CLR Project Leichtbau: adding lightness to the tune of 250kg

New997buyer said:

Useful tip Richie. Similar to the IMSB but bigger really :thumbs:

Oh and loved the camera drops. Nothing wrong with authentic :grin: :thumb:

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Glad you appreciate the artistic flair I intentionally added in the form of camera drops Paul
Just to add, as I forgot to mention in the video: the bearings during repetitive heat cycles start to lose the grease. This then combines with metallic particles and collects around the magnetic inside the gearbox as a silver paste. So you can actually check if your bearings (main and pinion) have started to wear by draining the oil and sticking your finger inside the gearbox drain port, then if you point your finger forward you can feel for this grease/paste around the magnet.

Dammit said:

Picked up this threads issue of 911 and Porsche World today to read on the train, it'll get pride of place in the Morning Reading Room.

Cracking job, and one I suspect that is not yet over - looking forward to seeing how it develops next.

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Indeed Dammit, I am still waiting for the LSD issue/redesign to be sorted. Once back I can then finally get back into it.
Glad it brightened up your train journey :thumb:

A little engine work today due to a noise. Trouble is I can't bed in and test the new LSD until I resolve the engine issue first. So incase you ever need to, here is a little guide on Tappet (hydraulic lifter) replacement:

Here are the parts and tools I ordered:


If the engine is installed, then you need to strip away exhaust, manifold, brackets, coil packs... to gain access and clean away any debris/oil stains...:


You'll then need to drain the engine oil then pull out these plug so that you can set TDC on the bank you are working on:


You'll need to look in this hole to check the bank you are working on is at TDC:
[

Lock in TDC:


Fit this special tool into end of camshafts:

Disconnect cam solenoid plug and the cover 2xbolts:


Undo oil pump 4x10mm bolts:


Undo head cover 23x bolts and prise open:



Then remove cover:


Here is how it looks inside:


Fit cam special cam support tool:


Remove tensioner:


Remove oil pump:


Unbolt the chain sprocket but ensure you tie wrap in place to keep the timing:


Unbolt variocam solenoid 3xbolts then remove securing tools and drop out complete cams with vario cam assembly:


Here are the tappets:


Pull them out and jobs a goodun

Welcome back! :thumbs:

New997buyer said:

Welcome back! :thumbs:

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It was a painful few months not being able to crawl around under the car getting covered in ***** Paul. Glad I survived that dark period though. Even managed to find another way to sort out pics. Just need to go back through and sort out all the previous ones when I have a week spare :frustrated:

Whilst you're in there I'd look at the Variocam tensioner pads and replace them as they tend to get eaten by the chains. May as well whilst it's in bits!

You wont believe what I did today; aimed to get it all buttoned up rebuilt and tested. Well I checked the timing was all good then fitted the 2 aft cover plugs then fitted the fwd one but I got a bit too excited and pushed with a little too much force. Let this be a lesson to anyone else doing this job. Don't do this silly mistake. I have now had to strip it back down again scrape off sealant, Order new plugs from Porsche...
Yes sometimes you are fighting battles you could really do without :frustrated:


Oops:


Start again to remove the plug:

It was mentioned earlier in this thread about the potential to offer parts or packages in the future, as going the whole hog is a seriously expensive undertaking. Well today I devised this little idea of a potential way into a CLR with basically 3 levels:

Essence: For me this is the enthusiasts buy in point, intrinsically all the essential ingredients to get a truly magical and optimised 911.

Evolution: The next rung on the ladder. All of the above + an extra dollop of CLRness.

Extreme: This is the no holds barred Daddy; the full works with potential for a full Hartech big power engine rebuild. Includes both of the packages above.

This table may help explain a little better:




Nothing here is finalised but at this moment in time it is the most probable way I'll take this in the future. Right now I am redesigning some suspension components again (4th time now) as during the testing phase I noted some fatigue. I now have a solution but a 2 month timeframe is required to manufacture the prototype parts in the States. These are however fantastic and made by a TUV approved manufacturer. The LSD is also still in the trial phase. Once these 2 issues are resolved and tested, I will be putting the car through the full TUV approval process. I have also recently been certified in Germany for Chassis development & restoration and Automotive Technical by the IHK (Handwerkskammer), a regulatory body for these type of trades, which is a massive hurdle out of the way

Anyway I just thought I'd update and I'd appreciate any thoughts on the table above or the ideas I mentioned :thumb:

I think that's a great way of doing it, then potential clients can spread the costs a bit as they get more involved.

is it worth giving the power to weight ratios or 0-60 times etc as examples as the car evolves with each stage - so people have something to gauge what it's going to feel like?? just a thought

Clear and precise. As BenC says maybe some 'for instances' will help with seeing how it'll feel. But definitely a step in the right direction :thumbs:

Did you manage to get any hard data for power increases that the induction and exhaust mods have made? I think potential customers would like it even if it's fairly crudely presented.

I know we spoke about gt3 throttle bodies and that would also be a good mod to add if its proven to offer further gains without the need to overbore or re-cam the engine.

Loving that Heart/Body/Soul arrangement, Richard!

Can I suggest Exe-TC suspension for the Extreme Soul level? They love building to customised specs, FYI.

Test-drive mine if you want to compare to Ohlins (or speak to Jeremy Laird)

Cheers.

