Car Preparation: 

Bill Dockery was extremely helpful but races in Honda Challenge and couldn't help with specfics for a 944.   The next step was to communicate with 944 guru Greg Fordahl who has race in the 25 Hours.  Greg Fordahl was on the team that won the overall in '04 with a 3.8 Porsche RSR and again in '06 with the overall winning 996 Porsche Cup car.  Greg Fordahl is very responsive in our 944-Challenge forum and when he gives advise, I listen.  With information in hand I started planning the modifications for our 25 Hours 944-Spec car.

The key to the 25 Hours as reiterated by Bill Dockery, Greg Fordahl, Joe Paluch, Tim Comeau and others was to stay out of the pits.   You can't race if you're sitting in the pits

We started with the red '83 944 "Thunderbolt" car as the base.  Thunderbolt is a shared car between my brother Steve & I and use as a race ready 944-Spec backup for his black '88 924S or my silver '88 944.

This car was recently rebuilt with fresh suspension parts.  New Koni yellow adjustables all around,  30mm rear torsion bars,  front coil-overs with 400 lb front springs, Weltmeister 28mm front and 22mm rear sway bars, i.e.- the typical 944-Spec suspension package.  In additional we installed new control arms, ball joints and bushings, rear torsion tube and spring plate bushings, wheel bearings, rear axles and CV joints, rotors, rebuilt the brake pistons, new steel braided brake lines.

The car was brought over to AutoPoint Motors in Pt. Richmond, CA to have the engine rebuilt.  My instructions to Art Butradee at AutoPoint was to build a reliable motor that will survive the 25 Hours.  The motor was completely disassembled and steam cleaned.  New piston rings, rod bearings and main bearings, lifters, seals, lower end gasket set,  head gasket set, oil pan retaining bracket, head resurface, valve job and pressure test was perform on the engine.  There was no attempt to modify the engine for more power because we want to keep it as a spec legal engine.

Keeping the car running cool and well oiled was high on the list for the 25 Hours.

Thunderhill's Turn 2 is a potential 944 killer, the high speed, prolong 180 degrees left hander can lead to oil starvation which can cause failures of the #2 or #3 rod bearings. To address this issue besides installing new rod bearings on the engine rebuild, a trap door oil pan baffle was installed and the crankshaft was cross-drilled.  Custom Crankshaft Repair (CCR) in San Mateo made the modifications to the crankshaft, they work on a lot of Porsche crankshafts for the 911's, 968's, 944's.  Their modifications are different depending  on the car platform.  For a 944, they cross-drilled new oil journals 45 degrees BTDC and scooping the oil journal holes with tear drop chamfers to force more oil in.

A naturally aspirated 944 uses a small water/oil heat exchanger to cool the oil with the water system.  I never like the design of this system and prefer the 944 turbo and 944S2 system of a separate air-cooled radiator for the oil.   I was able to purchase a used oil cooler block-off plate from a S2 and install it with separate lines to a external air-cooled oil radiator.   This also has the added benefit of putting less strain on the coolant system and lower water temperature.