Porsche 944 - kollected again

[jon928se]

PS

 

Check when the cam chain and tensioner was last changed (yes there is one - the cam belt drives the exhaust cam and the inlet cam is driven by a chain from the centre of the exhaust cam) as for some reason 944s are particularly prone to it failing which causes lots of tears before bed time. I haven't found out why as 1987 and later 928s share the same head and cam chain but don't seem to fail.

 

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-944-951-968-forum-70/

 

is a very good resource for tech info and alternatives for parts sourcing.

[barefoot]

Plus eleventy on this.

It should be done at the same time as the belts.

[ProgRocker]

Nice 944! Very cool.

[stuboy]

944 glorious turbo

 

 

Me likey

[HillmanImp]

Just checked re the belts. All done in February 2017.

 

 

Just got home from seeing friends in Nottingham. Car looks like this:

 

 

Friggin mental. Totally covered in ice. I guess I'll be able to see if the boot leaks after this weather.

 

Also looking through the history I found this:

 

 

Classy

[HillmanImp]

I just googled to see how much '944' plates go for.

 

Oh look, theres my plate OIJ 944 already up for sale for £2,250.

 

 

I assume the previous owner put it up there.

 

Can't see it ever selling for that?

 

I had been thinking the plate is growing on me but if it is actually worth proper money I might change my mind.

 

Id have to get another with a J in it though as Imp Jrs name begins with J and he's well impressed with that fact.

[Isaac Hunt]

''Tis a funny old game the cherished plate market. Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

 

In 2004 DVSA released 1 & my initials.

 

I went along to the auction with my Dad had we had a generous reserve. Plate exceed that by 50%. Then the dealer out it up for over twice what he paid for it and it has been for sale ever since.

 

I think you Plate suits your 944.

[HillmanImp]

If it sold for half of that I'd be ecstatic. Its just some numbers and letters. Okay, my fragile masculinity would be upset if my plate was something like:

 

 

But on the whole I'm not precious about it.

[inconsistant]

Just got home from seeing friends in Nottingham. Car looks like this:

 

Friggin mental. Totally covered in ice. I guess I'll be able to see where the boot leaks after this weather.

 

 

 

EFA

[HillmanImp]

This cars been getting a lot of disapproval from Mrs Imp over the weekend.

 

I took the child seat out of the Jag and it fits the 944 but not if Imp Jr wants some legroom.

 

Even pushing the passenger seat right forward so Mrs Imp is right up against the windscreen is no good as the seat depth is about 25cm, the child seats seem to be about 40cm. Plus the way the seats are curved means the back isn't flat against the seat etc so its probably not that safe.

 

Whats annoying is Imp Jr sits quite snugly in the seat as it is. Its just the seatbelt is quite loose.

 

 

We went to mothercare and they had nothing. I spent ages online looking for convertible seats etc and measuring depth and there was nothing that was reasonable.

 

Then, after about 200 "I told you", "why didnt you check" and "its not a family car" remarks, i stumbled across this.

 

*stock photo-not Imp Jr.

 

Its brilliant. Instead of lifting your child into the seat belt, it pulls the belt onto your child.

 

Its obviously not backed either but does pull the belt tight onto the shoulder with the strap and it works brilliantly in the 944, probably better than the backed seats which just dont work with the curve.

 

So it IS a fucking family car. Total win.

 

All I need to do now is avoid crashing it and this post being quoted in a daily fail article.

[somewhatfoolish]

Would a booster cushion work, or have they been banned for being hostile to nuns and kittens?

[HillmanImp]

Would a booster cushion work, or have they been banned for being hostile to nuns and kittens?

This is the opposite. The booster cusions dont fit the odd seats so this lets them sit in the seat and pulls the belt down on the kid.

 

It actually seems like a better solution IMO although I work in pensions not car safety but it seems reet clever.

 

https://youtu.be/qbWZHMa9l-8

[gm]

have a look for something called the 'Porsche Prince' seat - they seemed to be a regular topic on the forums

[Ohdearme]

I have a similar bout of worries at plonking the kids in what amounts to a 20 year old tent with glass (Galaxy) versus the isofix death by boredom A1 wifey has.

 

I don’t drive around aiming for things and hope nobody is aiming for me but as long as we all go out doing what I love, that’s ok, I guess.

 

I could cycle everywhere and then get hit in the eye by the turd of a passing Kestrel, blinded by poop, swerve blindly into a field that turns out to be a steep hill, accelerate out of control into a fallen branch and be subsequently launched skyward finding myself splayed and frying across a set of electricity cables pondering how my life choices got me here.

