Wow, being retired sure makes you busy. I started working on this newsletter in July and look, it’s December and it isn’t out yet! Well, time to button up those last articles and get it done before 2024 is here.
It’s been an exciting year. The big news for me is the Matador project car has a license plate, insurance, and is now legal on the road and I have been having a great time driving it over the past few months. Sure, a few things have gone out but that is to be expected after sitting for 10 years. The first thing to go was the thermo switch. I wrote a tech article about that below. Then, in the late summer, my slave cylinder started to leak and then I lost my clutch. The car was down for a month while I got that fixed. That said, the Matador is running and driving great. It is nice to have a non-show car 968 to enjoy and take wherever you need to go. Home depot, no problem. Lunch at the burger place, works great. I have even driven it to a few of our PCA monthly meeting where it always finds a few fans. If you are driving in Connecticut and you see a white (and blue) 968 coupe out “in the wild” just give me a wave.
I did a number of shows this year. My writeup on this year’s Parade is below. No 968 for me at Parade but Minty and the speed yellow coupe made the rounds at many other shows. Minty was at the first Porsches at the Rock event held at Limerock park in August. We then made the trip down to Ocean city New Jersey for the Boardwalk Reunion event in October. I took the SY coupe up to an FCP event in Limerock in October. I hope you had the opportunity to get your 968 out and show it off. We need to represent the model and car people and Porsche fans alike love the 968.
As I have stated before, we would love your contribution to a future newsletter. Do you have a story to tell? A repair you did? A modification you tried? If you don’t feel like writing it up, I’ll do it for you. Just call me and we’ll chat and I’ll do the writing. You can send a few pictures. Let me know.
PCA Parade 2023 – Palm Springs
This past June I was fortunate to attend my seventh PCA Parade in Palm Springs. It was a long trek to California from Connecticut but it was an amazing event. Flying into Palm Springs was quite a sight as you view the dessert environment with the geography being many shades of brown. Quite the contrast from green Connecticut but beautiful in its own right. Then suddenly you approach a city with some green golf courses and you land in Palm Springs. I arrived on Saturday and was greeted by a balmy 107-degree day.
The host hotel for the event was the La Quinta resort. This was a beautiful location and I knew I was in the right place upon arrival as all the guests were greeted by the giant Porsche sign setup in the landscaping.
After checking in I surveyed the location as the first Porsches were arriving. As nice as those first vehicles were I have to admit I was most taken by the ever present mountain range. No matter where you were or what you were looking at they were in the background and they were strikingly beautiful. I must imagine that if you live or visit palm Springs often you must get used to them but for a first-time visitor like me I was constantly captured by their beauty.
The setup for the event was great and there were beautiful new Porsches scattered throughout the resort, some in special exhibits.
The white and green GT3RS was the first one to greet me and it was nothing short of spectacular.
The resort grounds were also very beautiful with many local plants making up the landscaping. I found the outside cooling areas interesting as we don’t have anything like them in the North east but they do the job and keep you refreshed while you enjoy a beverage.
The week went quickly. On Sunday I attended the Nation staff meeting and heard the updates on our heathy club. Sunday night we enjoyed the welcome reception and dinner. AJ and Chris Jacobs from the Motor trend show Overhauling were in attendance and said hello to the crowd. Monday was concours day. The temperatures had dropped to the upper nineties by Monday which was great. The show Porsches were set up on the golf course and with the mountains in the background it made for quite the photo.
There were many spectacular examples and the judges had their work cut out for them picking the winners.
Of course, I focused on the transaxle cars on the field, specifically the 968s, and there were some great ones. David Sundershaft was there with his concours Horizon Blue cab which looked spectacular. David worked very hard on the preparation for his car and took 2nd in class.
Also joining him on the field was Rodney Rapson with his red coupe. I was particularly interested in seeing Rodney’s car because it was the 10th 968 coupe produced for the North American market and has the same “early car” features as Minty. I saw 3 other 968s during parade, an Amazon cab, a Black cab, and a very attractive Cobalt coupe which I only saw in passing.
On Tuesday I was asked to participate as Navigator in the time/distance rally. I had never done one of these but it was great fun and allowed me to take in even more of the area. I was able to see the Salton Sea and we also drove to the entrance of Joshua Tree via the twisty back roads. My partner Linda and I did pretty well in our event placing 21st out of 69 in our class. Not bad for first timers.
Before I knew it, it was time to head back east but I had a great event and was very pleased to see the area. I’m looking forward to Birmingham Alabama next year. Who knows, I may drive to that one.
Symmetry in a 968
A few years ago I stumbled onto an interesting 968 cab that was for sale in Europe. The car was covered in the spectacular Rubystone red paint but then I noticed something odd with the front seats. It had just ONE sport seat for the driver! What the heck? Who would rob just one seat out of a 968? I pinged the owner to find out more and that’s when I learned something that I could not believe. This 968 was factory ordered with just the one sport seat!
