"tell me more..."
By Jim Alderson.
>Dear Leonard,
> Great to hear from down under.
> This e-mail is in reply to your request to
> "tell me more."
My 1979 machine is white with tan interior. It is in very good shape
and been garaged all it's life. I purchased it in January 1988. Except for the additions
of a front spoiler and an S-4 rear spoiler, the car looks stock. The odometer reads
145,000 miles.
I guess I got the bug to really improve my stock machine in 1988 when I was at a PCA
event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I was going about 125 MPH and was passed by a 944 Turbo
going about 140 on one of the very steep curves.
When I lived in England for 3 years, I shared many wonderful meetings with fellow
travelling men. And before that, I had the opportunity to stay in your part of the world
with the family of the exchange student my parents had hosted for a year. I feel I have an
obligation to return some of the wonderful hospitality I received along the way. If my
response is too long, I apologise. As a 24 year member of Porsche Club of America
(PCA) I
know how important it is to talk with fellow Porsche buffs and more specifically 928
enthusiasts...I feel that I should take the time to tell you about what I've done in my 11
years of 928 ownership. (I still own my first car, a 1970 914 I purchased in 1971 at the
beginning of my senior year in college. Now it is a 2.0 with very little 'stock' about it
either.) I know how I've felt along the way...at every PCA meeting I used to latch on to
the 'experts' in the hope that I'd glean some new insight into how I could and eventually
would improve my Porsche.
First, I need to give credit to the one person who was my sounding board and source for
many upgrade ideas to my machine. Red McClintock, owner of Porsche
Service, Berkeley, California was my 928 guru. He was one of the few people in 1988 who
focused exclusively on improving the 928 engine. When I first started 'hot
rodding' my
machine (at least that's what the local Porsche dealer's parts expert called it) I was
living in the Washington, D.C. area, 2800 miles east of Berkeley, California. For five
years I worked with Red McClintock by letter and by long distance telephone. I did not
meet him in person until 1992 when I moved to California. 'Red' also worked closely with
the folks who started DEVEK. He told me along the way that my 928 was his favourite car.
This is probably true for two reasons:
I'd research what improvements I wanted to do and then asked for his advice
(and then I usually followed his advice);
and
... he did a lot of work on my machine.
Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack about three years ago.
My 928's street wheels are the flat stock 7X16s with BFG Comp TA ZR 225/50/16s. My
track wheels are three piece Epsilons: 8X16 w/ BFG ZR 225/50/16s front and 9X16
w/245/45/16s rear. (I haven't done track or autocross events for several years...There are
much better 17" wheel/tire set ups available now.) I upgraded the brakes and front
struts to S-4 equipment several years ago but haven't gotten around to installing longer
wheel lugs in the front hubs so that with spacers, my Epsilons will fit without touching
the larger S-4 brakes. The S-4 rear brakes fit on the original axle with a spacer to line
up the calliper with the rotor. The S-4 brakes are a BIG improvement over the original
ones.
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