 

But at least you owned a Porsche

[Guest Hooli]

Yeah but 20 years ago everyone worried about putting kids in Cortinas not minibuses.

[John F]

Yeah but 20 years ago everyone worried about putting kids in Cortinas not minibuses.

 

40 years ago people thought nothing of packing kids into Ford Anglias like sardines, and amazingly most of them survived.

 

I remember one trip in an aunt's VW Beetle when there was no room inside the car for me & a cousin so we travelled up front with the boot lid open a crack so we could see out

[barefoot]

 

 

I remember one trip in an aunt's VW Beetle when there was no room inside the car for me & a cousin so we travelled up front with the boot lid open a crack so we could see out

 

 

I remember that trip, I was behind the back seat with three of the other kids from up our street.

[Stanky]

Is that a MiFold Hillmanimp?

 

if so, we have one for my eldest and they were very rigourously tested by all sorts of proper outfits like Which? and the TuV and passed with flying colours. Yeah they don't have the wraparound plastic that other seats do have, but they position the seatbelt exactly right which counts for a lot more.

 

My eldest is 9 and just grown out of needing it.

[Dirk Diggler]

Safety concerns like these make me think of this video

 

[HillmanImp]

have a look for something called the 'Porsche Prince' seat - they seemed to be a regular topic on the forums

 

I did look but they are the same as all the others. They just don't look safe as they aren't in contact with the seats properly, stick out over the edge of the seat loads and the poor kid has no leg room. 

 

The MiFold is ace, it just seems to keep them in the seat that's already there safely. 

 

Is that a MiFold Hillmanimp?

 

if so, we have one for my eldest and they were very rigourously tested by all sorts of proper outfits like Which? and the TuV and passed with flying colours. Yeah they don't have the wraparound plastic that other seats do have, but they position the seatbelt exactly right which counts for a lot more.

 

My eldest is 9 and just grown out of needing it.

 

Aye, this is why I bought one. In other cars the bigger seat might be better as they are designed for the types of seat in those other cars. They ain't designed for Porsche 944s though. Trying to force a seat that doesn't fit into this car is probably more very dangerous in it's own right.

 

I have a similar bout of worries at plonking the kids in what amounts to a 20 year old tent with glass (Galaxy) versus the isofix death by boredom A1 wifey has.

 

I don’t drive around aiming for things and hope nobody is aiming for me but as long as we all go out doing what I love, that’s ok, I guess.

 

I could cycle everywhere and then get hit in the eye by the turd of a passing Kestrel, blinded by poop, swerve blindly into a field that turns out to be a steep hill, accelerate out of control into a fallen branch and be subsequently launched skyward finding myself splayed and frying across a set of electricity cables pondering how my life choices got me here.

 

But at least you owned a Porsche

 

Car safety is just a selling point isn't it. Okay, cars are safer now but the chances of being killed in one was slim to nothing anyhow. According to Wikipedia, in 1998 there were 3,421 death on British roads. In 2017 there was 1,793. That's pretty impressive as it's nearly halved but in a population of 58.49m in 1998 and 66m in 2017 that's not a lot of people who died in the first place.

 

That was 0.005848% of people being killed in 1998 compared to 0.002716% being killed today. Even in 1998 the amount of people that suffered serious injury was 0.07% and is now 0.037%.

 

In 2017 3,267 people accidentally poisoned themselves, twice as many that died on the road. 436 people under 60 died falling over. 7,697 people died from booze, 432 from cocaine and 484 from anti-depressants.

 

Okay, if you are unfortunate to be in an accident in an older car, it's not as safe as a new one but the chance is small in the first place. I'm going to avoid doing anything too stupid like strapping Imp Jr on the roof of the car with some Sellotape and setting the car on fire whilst driving along the edge of a cliff blindfolded as that will massively increase the chance of something bad happening. I might give it some beans every now and then (not with Imp Jr in of course) but hopefully I won't cock it up and become a statistic.

 

I don't think that simply driving an old car increases your chance of being in the 0.002716% or 0.037% killed or seriously injured on the roads, it just slightly increases the chances of you being injured of killed in the unlikely event that you are actually in an accident serious enough.

[Guest Hooli]

 

 

I don't think that simply driving an old car increases your chance of being in the 0.002716% or 0.037% killed or seriously injured on the roads, it just slightly increases the chances of you being injured of killed in the unlikely event that you are actually in an accident serious enough.

 

Good figures.

 

I think the slightly increased chance of being hurt in a crash is offset by how much easier it is to avoid an accident in a car that drives properly & can be seen out of.

[JimH]

According to Wrongipedia in 1926 there were 4886 deaths on the roads in Great Britain. Given how few vehicles were on the road at the time things must have been pretty dangerous.

 

One of the things I find odd is that there is much trumpeting of declines in most deaths/serious injuries/all casualties rates I can find very little on the ONS site that relates these to total number of accidents. Plenty of analysis to how many more or less are dying in each group related to population or to miles travelled but very little that talks of how many accidents are happening. The numbers must be there because if you download the raw data you can get all of the details of each accident  - in the 2018 data set there are about 130K rows in the spreadsheet.

 

Without wading through each year's data set to prove it my gut feel is that we are having about the same/slightly more accidents but they are becoming far less likely to damage you if you are travelling in a car. This hunch is supported by the largish decline in harm done to vehicle occupants but the relatively static rates of damage caused to pedestrians and cyclists. Even the total number of accidents might be a little misleading because my guess is that we are more willing to report vehicle accidents now because we want to claim for the damage done to our nice new cars. In the past were people less interested in reporting minor incidents preferring to sort it out between each party?

 

The point of this is that if you are bothered by this sort of thing then you are possibly more likely to be killed or injured driving an old car today than the figures could lead people to believe. You are just as likely to be involved in an accident as you are in a modern car but you aren't going to be saved by not having the engine block aputating your legs. On the flip side is that maybe you are less likely to be involved in an accident because their rear quarters in 944s are a complete pig to repair and front wings cost a fortune so you drive very much more carefully anyway.

 

In conclusion: just try really hard not to crash.

 

 

ETA: Found some more data tables that did tell you the total number of accidents. 2017 showed a 5% drop in reported accidents over 2016 which suggests my hunch was, like most hunches, bollocks.

[HillmanImp]

OH NO! FTP!

 

I strapped Imp Jr in this morning and went to start it.

 

Nothing, nil, nada.

 

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT.

 

Battery has power, fine.

 

Starter motors not even turning, clunking or anything.

 

It doesn't look/sound like a bad earth.

 

Okay, maybe theres power in the battery but not enough to crank it. Maybe I'd best try jumping it...

 

So I go to the garage and get my jump leads and as I'm carrying them to the car I suddenly remember ITS GOT A FRIGGIN IMMOBILISER.

 

 

So yes there was an FTP but not the car, an FTP of my brain.

 

Car started fine and we went to the bike shop as planned.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

944 glorious turbo

 

 

Me likey

Looking at the screen grab, 'tis quite telling that Porsche could theoretically extract 250hp from 2479cc, whilst Citroën managed about half of that from 2499cc.

[HillmanImp]

There's a bit of water coming in the boot (predictably).

 

Just had a look and the drainage pipe isn't even attached so all the water was just pouring straight into the car.

 

 

Have boshed that back on and smeared a bit of silicon sealant round the edge of the drain holes where they attach to the car and will see how we go.

[Noel Tidybeard]

strap imp.jr to lefthandfrontseat and inform mrs.imp that actually she wasn't invited as its a father/son bonding thing

 

i WILL bring grapes when i visit you in  hospital

[oldcars]

Even with a disconnected drain pipe there is less water there than my 75. I like when its cold, boot leak freezes and i just lift the ice out.

[inconsistant]

Looking at the screen grab, 'tis quite telling that Porsche could theoretically extract 250hp from 2479cc, whilst Citroën managed about half of that from 2499cc.

 

 

They were quite good at it... even in 1980 they were getting 245bhp from the 2 litre 924 engine in the road going GTS. The track versions raced at the 1980 le mans got 375bhp from the same 2 litre 924 turbo engine.

[HillmanImp]

Even with a disconnected drain pipe there is less water there than my 75. I like when its cold, boot leak freezes and i just lift the ice out.

 

When I bought this I suddenly panicked that it was a frameless door like my old Aldi Coupe as every time it froze I couldn't ever open the doors. Thank fuck it's not. Bet the locks still freeze though.

 

On a different note, it it worth joining the Porsche Club or owt with these? I'm just worried that as I'm neither powerfully built or a company director that I might not fit in, although I would appreciate increased parts availability so could put this as my profile picture and hope that nobody notices that it's not me.

 

[dome]

Tipec forum is quite good from memory

 

Re the tailgate-you can adjust the latches to make sure it seals properly.

 

I retrofitted remote locking to mine, was a fairly easy think to do and will save you from frozen doorlocks