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THE BASTARD - 944 LS1


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There's been a quite a bit of progress made on the car...

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Ignition coils relocated for clerance and the radiator is all plumbed in.

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Most of the wiring is complete, hydro-boost brakes are also plumbed in.

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It was great to see the dash back in the car. The leather skin is from Classic 9 Leather Shop.

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A closer look at the stitching - the guys have also worked out the wiring and various sensors needed to get the stock gauge cluster fully functioning.

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Some wiring to tidy up on the dash side of the car, but the seats should be ready to go back in soon enough.

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Excuse the damage to the lower spoiler... but I had to share this 

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cheers Timm, that was your 944 with the Work Meisters yeah?

 

Yeah man, that's the one. Not sure if this is too forward, but I would love to see your car when it's done. An ls v8 conversion has been a dirty fantasy of mine since even before I got my own 944, so I would love to see one in the flesh. One day it'll come to the point where I'll have to decide between a v8 swap or building a big turbo 3L 16V, and I haven't gotten the chance to experience either yet.  

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i love this thread. good work chris. be sure to let me know if you ever bring this car to syd.

For sure, I'm hoping to drive it down for a visit early next year

Yeah man, that's the one. Not sure if this is too forward, but I would love to see your car when it's done. An ls v8 conversion has been a dirty fantasy of mine since even before I got my own 944, so I would love to see one in the flesh. One day it'll come to the point where I'll have to decide between a v8 swap or building a big turbo 3L 16V, and I haven't gotten the chance to experience either yet.  

Not at all man, happy to show you the car and go for a drive once it's all done. Pretty keen to have a closer look at yours and the fitment of those Work Meisters too. How long have you had the car for now?

Being right hand drive makes the V8 swap a bit complicated, I was hoping there wouldn't be as much custom fabrication involved... I've never been in a balls-out 3L 16V turbo either.. but that would be an interesting comparison

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Awesome! I have a mate who swapped an ls1 into his skyline. It's very cool, but set up for the drag strip, it would be nice to see what that engine can do in a chassis as nimble as ours. Yeah man, happy to show off my fitment haha. It took some effort to make sure I got the look I wanted and still be able to make full use of all the extra grip I could get with the big tires, so I'm fairly proud of how it turned out. I've had the car since April now, so going on 6 months.

Yeah I saw you had to mess around with the right  side exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft. With all the modifications, is the texas performance kit still a good starting point for a conversion?

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Awesome! I have a mate who swapped an ls1 into his skyline. It's very cool, but set up for the drag strip, it would be nice to see what that engine can do in a chassis as nimble as ours. Yeah man, happy to show off my fitment haha. It took some effort to make sure I got the look I wanted and still be able to make full use of all the extra grip I could get with the big tires, so I'm fairly proud of how it turned out. I've had the car since April now, so going on 6 months.

Yeah I saw you had to mess around with the right  side exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft. With all the modifications, is the texas performance kit still a good starting point for a conversion?

So many LS swaps happening at the moment.. definitely makes sense for a drag focused car. Funnily enough with the air-con removed the car may actually be marginally lighter than when it had the 3.0 4cyl engine (which weighed 200kg). There was only a 15kg difference between it and the LS1... so the car should still feel nimble. I estimated about 100kg of weight saving with the bucket seats (~20kg saved) and removal of interior (~60kg including sound deadening) and air-con (~15kg saved).  Thinking a kerb-weight around 1250kg sounds about right.

Nice! I was curious about the widths and offsets you were running, was it a custom order? They looked perfectly flush with the fenders and if you still managed to fit some wide rubber to them.. spot on. 

Yeah the whole exhaust was time consuming for the guys, clearances were pretty tight. With the way the dollar is at the moment, it may be better to go for a mostly custom install with just a few parts from TPC. Shipping was a killer too with the import duties. It's certainly not a bolt in solution for a RHD car.

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Wow, that's a nice weight saving there, she's gonna feel very good! I like what you've done with the interior rubbery paint. Race car weight savings, but presentable enough for a clean streeter. Mine sits at about 1330 with everything in it. I take the spare wheel, rear carpet and top of the back seat out for track days and that saves about 50kg. Id love to get down to your weight though, but I can't bring myself to pull out my lovely maroon carpet. I will be looking to get a set of nice lightweight race seats though.

I am running 18 x9.5 with 265 street semi's all round. Offset is 24 up front, and -1 out back. For the street I run 2 deg camber all round, and bump it up to 3 deg up front for track days. With 2 deg camber, the fronts are perfectly flush, and the rears poke maybe 5 mm. Barely noticeable. I had to grind out the lip on the rear guards so that the tires wouldn't hit the guards under heavy cornering. The right hand side still touches a tiny bit on track days, but once I get m030 sway bars in there it won't be a problem. The fronts guards are factory rolled on the turbo, so I didn't have to do anything there. But the tires do rub a tiny bit on the inside fender liner on full lock, no biggie for me though as that only happens during parking maneuvers.

They were custom ordered and took 3 months to get here from Japan. Here's a pic of the fitment.

http://i.imgur.com/EuLVzv4.jpg

Yeah I bet shipping was pretty exxy. I almost bought a set of sway bars from the states and it was going to be $250 on shipping alone!

