It's a wrap !!!

There was a little debate about the pros and cons of wrapping headers.....

Of course, as with every gearhead discussion, things can quickly get out of order...........Last I heard was "I don't want to have a fire hazard in my engine bay"   Trust me, I put fire to this thing, it does not burn.   Any how, after talking to our experts and getting some info from the net,  this makes sense:

PERFORMANCE:  The goal of headers is to make it easier for the engine to push exhaust gases out of the cylinders.

TEMPERATURE:
The titanium wrap will keep the hot air inside the header, allowing for cooling air intake:  cooler intake produces more horsepower, as cooler air contains more oxygen, which aids the burning process in the cylinder.  Wrapped headers can reduce the under hood temperatures significantly.

VELOCITY:
In theory, wrapped headers help contain the heat, making the exhaust gases move more rapidly away from the engine and towards the exhaust pipe.  This increased exhaust velocity increases potential horsepower by evacuating the cylinder more quickly and allowing the piston to move upward with less resistance.

 SCAVENGING:

The gases velocity also helps with the scavenging, or the removal of combustion waste from the cylinder more efficiently.  This makes for a cleaner and faster burn of the mixture of fuel and air on the next piston stroke. 

All them pretty horses

Will drag you away....

When the National Geographic Channel was filming this car for their show "Break it Down  Porsche in Pieces

They wanted to see the owner drive away into the sunset.........Fat chance, we where so far behind and there was no time to even align  and corner balance it.  For safety reasons, this was a must.

And even though nobody saw big red burn rubber or doing a zoom zoom dance up and down the 405 Freeway. it was worth the wait.

After getting a big intercooler and installing  a e-boost controller from TurboSmart, the gates opened and all the horses got out, all 436 of them and at 14 lbs of boot they created a lot of torque

all geared up....

Man !!  why is it taking so long.......

Well,  let me explain;  Some people call themselves gear heads, or weekend wrenchers,  they love that kind of stuff.....

I don't ,  we are just good at it, and on top of that, a really good deal came on this six speed transmission came along,  how can you say no,  limited slip, steel synchros on first, second, third and forth and geared to do 200 mph with no problems,  this thing was built for racing, and/or going on a trip to the Sin City.

Now, let's clean the air that is going to be forced into the turbos

Space is becoming very scarce once more elements go into this engine bay,  at this point we have to use flex 3 inch hose to be able to maneuver around  the other items that were invited to this party.  It won't be long.........

Hang them high..

Or they might hit the ground....

Well, we finally made some serious progress on the ex Targa,  it  has been a slow process due to the invention of certain things, many non stock items have been added to made this twin turbo a special one.

But first we gave it a new hat and a pair of shoes.
Finding a manual top now days seems a difficult task, in the end we have to modify an electric one and made  it work with the Targa locks.

Finding the right wheels is always a headache, wheels can make your car, or it can trash it,  lucky for the master of this beast, we had the opportunity of looking at different options thanks to a few of our customers that were nice enough to let us try their shoes on.

But the sweetest thing is that the turbos are being hung and that means,  we are past the Ecuador of this reinvention, we are on the other side of half.  When turbos are positioned it is easy to know when the rest of the piping will go.........Let's cut some tubes.....................

It's alive !!

After a few rounds with two insurance companies and lot of intense negotiations,  the go ahead was given and the painful process begun.

We decided to fix the existing part because frankly we ran out of patience waiting for the fiberglass company to make us a new piece.  It took about 2 1/2 years to build this thing the first time, so now we are not in the mood to make our customer wait that long again.

The body has been regenerated and it will have its shiny new skin tomorrow.  The Boss has been busy building a new set of headers and all the plumbing.

And we also added a few little things,  just to make look pretty.

There is a big Porsche show in 6 days time,  our customer would like to show off this silver bullet.

It's all hands on deck, will we make it?  I have no idea, but I can tell you,  we will give our best shot,  If I can make it without cutting any corners.............I will be done.

Have to reinforce the engine bay

The reunion

These two air cooled turbos have not been in the shop since National Geographic Channel aired the episode of "Break it Down"

I was surprised to see them arrive almost at the same time.

 What was called the 75 Beast on National TV came to get a few adjustments and details, and we gave it new HID eyes, and LED bulbs all around, some details around the fog lamps to jazz it up a bit. we also install a high efficiency cooler fan with thermo control unit to make sure oil stay at temperature, even in heavy traffic, after all,   .......this is L. A.

Big red has been quiet  since its TV debut, but now it's ready to play and we have to give it the toys to do so.

A manual boost controller to start, so if you are in need of more boost, just press play.