How could they do that? It just looked strange. I mean, I understand taking good care of the driver. We have a few North American 968s where the driver’s seat has full 8-way power with heat and lumbar while the passenger gets none of those options but these mismatches weren’t noticeable except by the passenger who saw the driver was enjoying that heated seat while they sat next to them with no heat! But, when it came to the visible North American Sport seat equipped 968s, all 218 (of the 4,242) came in matching pairs with a sport seat for the passenger as well.
Recently I was reminded of this fact when a 1989 944 S2 was listed on Bring a Trailer and it also had a driver’s-side-only Sport seat with a window sticker to back it up. For the sake of symmetry and the small cost of only $314 ($308 in 1992) you would have thought the original orders would have contained a nice matching sport seat for the passenger but I guess not.
ROW (Rest Of World) Porsche 968 database creation underway:
As mentioned last issue, the creation of the ROW (Rest Of World) 968 databases are underway and I’m making slow progress. Recall that there are three databases including the ROW coupes, ROW cabriolets, and ROW Club sports. Each of these groups has its own VIN series, just like the North American coupes and cabs.
An early discovery that I will share with you is that there were launch series editions of the 968s produced for the German market! We didn’t get one here in the US but Germany sure did. These launch edition 968s included multiple examples (over 50, close to 100) of identically optioned cars with many consecutive VINs produced in the first few months of production.
The ROW launch edition 968 coupe was F8 Midnight blue with a full leather interior in classic grey. They all have 6 speed transmissions, dual, heated, 8-way full power seats, a symphony radio (we didn’t get that radio here in the US), air conditioning, a power sunroof, and of course, the beautiful 17” cup1 wheels.
The ROW launch edition 968 cabriolet was similar to the coupe. It was identically optioned (6 speed, dual, heated, 8-way full power seats, a symphony radio, air conditioning, and 17” cup1 wheels) except in different colors. The cabriolet was F4 Horizon blue with a full leather interior in cobalt blue and a cobalt cabriolet top.
What do you think? Would you have chosen those color schemes for the launch editions?
968 Restoration – Porsche Vehicle Information Sticker Reproduction, by by RJ Wilmoth:
Thank you RJ Wilmoth for another contribution to the newsletter.
When I got my latest 968 the option code sticker was so faded that not everything was legible. I made my best guess and was able to confirm the options with Jeff, but the last two digits of the Production Number/Body Number, Engine/Trans codes were not readable.
A few years back I was able to get a reproduction sticker for my 928GTS that was very accurate looking from a guy in England. I’ve seen some really bad repro stickers on several Porsches while judging at PCA concours events and in photos of cars for sale. I couldn’t find him online but found his email address and found out he’s still doing these. The price has gone up considerably since my last order. But if you want one, they are available.
Chris at info@911-247.co.uk
He also makes the smaller sticker for the Maintenance book and the color code sticker for under the hood. More on the color code sticker later. I ordered the whole set. He was able to find the production number for my car. Apparently, there were different sizes over the years, and he will make whatever size you need for either sticker.
What I got is shown below. He included the data sheet that had the Production number and other codes I had never seen before, like the carpet color code (it’s not the same as the Trim Code).
I’m very pleased with the product. The paper even looks and feels “right”.
Now for the Color Code sticker.
I had gotten one earlier from Classics Stickers in Germany for a much lower price, so I wanted to see how they compared. Both are vinyl so they might actually last. They are slightly different, but both are very nice, and I doubt if the best concours judge could tell that it’s not original. I like the one from Classics best. www.classics-stickers.com
968 Tech: Thermo-switch replacement:
With the Matador fully registered I have been using it and enjoying it. A few weeks back I planned to meet a good friend for dinner. We had spent much time talking about the project so when the evening came, I decided to drive the Matador. I drove 15 miles to his nearby town and then found him at the restaurant. We spent a couple of hours enjoying dinner and talking when it was time to leave but I first wanted to give him an “in-person” introduction to the car he had heard so much about. We headed out to the parking lot to see the car.
Upon approaching the car, I detected a problem. The Matador was making a noise. As we got closer, I could hear that the cooling fans were STILL RUNNING. Why was this? The car had been parked for over two hours! I gave him a quick tour of the car and then got in and turned the key. Initially it didn’t want to start due to a weak battery but I tried again and it caught. I let it run while I said my goodbyes and headed home. Of course, when I got home and parked, I waited for the fans and sure enough, after 30 seconds they shut off. But we all know that many car problems are intermittent ones. I would keep my eye on this one. Sure enough, it reappeared the very next day. I took the Matador on an errand and when I got home and parked it this time the fans did NOT shut off.
So, what could be the issue with the fans? My first thought was the fan relay. This is not a cheap part to replace with a cost of around $300 but the good thing about owning 3 968s is that there is always a parts donor nearby (ha ha). That said, Minty was just a garage bay away so I headed over and pulled the fan relay out of the fuse box and headed over to the Matador who still had its fans spinning after about 5 minutes now. This would be a simple test. I pulled the fan relay out of the Matador and of course the fans shut down. I put it back in just to double check and they came back on again. Next, I removed it once again and installed Minty’s fan relay and sure enough, the fans came back on! That proved the relay was not the issue.
