MEMBERS’ RIDES – Is orange really the new black?

DSC_0063wrStory and photos by Jay Lloyds, UCR Member (from Provinz September 2014, page 24)

My 40 years of involvement with Porsche has given me the opportunity to build, rebuild, restore, modify and race some of Porsche’s most desirable models. This has been the only motivation that keeps me coming back for more. I have owned many Porsches over the years and more often than not I have modified them into something I hope puts a smile on the faces of the people that see them.

Some of the most popular models I have built range from the early 911S, RS, RSR to 930, 935 and many more. The one model that left an indelible mark on me besides the RSR 2.1 L Turbo was the Homologation race/street 934, a stunning, swelled up monster jacked up on steroids that leaves most people with their jaw dragging on the floor. If it was painted in the famous Jagermeister orange, well that was an added bonus. The 934 is a 911 so rare that most likely you will never see an original one outside the safety of a museum and if you do, it will probably be at an ‘Old Timer Racing’ event doing laps at speed, though with “groß”caution.

An opportunity presented itself in 2010 in the form of an original 1981-930 turbo in chocolate brown. The owner, Suzanne Lord (Peter Carroll is her husband) presented me with a proposition. Those involved involved with Porsche Club DE days know these two, and you’ll know they can really hustle a 930 around Mosport, a task that is “thorny” at the best of times. Suzanne and Peter offered the car to me with certain conditions. Those conditions were that I build the Turbo into something they both would love and be proud of. Without thinking twice I shook hands on the deal.

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The 930 Donor car before ‘surgery’.

 

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The interior just before I tore it apart.

I did have some concerns as this car had been serviced in Montreal and I did not have any history. But between the servicing of customers’ Porsches I would work on the project in the small hours and weekends so that my friends and customers would still have priority.

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Fitment testing.

The day it started I took a deep breath then ripped this 930 into pieces until all that was left was a chassis with the wire harness hanging out of it. Once the car was stripped away my concerns were quickly quashed, it was in fact a perfect example and with that came the perfect platform to build this 930 into either a “near perfect restoration” or something that would make people want whatever I had decided to create and at the same time keeping Suzanne and Peter happy.

A lot of thought went into deciding on the build route, I had never before restored or built a 934, though had the opportunity to work on a couple of original ones in the early eighties owned at that time by Alan Hamilton, the Porsche Importer to Australia. So with a little apprehension I chose the 934, the colour was an easy choice it had to be none other than the eye-popping “Jagermeister Orange” that, accompanied by the bloated bodywork finished off with satin black trim, would—for me—make the perfect Porsche “Street Rod”.

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Pre-prep for paint.

With what I envisaged deeply buried in my undersized brain I got the cutters out and carved away all the beautiful work Porsche had done to make the 930 what it is. Peter had given me a set of 934 fender extensions which he had purchased hoping they would work for his grey 930 but they were so badly made, warped and imprecise he quickly abandoned the idea once his body guy told him the cost of repairing them and then grafting them on.

Peter still loved the shape of the 934 so he purchased a narrow version of the sculpted front and installed it on his 930. So now it was up to me to make the tough decision to use these pieces or not, knowing full well how much time, materials and cost it was going to take to mould them into something even close to what I would call acceptable. I began modifying, installing, and re-modifying the panels again and again until eventually I came up with extensions that were ‘almost’ perfect, but that was in my opinion. At a guess only 25 percent of the original flare-extensions that Peter gave me were used, the rest were cut into small pieces and tossed. Then with over 400 hours into the steel work and glass-fibre work while paying strict attention to fit, finish and the small details, the car was ready for the next stage of the build.

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Out of the oven.
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Fitting of the complete drive train.

I sent the chassis to my friend and extremely talented painter, Jack. Jack has been doing paint for me for many years and the customers that I have sent there to have work done have rejoiced in finally finding a paint specialist that is reliable, on time, cost effective and with the added bonus of doing really beautiful paint.

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Soaking up some sun.

Once I took delivery of the painted chassis I went about the daunting task of reassembling the entire car, starting with a new headliner, new windscreen, all body and trim seals, new lights and hundreds of new nuts, bolts and washers. I have for many years always installed all the trim, lights, interior even the front and rear windscreens, doors and body panels, I do this because I just do not trust anybody to do it to my standard even the headliner is done by me. As my father taught me: if you want it done properly, do it yourself. To finish off the outside look, I had my friend Jimmy Yee from Autoart make me up a special order set of the Autoart VY wheels. They are eight and a half inches in front, with a 12.5-inch rim in the back spreading a thirteen and a half inch footprint—now that’s a big shoe for a 930.