A couple of electrical Gremlins were running rogue behind the gauges giving the tach and speedo a hard time..........but it's all better now.

Oh ! and the white leather interior got a good scrubbing to get so white as driven snow.

I you haven't seen our cameo on the Nat Geo Channel, feel free...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pa1-1WtoRM

I'll tell you what I want.......

What I really, really want....

After a few moons of working on this Golden Targa, we have changed a few things, and now that our client has road tested, a few things came under review.

Though the whole interior has been re done with suede, leather and the skin of some exotic birds, a few things seem to be out of place or out of date.

From this angle, the shift knob is really an eye sore. so much difference from the LED courtesy lights on the foot well, we are going to keep those and replace the knob.

Now.  from this angle you can agree that the steering wheel really needs to go, even though we gave it some skin, still, it does not cut it,  We are going to need MOMO,  Millennium Evo to be exact. It is a cool looking wheel that will go the modernized version of this Targa.

The E brake handle was not made to our client liking, so a billet piece will have to replace one half of it to avoid wear and tear.

In a few days we will see the delivery truck with all our goodies and our list will get shorter, should be fun, we also order new front blinstein sports struts, and our second test should take place.

Are we having fun yet.....

Rolling down the highway......

....not quite yet, but we are getting there.

After changing everything on this old body and giving it a new face lift, a tummy tuck and some botox, 

A new wardrobe has been added to this body in the shape of 993 interior, gauges and oil tank, a boxster roll bar that has been modified to fit this body

Now we need accessories.......
Sometimes I see my wife looking at a pair of earrings for the longest time, it makes me wonder what the heck I am doing at at the mall, not shopping.

But this is the way you buy rims, they can make your car or .....not

Another thing to consider is that size does matter, as well as offset,  what size wheel to get, and what size rubber........decisions, decisions , decisions,  can't use fuchs wheels, that would not go with our reinvented body

We used one of our  client's wheels to measure, and it was a good fit, but even though the ride is down in a non operating state, the set is not for sale.

We did found the name of the wheel, now the mission is, should you chose to accept it, to find out if it is still available.

Just venting.......

So that the intercoolers can get some air

They are going to be inside the quarter panels, though they are going to have cooling fans, we still need to create some flow.

I have seen other versions of vents and frankly, they look like holes to me.

 So we need to be creative, by opening the quarter panels that high allows the air to travel through the wheel well and reach the intercooler and at the same time it will give some to the brakes.

 Stainless still mesh was used to dress it up, because we still have to be stylish.

I was thinking of using the torsion bar opening to do a brake cooling thingy, but for now it's only a thought.

 Now we turn our attention to the other side, for this application we went with louvers just to give it a hot rod kind of look.  We had some pieces done and then we graph then to the quarter extensions.

With everything in place, now it's time to hang the intercoolers and air intake.

It won't be long before this big dog starting barking.....and who knows maybe a bite or two.

Hang around, it won't be long........

Cool it baby.......

It's always fun to see the delivery truck, that means we are going to build stuff....

This week, we will be busy doing some intercoolers, and size does matter.  The two little ones are going to be hidden under the quarter panels of the REINVTD twin turbo. the larger one is to replace a name brand that, although expensive, is not very efficient.  We must take care of that problem, after all, nobody wants to be full of hot air.

 Since we are taking care of the temperature of the oil, by adding an extra oil cooler and fan, we might as well take care of the temperature of the air, so we are going to replace that name brand one with one of our custom made.

 Since we are restricted by someone else's measurements, we can install it in the must efficient way, insuring that the airflow receives the must amount of cooling before it hits the intake.

Release the Kraken.........

To amuse ourselves, we give each car a nickname,  and when this customer ask the Boss to build a monster motor.....well, we thought of when it would be released.

When the boss started writing the symphony of power, we expected a nice ballad, instead we got a head banging heavy metal number one hit.

At the first test drive, it twisted the shock tower, so back in the shop it went, reinforce the cab, give it some big brakes, and coil overs and huge sway bars to keep it level.

To maximize the power band of this 3.576 liter beast, we had the crankshaft stroked 0.079 mm, dressed it with 3 liter offset bushed connecting rods, this combination allow the piston to dwell longer at top of the barrel crating a longer explosion.

 Twin plugged, flame ringed and ported heads let it breath to make this power run smooth.

We gave it alcohol injection and manual boost controller, but in all honesty, I don't think it needs it;  At 3 pounds of boost the tires leave the ground.

This dyno run was the first one, and some the ponies we still in the barn, in a weeks time a new dyno run will take place, it is then when we will release the Kraken.....