06-16-2008, 06:46 AM
The coupe has a manual emergency hatch release cable in the rear of the luggage area. But if you can't get to it, you are more or less screwed. I sent a cautionary e-mail on this to PCA's 968 Registry members a few years back, but I haven't seen mention here of the problem a release system failure might present. So..., here's the gist of my original note, may it save someone some grief.
I arrived at the track only to discover the hatch release system had failed on my '94 Coupe. Neither the key-switch at the hatch or the button next to the driver's knee worked. I have a bolt-in roll bar and my luggage area was full of the stuff one takes to DE events. Fortunately I could squeeze enough of me through the bars, push some stuff aside, and barely reach the cable-pull, just in time for Tech. Had there been more stuff, or heavier stuff, or more of me, I'm not sure what I'd have done. Probably gone looking for a thin person with really long arms. Since the unlocking mechanism is electric, a locksmith wouldn't have been any help. Even without a roll bar, this could still be a problem if access to the cable-pull is blocked by something too big or heavy to push aside or pull over the rear seats and out the doors.
If you'd like to be prepared for such an occurrence, you may want to do what I did. Slipped a 2 inch piece of thick plastic tubing, like 3/8" OD, behind the hatch's latch pin housing on the driver's side next to the bodywork. Fixed one end of a 5 foot piece of small gauge cable to the manual release cable, ran it through the tubing sleeve, along the driver's side of the luggage area, past the rear seatback, put a loop in that end, and stuffed it beside the passenger seat where it's handy. It's the equivalent of what Porsche did for the cab.
I arrived at the track only to discover the hatch release system had failed on my '94 Coupe. Neither the key-switch at the hatch or the button next to the driver's knee worked. I have a bolt-in roll bar and my luggage area was full of the stuff one takes to DE events. Fortunately I could squeeze enough of me through the bars, push some stuff aside, and barely reach the cable-pull, just in time for Tech. Had there been more stuff, or heavier stuff, or more of me, I'm not sure what I'd have done. Probably gone looking for a thin person with really long arms. Since the unlocking mechanism is electric, a locksmith wouldn't have been any help. Even without a roll bar, this could still be a problem if access to the cable-pull is blocked by something too big or heavy to push aside or pull over the rear seats and out the doors.
If you'd like to be prepared for such an occurrence, you may want to do what I did. Slipped a 2 inch piece of thick plastic tubing, like 3/8" OD, behind the hatch's latch pin housing on the driver's side next to the bodywork. Fixed one end of a 5 foot piece of small gauge cable to the manual release cable, ran it through the tubing sleeve, along the driver's side of the luggage area, past the rear seatback, put a loop in that end, and stuffed it beside the passenger seat where it's handy. It's the equivalent of what Porsche did for the cab.