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With a set of bucket seats you'll be down another 20kg... would be reallly close to the 1250kg mark. We ended up bolting the seats to the floor with no sliders to save head room - it was a bit too cramped with sliders + brackets - worth keeping in mind if you're over 6'

Ah, that would explain the amount of dish on the wheels, your car has the earlier suspension. With those widths the later model car would need at least a +50 offset or so.

Cheers for the photo... that fitment is pushing it to the limit.. damn haha

 

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Ah, good to know. I think I'll do exactly that as I'm pretty tall too, and I'm thinking of going with a rear seat delete and half cage next year anyway, so fixed back seats bolted to the floor would be perfect. You got any pics of the seats in the car?

Yeah, the low offset is probably the only good thing about the earlier cars haha. I think adding 29mm should get you the offsets needed for the same widths and fitment on a late car.

I think my fronts are just about the biggest wheel+tires you can fit under stock guards and still be usable without resorting to some sort of stance bullshit. In the rear I think you can fit up to an 11inch with a 295, but I wanted to have  a square setup and retain the ability to power oversteer.

With your power and torque you might need 295's up the back though :-)

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No pictures of the seats mounted in the car yet. Hopefully see that soon after the wiring is tidied up. 

I've been looking into the offsets and came acrross this guide: http://www.wheeldynamics.net/appguide.html

Seems a little conservative based on what you're running on the car.

A wider rear tyre wouldn't hurt.. 295 would be very fat...  I was considering getting 275's for the rear next - hard to find wider tyres than that in 17". Hopefully traction isn't too bad on the 255 rears on the car at the moment. Though I have been warned that the lower gearing of the S2 transmission doesn't help the situation.. we shall see ;)

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No pictures of the seats mounted in the car yet. Hopefully see that soon after the wiring is tidied up. 

I've been looking into the offsets and came acrross this guide: http://www.wheeldynamics.net/appguide.html

Seems a little conservative based on what you're running on the car.

A wider rear tyre wouldn't hurt.. 295 would be very fat...  I was considering getting 275's for the rear next - hard to find wider tyres than that in 17". Hopefully traction isn't too bad on the 255 rears on the car at the moment. Though I have been warned that the lower gearing of the S2 transmission doesn't help the situation.. we shall see ;)

Ah cool, the red highlights should really make the seats pop.

Those widths are a little conservative, but I think they may be catering for stock suspension. I have coilovers with 2.25 ID springs in mine, and I still have room towards the inside to fit a 10 inch wheel up front if I wanted to. But that would scrape more on the fender liner on full lock, so I think 9.5 is about as wide as you'd want to go on a street car. Bear in mind that I'm also running 2 deg of camber. Without it, the wheels poke a good 1 to 2cm as you can see in this first test fit running 0 deg camber all round: http://i.imgur.com/kHWmLtH.jpg

255's should still provide a fair bit of traction, especially if you have good tires and an lsd. But 275's would be a worthwhile investment. Just be wary that changing your front to back tire ratio's will mess with the cars handling balance, but it can easily be fixed with a set of adjustable sway bars.

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The red has definitely grown on me - I do have some other fabric for the cushions though.. 

Thanks for the photo, they actually poke out less than I was expecting without the camber dialed in. -2 degrees isn't too bad really... I'll probably end up closer to -1.

No LSD in my car unfortunately, one day perhaps.. and good point on the tyre widths too 

  

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

good looking engine bay...looks like that LS is factory fitted:)

It really does, very happy with the guys attention to detail in the engine bay.

I thought I'd stop by the workshop today with my camera to get some higher quality photos of where the car is up to now... Mechanically it's essentially complete - we're up to the trouble shooting and test driving phase. It's just the ride height at the rear needs to come down (torsion bars re-indexed), mod plating, some interior trims, manual sunroof latches, bonnet strut, manual boot release cable. And that's about it really...

The exhaust has been coated in high-temp satin black
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A closer look at the tips, they had to be angled in together to clear the lower rear spoiler.
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The back of the car.. I think the exhaust is subtle enough in black, but you can definitely tell it wasn't a factory option.
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There's no air-conditioning, but there is a heater.. 
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Another perspective of the engine bay
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And from directly above
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The right bonnet strut needs to be put back on, hence the jack handle. Rear ride height needs to come down a bit too... But really exciting to see it off the hoist.
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And a few more shots of the interior...
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Chris, you have done an amazing job on this car and you should be very proud. I absolutely love what you have done with this car. I can't wait to see it in person when you do your road trip to Sydney. Talking of which, when can we expect to see you in Sydney?

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Chris, you have done an amazing job on this car and you should be very proud. I absolutely love what you have done with this car. I can't wait to see it in person when you do your road trip to Sydney. Talking of which, when can we expect to see you in Sydney?

Cheers! - it's definitely rewarding seeing what I had in my head at the start of the project coming to life.

I'm planning a trip to Sydney in early December, and if the car is ready (and any bugs are worked out) I'd love to drive down. The only other hurdle is my knee... I dislocated it a little while back and am still trying to build muscle strength around the joint. The clutch felt very heavy to operate when I sat in it today.. fingers crossed..

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