Tom R.

A lot of people that did some amazing work on their 944s were basically booed away from this board (only to be replaced by non porsche owning teens with eyes bigger than ther skills) while others that have modified their 944s to the nines are hailed as heroes.

Why is the installation of a Chevy motor bastardizing a porsche while the removal of the stock powerplant like what the chevy converters did and installation of a bored out block with aftermarket this and that is not a bastard car? Please explain.

Do those coil overs bastardize?

tifosiman

Where's my popcorn?

I'll freely admit that I like a LOT of the V8 conversion 944's that are out there.

I don't like the cobbled ones that are done like crap, but I also don't like 944's with stock motors that are cobbled together with duct tape and bailing wire and have 2 years worth of McDonalds wrappers littering the interior and show no pride of ownership.

But then again, according to most purists on this board my car is bastardized beyond acceptable standards so my opinion is worth about .5 cents. You can't do this, you can't do that, that is not possible, blah blah blah. I find it funny that most of the 911 guys over on Pelican are backdating their SC's to look like early cars, doing motor swaps, updating early cars to look like late cars, making 911R replicas, etc. All of that is cool and awesome and I love it! While many 944 owners call 911 owners "purists" and "snobs" yet throw the first stone at someone here trying to do something with their own 944.

Call me crazy, but I really like this car. With a little more work and a nice paintjob, this thing would be perfect as a play-toy:

http://www.content2drown.com/924LT1/index.html

Porsche-O-Phile

Please define what a hybrid/bastard porsche is

Sweet! This'll make for some good Friday entertainment. . .

Let's get this started off right:

"hybrid Porsche" (hi-bred Poor-scha) n.
1. A reference to an abomination of backyard engineering whereby inferior quality parts (usually built by Chevrolet) are glommed into the chassis of an existing Porsche-engineered motor vehicle.
2. An unsafe homebuilt vehicle driven by individuals usually small in the crotch and insecure in the mind - ones that are too cheap to modify their vehicles according to accepted Porsche protocol.

This should make for some good commentary.

Now, that said, I personally would never do this. HOWEVER, I would sure as heck like to drive one for a day at the track or something - it'd be kind of like a Corvette (sans brakes) in a 1,000-pound-lighter chassis. Who can tell me that wouldn't make for a fun day? It's like bonin' a barfly or a fat chick though - it's a lot of fun until your friends find out about it.

Robert D

In my experience Porsche purists are pretty ridiculous, and by ridiculous I mean shallow-minded and ignorant. I respect someone who takes pride in their completely stock vehicle and has it meticulously maintained by a Porsche mechanic much less than someone who does all of their own maintenance including a meticulous ground-up build of a car especially when fabrication and modification is involved. Fabrication is something that when done well is very very cool, and many innovative ideas come from the guys installing mods. It is retarded to bash on people for personalizing their automobiles, especially when many of the mod guys are DIY people who know how to turn a wrench. Suggestive-criticism is much different from bashing.

I agree the direction the forums have gone seems to represent immaturity, but there are some of the younger guys who are intelligent (no need to bash on all young people).

The guys who have installed SBC and BBC motors know the advantages in terms of available mods for those motors. People who bash them normally have no clue as to how much HP/Torque can be produced by a Chevy V8.

The direction the board has taken is the main reason I find myself browsing the other rennlist forums, as well as Chevy forums…

Yabo

I think it's more a certain small group of guys on here (i really don't remember who, nor care to check) that run these guys off. I bet a majority of the lurkers, and posters here are interested and enjoy seeing tghings like this done with our cars. It's more a few outspoken people who try to make their point when a hybrid person posts. Even with hundreds of thousands of rennlist members, it only takes a few people in one thread to make someone feel unwanted and look to another board.

hacker-pschorr

People who cry about dropping a non-Porsche motor into a 944 need to spend some time studying racing.

Should we not all root for the Porsche powered Daytona Prototypes at this years 24? It’s not a true “Porsche” is it?

How about the Tag / Porsche F1 Honda’s?

I’m sure every Lotus fan hates the Ford powered Lotus F1 cars – what bastards those are.

The Shelby Cobra? What a POS, taking a fine British automobile and stuffing it with crude American V8.

I agree with Tifo, as long as the conversion is done well it’s still a Porsche. I would rather see a field full of well converted hybrids than 95% of the cobbled up pieces of garbage that are running around.

I’m trying to figure out why a 1.8T or VR6 hasn’t made its way into a 944. That would be a sweet conversion. 300hp 1.8T VW engine is much lighter than a 951 power plant. Still German and in the Porsche / Audi / VW family.

