My 904 replica build thread ...

[andyjboy]

In the interests of longevity, the chassis is constructed from slightly thicker gauge steel & is painted both inside & out so ends up slightly heavier (at ~ 62kg) than the original - other than that the overall weight of the complete car is very close ... approx 680 kg/1500 lbs.

Here's a shot of a completed chassis:



- an early 'photoshop' attempt by the Factory to illustrate the lightness of the new 904 chassis (in 1965) :




& Barrie's amusing 2009 version ! :




The M&W 904 was regarded as sufficiently authentic to be allowed to participate in the gruelling 2000/2002/2003 Carrera PanAmerican events - not only finishing all 3 years but coming a very creditable 25th & 13th overall in 2002 & 2003 respectively.

A few images:









- that's Barrie in the blue overalls.

[andyjboy]

Many (most ?) of M&W's previous 904 customers (I don't know the exact number but I think less than 20 have been built in the past 15 years) have opted for 3 litre engines (probably due to relative ease of availablility & cost) but, to my mind, these would give totally the wrong driving characteristics - the car needs a smaller/more highly-tuned engine.

The relatively few 6-cylinder 904's that the Factory built were equipped with the Type 901/20 engine - 2.0 litre twin-plug on 46 IDA Webers producing 210 bhp @ 8000rpm so I wanted something that had similar specs ...

... now it just so happened that I had a twin-plug engine sitting at the back of my garage !

This engine was removed from my 911R-inspired car before I sold it (I already had this project in mind at that stage) & has the following spec:

7R crankcases which have been shuffle-pinned & time-serted
Custom-made JE 90mm pistons (c/r 10.5:1)
Rebuilt/modified 40IDA Webers (36 mm venturis) on 'tall' manifolds
Ported cylinder heads with stainless steel valves and hi-performance springs
High-lift custom hand-ground cams
Lightened/balanced 2.2 crank with cross-drilled & grooved centre bearing
3.0 SC oil pump
etc

In it's original configuration with crank-fire ignition this 2.5 litre engine produced 220 bhp @ 7800rpm but I have since swapped in a period-looking Marelli-style twin-plug distributor operating through twin MSD boxes (which will be hidden from view) - 2 (dummy) Bosch CDI boxes & twin Bosch black coils will be visible within the engine compartment - so I am hoping for a little more ...

As I mentioned previously, I don't want everything to look 'too new' so I avoided any polishing/replating etc on the engine - opting instead for just a 'clean' look:

[carr911]

Many (most ?) of M&W's previous 904 customers (I don't know the exact number but I think less than 20 have been built in the past 15 years) have opted for 3 litre engines (probably due to relative ease of availablility & cost) but, to my mind, these would give totally the wrong driving characteristics - the car needs a smaller/more highly-tuned engine.

The relatively few 6-cylinder 904's that the Factory built were equipped with the Type 901/20 engine - 2.0 litre twin-plug on 46 IDA Webers producing 210 bhp @ 8000rpm so I wanted something that had similar specs ...

... now it just so happened that I had a twin-plug engine sitting at the back of my garage !

This engine was removed from my 911R-inspired car before I sold it (I already had this project in mind at that stage) & has the following spec:

7R crankcases which have been shuffle-pinned & time-serted
Custom-made JE 90mm pistons (c/r 10.5:1)
Rebuilt/modified 40IDA Webers (36 mm venturis) on 'tall' manifolds
Ported cylinder heads with stainless steel valves and hi-performance springs
High-lift custom hand-ground cams
Lightened/balanced 2.2 crank with cross-drilled & grooved centre bearing
3.0 SC oil pump
etc

In it's original configuration with crank-fire ignition this 2.5 litre engine produced 220 bhp @ 7800rpm but I have since swapped in a period-looking Marelli-style twin-plug distributor operating through twin MSD boxes (which will be hidden from view) - 2 (dummy) Bosch CDI boxes & twin Bosch black coils will be visible within the engine compartment - so I am hoping for a little more ...

