. I used an aluminum "plate" to deliver the air into the center of the rotors, although for the new car I may make this out of stainless.

And then I moved from Florida to Alabama. The project stopped for a couple of years for various reasons. Over the past two years I worked to complete the welding--mounts for this and that, trying to look ahead so I wouldn't get a finish on the car and then sand it off to mount something I forgot. Probably a good thing to have a pause, because some safety features get better (I added mounts for a right sided net).

Finally this year I made arrangements to dip the car--to remove the factory primer and undercoating, as well as clean up some light rust that had appeared in places. I've posted on other forums about my experience, but the short version is NEVER take your car to Wauchula, FL and I'd highly recommend the shop in Allentown, PA. After stripping, it's been well washed, phosphated, and now is powdercoated.

The car, bumper covers, doors, hood, etc, are all at the paint shop now so the outside can all have the same finish.

When it returns to me, I can finally start assembly. My wife says my shop looks like an auto parts place!

Well, that's a start of the tale. More to follow . . .

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[Joel968]

Julian,
Keep up the good work!!!!! My turbo conversion took 16 months..... I cant imagine how long your track conversion might take.
Drop me an email or call call me would love to talk about the process.....
Looking to do a track car next!!!

FYI there is a guy close to me that has 2 - 3.0lt race cars. might be a good guy to talk to.....

Joel
Savannah, Ga
912-308-4539
mjc.llc@comcast.net

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[jlm968]

Photos?

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[firefish]

Nice story, looking forward to seeing those pictures.

Clever using the front subframe rails as air ducts! I really like that in engineering when a design uses something for dual or triple functions.

About the hood, doors etc, is it glass, carbon or steel?

Will you race this car or is it gonna be an exhibition car or some kind of insane street machine?

Are you using the original turbo S engine and drivetrain or are you using a 951 setup?


Thanks.

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[Julian Allen]

The drivetrain will be all 968. I haven't decided everything, but have accumulated some parts. I had rebuilt a stock transmission before acquiring the shell, and it's been sitting since. For the turbo cars, the factory reverted to the 951 style clutch and bellhousing, and I had a couple of those torque tubes. I found a new 968 tube, disassembled it and one of the 951's, cut the "noses" off both (front ends) and welded the 951 nose to the correct spot on the 968 tube.

The clutch is a Tilton carbon unit, using a different sort of release bearing: they took my bellhousing and measurements off the rear of the engine and the crank to make and mount everything.

The engine will be 3.0 L I think, but haven't made too many other decisions yet. I have a couple of different heads to juggle inside my own head.

I'm racing this car when it's complete in PCA. Right now, I'm looking at returning to GT1-S where I raced the 951.

The doors, dash, hood and wing are all carbon fiber from Max Crawford. He made the Kevlar tubs as well.

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[Julian Allen]

Photos apparently have to wait until I have written quite a bit more.

As the saying goes, "this post is worthless without pics!"

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[barth7]

I'll post up some pics for you if you want to email me some.

<i>Or just come take some, if you prefer... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] </i>

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[flash]

julian - there are no restrictions other than size for pic posting at your level - you're good to go

in jpeg format, set them to 640 x 480, and keep them below 200k each, and you'll be fine - there is also a total per post of 500k

resize tools are available in the "968 Forums 101" section in the "How To Guide"

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[Julian Allen]

OK, here's some photos. These are the result of the powdercoating, first with powder on the car (dull look) and then several after baking the car to melt the powder into a finish.

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[flash]

wow - heck of an idea - should be very resistant to road rash

how much weight does the coating add? do you think there will be any fitment issues as a result? what did you do to protect all the threads, or are you just going to run taps back through them?

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[Julian Allen]

More of the car in the powdercoating shop--









These will give you an idea of the front cage elements . . .




. . . and the way the shell looked when I brought it home



Pictures of the air jack tubes . . .




and the factory's work to mount the intercooler



Some of the reinforcements I found in the shell not present in the 951 . . .

for the front sway bar mounting point




and around the rear top mount for the damper

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[Julian Allen]

The oil tank mount in the passenger footwell (aluminum panels will complete walling this off from the cockpit and the bottom center hole is the access for the tank drain) . . .




and the way the bracing meets the rear top mount for the damper



Powder is a very durable finish and will be the final finish for everything but the exterior body. There, everything's being painted at one time and the powder is effectively part of the primer system.
This shop is very experienced and has silicone plugs and small cardboard covers for threads and studs. Probably some are missed, but those I can tap.

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[pmcrespo]

Wow!!! Impressive indeed! Look forward to following the build. Its going to be an incredible racer... Best of lucks with it all

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[benspeeder]

Hey Julian - all I can say is fantastic! Particularly love the tube frame style extensions through the firewall, tieing together the cage and the front shock mounts. That is one purpose built road race car. It makes me want to get the next car in line for a similar build, right after yours - very professional. The air jacks are the ultimate touch and if required by the rules - you must have designs on a pro series. Got a fuel cell mount pic? I mean - these photos are for the archive - great stuff.

What series are you planning on racing in? I will cheer for ya!

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[Eric_K]

<!--quoteo(post=79353:date=Sep 1 2009, 03:53 PM:name=Julian Allen)-->QUOTE (Julian Allen @ Sep 1 2009, 03:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->and the factory's work to mount the intercooler

<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Aha! Thats how they did it. I made my own little tabs but it is cool to see the factory technique for securing the intercooler. Thanks for posting the pics. It looks great!

Eric

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[firefish]

And a nice color too [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

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[Julian Allen]

I'm not sure that I said I removed the roof as the cage took shape. I don't think I intended to, but I realized how much of the top of the cage wasn't completely welded (a byproduct of having the cage very close to the body).
I was glad I did . . .





because you can see how incomplete my welds were, and how much better they were after completing them.

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[Julian Allen]

This bar matches what the factory constructed--helps to box the bottom of the main hoop. The bracket was surprisingly easy to make with a dimpling tool (and a press . . . and a few tries).



and this is how the bar is welded in.



Some of my welds aren't as pretty, but when the heat and rate are on [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

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[flwbyu]

I am not sure that I have the words to express what a great job you have done. The pics really emphasize the work that has gone into it. You are building what I have always wanted to do. Please keep the pictures coming. It is really great to see the body and the various aspects of the frame. Keep us posted on the fantastic work, thanks!

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[Julian Allen]

These pictures are with the roof off and show more of the cage elements. You can also see I "cheated" with a rotisserie. Two engine stands and mounts for the bumper locations, and you can almost always weld looking down!

The long rear braces wouldn't fit the frame rail without a little box welded in place. There is a tranverse bar atop the rear upper damper mounts that closes of the rear jump seats to the cockpit, and there will be aluminum plates for the trunk area floor. The fuel cell will be bolted in with straps from below, and I put bars in the right quarter panel's rear area to mount a battery box.







Thanks for all your kind comments. It has really been fun working on the car--and being able to stop when you want to and work when you can (note I didn't say want to, because maybe the car would be finished by now then).

I haven't decided all of the engine parts--but it will almost certainly be a 3.0 L with an 8 valve head.

The venue wil be PCA Club Racing in GT1.

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