IMO, most who are 100% against hybrids are chest pounders, jealous these cars are far better in almost every way then the rotting cobbled up car in their garage. I said “most” here, not all. So don’t get your undies in a bundle if you hate hybrids and own a concourse quality all original 944.

GlenL

The problem is when people try to present their opinions as fact or, worse, a high moral value.

Life is full of this crap. The key is to not let it bother you.

To your headline question:

Replacing the Porsche powerplant with one from an American manufacturer known for entry-level cars (except the Corvette) is deemed to be too far of a move from original. Putting on aftermarket suspension pieces is "cool" because it enhances performance without being an injection of an "inferior" component.

racer

1) The Tag/Porsche F1 motors were used in McLaren race cars, McLaren being the chassis manufacturer / team iirc. If I am wrong, what year did a Porsche/ Tag motor power a Honda?

2) At that time, Lotus was not an engine builder. For racing they were a chassis manufacturer only.

I don't mind a V-8 stuck in a 944 (or 911), I just prefer it to be a Porsche based V-8 - like a 928 motor.. or maybe from a Cayenne.

MPD47

I'm fine with the V8 cars, if they are done "right" (clean). Hybrid cars dont bother me, what bothers me is the attitudes some of the guys over "there" have. Granted we have it too. The comment in this that amused me was tifo's car being a out there, hahaha, right. If prepping a car is out there, then I guess I'm not a true Porsche fan either.

SamGrant951

I am pretty open to anything mod/conversion wise- just as long as its done clean and done correctly. Its always to each his own. I hate hack jobs regardless of whether the car is sporting a Porsche motor or not.

dme

The secret to marketing and opinion polling is all in how you frame the question.

Tom R.

So why is a Porsche with a chevy motor taboo, but a porsche with a motor that is bored out, with different rods, pistons, turbo, brakes, shocks, etc. the holy grail?

dme

Personally, I don't care what someone does with their car although sometimes I find it sad. Anyone can modify their car however they want. It is their property and I wouldn't infringe on that in any way. I also have the priveledge of buying or not buying said car. When I was looking to purchase my first and second 951 I wasn't interested in any highly modified cars. I buy a Porsche, I want a Porsche. I don't want to try to maintain some bastard in which I can't figure heads or tails what the PO was doing or what I need for replacement parts. That does not even take into consideration the difficulty of debugging a bastardized system. Make sure you get the manuals and literature IF there is any. That said, I must admit I don't have original chips or wastegate. And I just added relays to my lighting system. My only rule when I modify my car is whether I can put it back together again the way it was. I don't expect anyone else to live by my rules with their car.

My original comment was directed towards the original post. It was stated as an opinion and not a question. But then again, I always enjoy the fireworks on Fridays.

Red1

Pretty much what Sam said.

I really don't care if somebody puts a SBC in a 944. I really don't. My first 944 had that done to it after I sold it, and it didn't bother me at all.

I prefer an over-bored 951 w/a bigger turbo, because that's what interests me. If I liked SBCs so much, I'd be into corvettes or camaros. If big-time dyno numbers were my only focus, I'd go gonzo with a supra.

Personally, concours-cars bore me. Too pretty and clean to drive. I like cars like tifo's - modified with a purpose.

hacker-pschorr

Um, not sure what the hell I was typing there.

Too early I guess, my F1 brain cells were not fully active!

My overall point with racing was engines / chassis are mixed up all the time. As long as the end result is a kick *** sports car, who cares? Lotus IMO is the best example of this. They jump around with engine manufactures all the time, it doesn’t make their cars any less of a Lotus. Just off the top of my head, they’ve used Ford, Isuzu, Toyota, and even a Volvo based motor at one point (I think). Lotus fans do not seam to care. If you pulled the Toyota power plant from an Elise, and dropped in a VW motor, you wouldn’t hear Lotus fans crying foul.

Some of the coolest cars in history were hodgepodge Frankenstein autos. I’m not saying these were all “great” cars, but well worth a good reading or test drive:

• DeLorean
• Cheetah
• Pantera
• Cobra
• GT40 (started as a Lola chassis)
• Every Lola – I cannot count how many different engines I’ve seen in T70’s
• Every McLaren
• Panoz
• Pagani
• Ultima
• Spyker
• Lamborghini (hell, the new chassis might as well be called Audi’s)
• Almost every Hot-Rod
• Noble
• Vector
• Rolls Royce (new engines are BMW based power plants)
• Mini (BMW motors)
• Dodge Viper – Some do not realize this car never would have happened, at least not the way it ended up, without Lamborghini being under Chrysler’s belt at the time.
• Radical
• Arial Atom

Just to name a few