I wanted the underside of the car to look as good as the top, so I went through everything, with restored suspension, modified brakes and all new hardware. I completely freshened up the transmission by fully cleaning the case I wanted to have that ‘off the shelf’ look to it, once stripped down I replaced all new bearings, stop rings, brake bands, selector sleeves and shifting forks. I also upgraded with a new limited slip differential. A Kevlar clutch system with a lightweight flywheel and pressure plate was chosen over the Porsche performance units. I have had great success with these clutch systems, currently over twenty of my customers use this clutch system in their cars, both on the track and the street and the feedback generated is all good.

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Fabricating the intake system.

A 3.6-L normally aspirated engine was chosen over the original 3.3 block because of its torque differences. The modifications consisted of a complete rebuild including mods to the crankshaft and the oiling galleries all new bearings, oil pump, pistons, modified rods, chains, intermediate shaft and performance hardware, fully ported and polished heads, special cams and valves then on top of all that I turbocharged it. I fabricated a new intake arrangement starting with a set of manifolds off of a 3.2 litre NA engine. These are particularly good as they both have combined-equal distribution plenums DSC04539wrwith almost equal length runners. The 959 and many other performance Porsches used this style. It has 12 Bosch spark plugs, the same type used in the 965-C2S 3.6ltr turbo, massive single phased-stage injectors with a three inch throttle body getting boosted by a modified K29 turbocharger, stainless headers with a muffler showing a single four-inch pipe protruding dead centre under the rear valance was chosen, but just recently I modified the ‘Auspuf” to two unequal length twin pipes. It gets a lot of attention. People have asked me “why” and my answer is always, “why not”.

From my point of view, my Porsche 934 looks outstanding, performs and handles really well and it accelerates in a way that rolls your eyes into the back of your head. It does not drive and handle like a race or track car—I wanted it to be as friendly as possible as my daily driver. It easily passed a safety after the completion of the final assembly and did not need an E Test as the 930, was at that time 32 years old. The project took two and a half years to complete in between my customers’ Porsches, which for me is more important than my own projects, mostly I worked after hours and weekends and by working these hours I was not taken away from my project due to walk in traffic or the phone ringing.

The strangest story regarding this build was the car had been completed and on the road only a few weeks when a friend from Montreal came to Toronto looking to purchase a turbo engine for his wide-body 911. I always have a few motors in various stages of assembly, but he needed one in a hurry so I offered him a ride in my car, telling him I could build an engine like mine in four to six weeks depending on the performance options. We did a few power runs running first through third using the on-ramp to the highway. After only five minutes of driving he turned to me, smiled and said “This is my engine.” I said “WHAT?” He said it again: “This engine is mine.”

Since it was the end of summer I gave it some thought as I could easily build another one during the horrible winter. He looked at me again and asked at what price? I gave him a price most people would gasp at, but he just came out and said, “OK. Done.” That week I took the engine out and sent it to Montreal. The person, price and exact location are secret. Sorry, customer’s orders.

This past winter I built another engine using the original motor that came with the car, the real 930 turbo engine. I used 3.3-L pistons and cylinders that had a slight increase in compression, all the same engine updates that went into the 3.6 L. Twin plug heads were used, 3.2 manifolds etc, fully programmable interface Electromotive fuel spark management system. Now it is going to stay in this configuration and when it is sold it will be in this arrangement…I dynoed it and the new engine produced over 500 horsepower with the adjustable boost easily in arm’s reach for those days you need to roll the eyes.

The looks, stares and attention the car gets is quite remarkable, to the point when I am driving people come from behind me, from the side, from the front, all in an effort to capture a video or picture of the car on the road. It can be quite dangerous at times. I have received emails and tags from all over with links to videos of my 934. You can see it on Instagram under my tag Jay Lloyds, if it is of interest to you.

So to finish, Suzanne and Peter are genuinely happy with the end result. Suzanne proudly tells everyone at the track that this was her old Turbo. I certainly don’t blame her.

Most comments about the colour are positive, though I did have a granny come up to me at this year’s Yorkville Exotic Car Show who said, “That this is the ugliest car I have ever seen.” And then casually walked away. I surmised you cannot please all the people all the time, but then again she could have been one of my friends performing a practical joke, I really didn’t care.

DSC_0152wrI drank a toast to the car with a small sip of Jagermeister (the rest is still in the freezer), purchased a couple of orange T-shirts, an orange Invicta wrist watch, got a few Gulf and Jagermiester stickers for my shop and located another orange Autoart model, the Porsche 935 K3. Black’s reign is over. Orange is the new king.

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