The 911SC Chronicles, Part IV
I know, I know. Getting plates on the car or new tires is fine,
but what is the car like? How does it drive now?
I must say, the more I live with this car and get to work on it, the
more I like it. Not because I am getting used to it, but because
the car is improving.
Installing the new tires made a big difference, as expected. The
steering effort at low speeds is a lot lighter, plus the new tires
offer a lot more compliance without giving up steering response or
feedback. Additionally, I do not get to feel every single crack
of the road. The tires are not broken in yet and I do not believe
I have the optimum tire pressures, so I have not been able to push the
car much. I have yet not felt any tendencies of the tail wanting
to seek its own path, even in trailing throttle situations. Hopefully,
I am not tempting fate by making this statement.
Another tremendous difference was the result of adjusting the brake
pedal's height. As delivered, the relationship between the brake
and the gas pedals did not allow for heel-toe. I can appreciate
that different brake pad compounds will affect the brake pedal's
modulation and how far it gets pressed into the floor. Still, I
have seen many many pictures of the 911 pedals and the vast majority
look like mine before I adjusted them. The distance between the
pedals, even when braking hard was just too far. Releasing the
lock-nuts for the height-adjusting rod with the 15mm wrench did lead to
a blood-blister on my thumb, but it was worth it as heel-toe is now
possible.
The fun factor is now so much higher for two reasons. The first
reason is the obvious one: being able to avoid the "rocking" of the car
when down-shifting and braking due to having to let go of the brake to
rev the engine. Before-hand, it just seemed like I had to
constantly limit how much fun I could have with the car through the
corners. Whenever I would go fast enough to where the extra
smoothness of a heel-toe downshift would really be noticable, I would
have to back off and slow down. I just could not drive this 911
like a sports car and it really bugged me.
The other, somewhat unexpected reason is the increased ease of
shifting. Let's not kid ourselves. While the 915 gearbox is
not like driving a truck, it is no 944 or 968 gearbox when it comes to
shifting either ( I will not even bring more modern-day cars into this
comparison) This is despite the fact that the shift coupler and
shift bushings seem to be in great shape. Thankfully,
rev-matching alleviates a lot of the balkiness that I noticed when
shifting gears. Yes, one expects easier shifting when
rev-matching, I just did not expect that much of a noticable
difference. It is still not like a hot knife through butter of a
shift action now, but it is better. Besides, rev-matching
on this air-cooled engine sounds really good! (and good sounds are one
more part of the experience)
Looking forward to what is next for this car's evolution, I feel that
finally having an owner's manual in my hands is an important
milestone. A great amount of mysteries that I could not solve via
the repair manuals I have access to will probably be resolved. In
the short term, I will adjust the tire pressures, now that I know for
certain what they should be, which should correct some of the steering
feedback I get around extended curves. Also, I found a couple of
important details regarding the heater system and the turn signals.
I must admit that sometimes I do get a bit anxious on which direction I
should follow with the car. The paint can definitely benefit from
some attention, but to really do it right, I would possibly have to
repaint the whole car. This in turn would make the car possibly
lose some of its appeal since with the new paint it would be more of a
garage queen. And I want to be able to drive the car without fear
of huge trucks parking next to the SC in a parking lot. For the short
term, I forsee continuing with the little things which improve the
whole. A $0.75 light bulb does not sound like a big deal, but
when it gets installed and brings a luggage compartment light to proper
function, it makes the car even move livable. And that is what
has been great with this car. Inexpensive hose clamps, odd nuts
and bolts, etc. they will all play their part in restoring this car and
in the mean while, the car remains usable, no need for long down-time
periods. A satisfying experience. As I dig deeper, I will
probably figure out what to do with the car in the long term.
By the way, my wife has driven the car and she loves it!
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Last Updated Fri Jan 16 00:10:40 CST 2004