So, what is the next probable cause? I consulted the “gurus” and they pointed to the thermo-switch on the radiator which tells the fans they need to stay on to do some cooling. The good news about this part is the cost is only $30. The bad news, you really can’t swap this type of part from your donor car so I ordered one up new from FCP Euro.
The replacement job wasn’t too bad at all. I first disconnected the battery and removed the front engine bay trim (the Matador is a 92) and the radiator hold-down bracket to expose the radiator. Next the electric fan had to be detached from the radiator in order to get clearance to the switch. There are four bolts to remove and then let it fall back. You do NOT need to remove the fan. Then I could access the switch which is on the driver’s side of the car. I disconnected the wire from the switch and then used the appropriate socket to remove the switch from the radiator. You will lose some coolant here.
Next up, install the new switch. I put some plumbers tape around the threads and did the install. I then hooked the wiring back up, reinstalled the cooling fan, and all the hold-down and trim pieces. I then topped off the coolant and bled the system.
Next up, the big test. I took the Matador on a nice drive and then came back and parked the car. The fans stayed on of course while I waited and then,…. They shut off!! Success!!! And they have worked fine since. So, a quick and fairly easy repair for you if you find yourself in a similar situation.
Did you do a repair on your 968 that you would like to share with the group? If so, write it up and send it to me and we’ll print it in the next issue of 968 Tech.
PCA 968 Register hits Social Media:
That’s right, the PCA 968 Register is now on Facebook and we invite you to join us. The idea behind the Facebook group is to supplement your PCA register experience along with providing information in a timely fashion. Every week something 968-related will be posted along with discussions on other topics. You’ll also find out when newsletters are out along with discussion on PCA activities. So come join us. We have 100 members already!
968 Production oddities:
Recently I saw a discussion surrounding a 968 that was for sale. The potential buyer was surprised because a previous owner of said 968 had added additional aftermarket speakers to an otherwise, 100% stock example. Well hold on, not so fast now. Yes, I agree that the large 5” round speaker at the front of the door is not what you typically find on a 968 but what if I told you it is factory original!
That’s right, what you are looking at above is a late 1994/1995 968 with the option code 490 hi-fi sound system. The system layout was changed for the later cars with this option hence the unusual door speaker location. The 1992-1994.5 968s with option code 490 had the extra speakers under the door sill speaker bank but with the later car, the mid-range speaker was moved to this much more pronounced location. It is a somewhat unusual site. Of the 2,234 North American coupes only 222 late model cars had the optional 490 speaker option. When it comes to the 2,008 cabs, 312 had the late version of the 490 speaker option so there just aren’t that many out there. So, the next time you are at a Porsche show and you spot a 968 with these unusual speakers don’t cry foul! You now know that you are looking at a late version car with the option 490 hi-fi sound system.
Quest for a 968:
With this issue we have a contribution from member Tom Wiles on his path to 968 ownership.
My quest for a collectible Porsche began on my 65th birthday four years ago. The initial goal was to find a 928 in pristine condition because my neighbor once had a 1993 S4 in stunning Cobalt Blue Metallic that left an indelible impression on my forty year old brain.
I searched nation wide for three years but many of the best cars I found had been daily drivers that were cosmetically sound, but the undercarriage had been road worn and had seen salt.
After many disappointing trips to inspect 928s, one of my Porsche-crazed friends convinced me that, yes, the 928 was a powerful luxury touring car, but if I wanted the real seat-of-your-pants driving experience of a 90’s Porsche, I should look for a 911 or a 968 cabriolet. Sure, you’re going to feel every tar strip on the road, but either of those cars will give you the driving experience of a lifetime.
I had never even seen a 968, but once I studied the flowing lines of the flared front and rear fenders from all angles, I was hooked. And yes, I could still have the googley pop up headlights that I love on the 928. The final iteration of the 236 HP variocam 3.0 liter water cooled mega-four was now in my sights.
Once again, inspection of these 27 year old 968s revealed many with stained carpets, worn seats, electrical bugaboos, inoperable cabriolet tops, and so on. And if I thought it was difficult to find a gently used 928, the low production numbers of the 968 cabriolets lead to very few good cars for sale this past year.
Right about the time of my 69th birthday at the end of October 2020, an Ad on the PCA website caught my eye. Here was a 968 cabriolet that had flown under my radar. I immediately called the seller in Rochester, NY who said that he didn’t think that Ad was still running, very few people had called him, and he just put the car in storage for the winter.
It was a 1993 Amazon Green Metallic (looks like navy blue with a touch of green) 968 cabriolet with 28,000 miles, full service documentation, never driven in the NY winter, that just had all major mechanical services completed in the past two years. The icing on the cake was a two stage paint correction with ceramic coating completed this summer!
I was racing from Pittsburgh northward the next weekend. When he lifted the quilted cover off that 968 I knew I was not driving home in my SUV. The interior and exterior looked like it just came off the showroom floor. I had originally planned to have the car shipped, but I asked the seller if he would be comfortable driving this 27 year old car to Pittsburgh on this sunny day. Hell, he said, I would drive this car to Florida!
I’m sure I didn’t stop grinning for the first hour as I rowed the gears down the Interstate.
Sincerely,
Jeff Coe
