Early on in my 964 journey, I had plans to get aftermarket wheels— presumably period-correct “Cup 1’s,” or maybe even something a little more “Outlaw”-ish. And my thought was that if I got new wheels, I should also do a suspension setup while I was at it.
Somewhere along my path of unreasonably exhaustive research, I discovered that if lowering a 964 (or 993) beyond the RS ride height, new “uprights” (wheel carriers) would be required to prevent bump steer.
Historically, most 964/993 owners have opted for the so-called EVO/RS/GT2 uprights—the wheel carriers Porsche specified for the 993 Carrera RS. The problem nowadays is that those uprights have been no longer available (“NLA”) for a long time.
In the world of Porsche parts, NLA isn’t a frequent problem, but when it strikes, it usually does so at a point in the project when the owner is already feeling tired and defeated.
Some companies have made efforts to scan and reproduce those aforementioned uprights, and technically, they could do so for other NLA parts from Porsche. But reproducing Porsche parts is not an inexpensive process! Indeed, it would probably be cost prohibitive to do so.
But Porsche is here to help:
“No longer available” – for collectors of rare classic cars, the unavailability of spare parts can quickly lead to problems. In the worst case scenario, the car may even be forced out of action. Porsche Classic, the division of Porsche dedicated to classic vehicles, has come up with a solution to this problem.
Namely, producing extremely rare parts that are only needed in small quantities using 3D printers. All parts that are produced using the 3D printing process meet the requirements in terms of absolute fidelity to the original specifications – both from a technical and a visual perspective.
This is great move by Porsche. They have long touted that over 70% of their cars are still on the road today. And if they’re going to use that statistic as a marketing tactic, they should be back it up with support for owners.
Currently, #TONI964 is coming to a close. But if I were planning on further developing the car, I’m sure NOS EVO uprights would be on the list of things to do. And if Porsche does what they promise, I might have been able to buy uprights directly from them, and not from a third party. Pretty cool.
(From Gear Patrol)