As I mentioned previously, I don't want everything to look 'too new' so I avoided any polishing/replating etc on the engine - opting instead for just a 'clean' look:

Andy, that must be my old motor, right?

Cheers,
T.C.

JBR7.jpg

[andyjboy]

Hi TC - yes, it's the motor from your old 914/6 GTR.

[boba]

Andy, that looks like Cox Motorsport exhaust. Don't think you will be using that, pointed the wrong way. lol

[andyjboy]

I had another piece of luck a few months ago in tracking down one more item on my 'wanted' list ...

I had been trying for the past 12 months or so to find out what rear reflectors were originally fitted to Factory 904 cars (sad or what ?) - each car that I'd looked at had a diiferent type fitted.

Finally, whilst checking out the 904's at Rennsport Reunion in October, I was able to find 3 cars - one of which was unrestored - all with the same version of rear reflector.

More searching turned up a matching NOS reflector in Germany...

Here's an original :





& here's my NOS (but a bit dirty/scuffed - just what I wanted !) version:







- & with the rubber surround removed:





Just need to find another one now !

[andyjboy]

M&W are able to supply suitable instruments to suit the customer's power train & personal preferences - but, again, I had a few 'ideas'.

Since I have quite a good relationship with the people at North Hollywood Speedo, I asked them if they would make me a set of suitable gauges. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't want everything to look 'too new' so I asked Hartmut at NHS if they could use some secondhand parts in the gauges - e.g chrome bezels, needles, etc.

Understandably, companies who offer restoration/renovation/refurbishment services are reluctant to supply 'substandard' parts & consequently the gauges looked suitably excellent when they arrived.

Not to be outdone, I visited NHS when I was over in California for RRIV & picked up a selection of old/used chrome bezels ... which, on my return, I swapped for the perfect, new chrome bezels which were on the gauges !

I also took the opportunity to set the odometer to 21,250 km - which I felt was the sort of distance an original 904 might have covered since 1964/'65 ...

[platas]

Andy,

The whole thing is impresive......

[andyjboy]

Andy, that looks like Cox Motorsport exhaust. Don't think you will be using that, pointed the wrong way. lol

Just to clarify, that photo & that exhaust is not mine - the picture was taken when the (freshly-built) engine was on the dyno (in Florida).

[andyjboy]

Another area of the car that I wanted to make changes to in order to bring it closer to the originals was that of the headlamps.

Obviously from an availability point of view (& to keep costs/time down to realistic levels) Barrie supplies/fits an 'off the shelf' headlamp assembly:





However, on an original 904, the headlamps fit slightly further forward & incorporate a (visible) chrome trim ring:





I hit upon the idea of using a set of US-spec 911 headlamp housings & had several pairs available from cars I'd imported so decided to offer some up to see if they could be used.

With very little modification it seemed as though they would do the trick, so I chose my best set & cleaned them in readiness:




- & trial-fitted them with some suitable Carello headlight units:






After studying numerous original 904's it seemed as though the headlight of choice 'back in the day' was the Marchal Equilux as used on most high performance cars of the '50's/'60's/'70's.

There is a minefield of different varieties of Equilux used by different manufacturers/models but I eventually managed to narrow it down to 4 possible versions which were period-correct for the mid-60's & have been searching for a suitable pair for a number of months - unfortunately, due to their association with Ferraris of the era, prices aren't what you could term 'bargain basement' !

There is always a selection of Equilux headlamps on ebay (especially, as you'd expect, in France) but they're virtually all incorrect size/model &/or fitment.

I know where I can buy some new ones but I do enjoy the chase (!) & would prefer to use good/secondhand if possible.

Unexpectedly I found a suitable single unit* a few weeks ago at a local autojumble (swapmeet) for £5 ...

Here's an original (unrestored) 904 fitted with a Marchal Equilux headlamp:





- & here's my £5 buy before cleaning:




It looks as though the Marchal 'shield' in my bargain find is higher up on the lens but it's down to the angle - it's the same headlight.

* I subsequently found another excellent pair of Marchal Equilux headlamps at the recent Beaulieu Autojumble so that's another step forward !