Hi Richard,
I love the package pricing ideas. It's clear and professional.

My only tiny worry/query would be are there enough punters out there willing to throw very large chunks of cash at their 996 in one go?

That's not in anyway a criticism of what you're offering, I'm simply looking at where the 996 market still is etc.

Coming from someone who is fascinated with the evolution of your car and loves what you've done with it (as you well know) I just wonder if you would be better off offering everything individually as well as the packages you've proposed.
That way if someone wants say, the lightweight battery they could, then a bit later LWFW etc.

It's a hard one, I just know as a tinkerer I have an end goal in my head for my car but can't afford to blitz it in one go, plus I enjoy the journey and would get bored if it was "finished".
When I buy parts and carry out mini projects bit by bit though, I still feel like I'm heading towards that end goal.

So I think what I'm wondering is would you be better off staying true to how you want to do it, offering complete packages but maybe slower turnover?
Or sell individual parts with a steady trickle of them constantly selling?

Or am I missing the point altogether in that the exclusivity comes from buying the whole package. A sort of Singer for the 996? In which case ignore me and crack on. :wink:

Good luck either way. I hope you see the rewards for all the hard work. It's well deserved. :thumb:

As Marky says it very much depends on what your own goal is here, from the perspective of a potential customer I'd be interested in groupings of like parts- for e.g. the carbon body panels.

I'd want them unpainted, to be delivered to the body shop nearby, which may be completely against your philosophy however.

Definitely an interesting approach and I think absolutely the way to go in terms of offering a range of packages for fully modded and finished cars.

Personally (and as others have mentioned above), I think it would be worth considering also making individual parts available to buy. It's tricky to know how many people would want to send a car off for extensive mods, but I'm sure there's a market for a range of parts that have a level of thinking behind them that's exceptional.

It may be that if a brand can be built from the parts, then selling the 'packages' will be more viable. If you add the 997 platform into the mix, too, then you have an even larger market - one big enough to perhaps build a significant business.

Not an easy call as I understand if there's a desire to only offer packages that really deliver on the philosophy involved here

Thank you for taking the time to add your thoughts gents :thumb:

I thought the overly wordy guff might put a few off so I'm glad it didn't scare everyone. Just to be clear, Heart refers to Engine/powertrain, body = chassis and Soul is the tactile/feel element. If somebody wanted the Essence package for instance, it would include all of the elements in the Heart/body/soul fields under the Essence column. If you wanted Evolution it would mean you get all of the Essence column plus the Evolution column...

Just to clarify on a few other things I picked up on; I'm no marketing strategist and will probably never be able to cater for every single config that everyone would personally want but my thoughts on this matter are that Singer have a successful thing going on, as far as I can see. Now I don't think the world is quite ready for a 996 Singer just yet but feel that a 3 pronged approach could be the way forward. I feel Singer do not offer parts as it would dilute the brand and I don't really want to turn into a tuning shop selling parts especially when you have the potential shipping issues for large carbon panels. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. My intention is to spend my days twirling spanners and seeing through the creative design aspects of this concept in order to create/offer a truly magical driving experience. All of the design thus far is for both 996 and 997 models. I know I have taken a 996 as the base but in all phases, I have contingency measures in place to ensure the 997 is also on the cards.

I don't see this venture as a business person would and don't want to get rich off the back of this. I have spent serious money getting to where I am already and feel very lucky having got to this point already with my own personal tailored 911. The creative design and rewards from driving such a car is what does it for me. I want to try and offer the absolute best products available for 996/997 but at an affordable (relatively speaking) price. For instance I've roughly calculated that if I sold the Essence package for €21500+VAT I'd be just scraping by but would need to be constantly churning out cars. This would never include the infrastructure and development costs at over €130,000 I would have spent to get a full working demonstrator. I then need a workshop with ramps...
I know it sounds expensive but if you tally up the parts prices alone you will see that there is no money being made here; exhaust alone will cost you £5k. Then registering and running a business in Germany is not cheap etc.

I don't know if it is remotely feasible to make this work but we only live once and I have already got myself far deeper into this than I ever thought I would.

I'm not sure if that answers all of the questions but would like to thank you all for your support throughout this project and for your thoughts on this idea :thumbs:

ETA:
Ben/Paul: Jethro Bovingdon was lined up to drive the car in August but due to a few development issues (continuing still), I was not happy to present the car to him when it wasn't ready so this is on the back burner at present. As I respect his opinion massively, I want his take on the performance differences as he drives a fairly modded 996 himself. I was planning to use his opinion to describe the feel, performance changes and 0-60... so for this reason I haven't mentioned these figures. Also this car isn't about numbers. In simple terms it will deliver greater performance figures 0-170mph than a 996TT but it is the feel elements: sound, character and how well it drives... that are not possible to describe with numbers and that really is the raison d'etre.

Harv: I've not forgotten the GT3 throttle. I still plan to try this option. I just want to get the current set-up thoroughly tested and dyno proven to see where it currently is.

EGTE: That really is a kind offer for a ride in your car. When I'm next in the UK I'll be knocking on your door :thumb:

Marky: Thank you, true gent as ever :thumb: I think I answered your point above. Dammit again I think I answered your question above hopefully. Pothole both the 996 and 997 models apply :thumb: