Der Sportwagen

July / August 2016 14 TECHNICAL EDITOR By Karl Wilen I t isn't uncommon for me to hear about guys wanting to revive an old Porsche, and ask me to look for something cheap for them. It also isn't uncommon for these projects to fall on their face faster than my two dogs can mow through a bowl of bacon flavored dog food. There are so many hid- den costs of "saving" an old car that people don't foresee, and when they start to pile up, the project quickly gets shoved in a corner and forgotten about. Thus, I typically laugh when people tell me they bought a $500 Porsche to revive, I always think "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Don't get me wrong, some will stay the course and actually bring the car back to life and looking/running great, but that doesn't seem to be the norm. So what am I getting at? The other day, I ignored my own advice and I bought a broken $1000 944S2. Mostly so I could use up about 6 months worth of tech articles documenting what it takes to save something like this…… Actually, my intentions were pure at first, 944 Turbo and S2's carry some special body panels, suspension components, and brakes, and some of the track cars we are still run- ning today require having spares like these around, so it was meant to be a parts car. The car had come into the shop not running, and soon we discovered a stripped timing belt. I have to say, rarely do I see a stripped or bro- ken S2 or 968 timing belt, but when they do break it is damn expensive to fix, especially on a high school budget as was this case. The more I looked at the car, the more I saw some potential. It would take a LOT of work (having to "de-fast and furious" it from the last two younger owners), and really would come down to whether or not the motor was hurt from the timing belt issue. A few dents and dings here, a dash that had been poor- ly recovered and the fabric was now faded white, a lot of dirt on the underside, some horrible aluminum dash trim, but something told me not to kill this one. I figured, lets clean it up, and see what we have. Also…. let's keep a tally of the cost of parts. My la- bor to me is free, and I feel the only way you can afford to do these sort of projects is to do nearly all the work yourself and save the labor costs. Luckily, I like to tinker. Loaded in the trailer to go home where I can work on it in the evenings. $1,000 Porsche RESURRECTION

• Cover