A Change is as Good as a Rest - 911 Back to Stock Look

OK well I've now owned my 911 Carrera 3.2 for over 15 years. One of the very first things I did was put on a ducktail spoiler. The ducktail is my absolute favourite Porsche spoiler design and if I couldn't have a 1974 Carrera RS, I figured I could at least make my shorthood '85 911 kinda sorta look like one. So I did, and kept it that way for almost 15 years.

But I've been kind of jonesing to do something to change up the look of my car. I have a set of Ruf-replica 17" wheels in the garage but those really wouldn't go with the ducktail would they? So I decided to revert the car back to its stock look. Well nearly - I'm not removing the front chin spoiler that I added when I put on the ducktail.

Anyway here are some photos of the car as it sits now. Very different than the ducktail look, but I like it. Although many enthusiasts go into hysterics at the thought of having a spoiler at the front or rear without having BOTH front and rear spoilers, I don't think it'll make any appreciable difference in the type of driving I do. I did say at the last Cars & Coffee that I could feel the lack of downforce at the rear end at 80km/h though :-D

 

I have to say that it was a bit of a faff replacing the decklid by myself though. It does take some alignment and a third or fourth hand would have been welcome, especially with the floating shims etc. that have to be lined up. Also, for anyone else doing this - PLEASE make sure to install the grille on the decklid BEFORE you put the decklid on the car. Ask me how I know.

Fortunately the stock decklid didn't seem to suffer significant ill effects from sitting in the garage for 15 years. The Carrera script got brittle and the tail on the terminal "a" did break off, but superglue fixed that well enough for me.

So there you have it, back to stock. Comments from my fellow PCA'ers have generally been positive but I know Bruce T. will be gutted, he always talked about how much he loved the ducktail. However there's at least one other G-body with a ducktail in the Region now so that should do :-)

Spec-1 SP67GBZ Alloy Wheels for the GTI

So! It's been awhile but I wanted to post some photos of the new boots I got for the GTI. These are Spec-1 Racing SP-67GBZs in 18x8, shod in Sailun Iceblazer tires.

I actually needed a new set of winter wheels for the car as the 18" Lizea soft-alloy wheels I'd had since the S3 had completely given up. Winnipeg's potholes finally damaged one wheel to the extent that it was losing about 10-15lb or more of air overnight, and I was getting pretty tired of airing it up on a daily basis. So off I went to find some new wheels. I'd have gone 17" but two of the 18" tires on the car were still OK (the others were bulged like crazy) so I kept my search to 18" wheels.

I found these nice Spec-1 alloys in 18x8 with correct backspacing and bolt pattern for my VW. The best price was from Wheel Haven in Ontario but DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM. I ordered the wheels off their website but after the sale was made they didn't answer emails and their voicemail box was full. After three weeks I cancelled the order and noticed that the pending Visa charge had been reversed. Good riddance.

Next up was Grizzly Trucks in Edmonton, another Spec-1 dealer. What a difference in the customer experience. They answered my email inquiry very quicklyand when I emailed that I was ready to order, Manny called me on the phone and we got it done. The shipping was free and the wheels arrived by UPS literally three days later. Talk about great service.

The wheels do look sharp don't they? I decided to try gloss bronze as I'd never had gold wheels before and I reckoned they'd look good with the dark grey paintwork. I think I was right, certainly much more eye-catching than black wheels.

The boxes arrived on Friday and my local tire shop was able to get me in the next day for the install. The fit is great without the spacers I was using on the stock wheels. All set now for the last couple months of winter. Oh and here's what Winnipeg does to alloy wheels :-(