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"After a couple of trips to the auto paint store, I hastily picked my color," says Nielsen. "I quickly learned that a color chip in a book is not a very good representation of the actual shade. The car emerged from my friend's paint booth in a unique mix of Mexico Blue, periwinkle, and turquoise! I really struggled with it because, while it did look like a seventies color, it was far from what I had initially envisioned. I finally decided to do the unthinkable and repaint the whole car. Eventually, I found what I was looking for. I wish I could say my color choice was inspired by a rare Ferrari, but it wasn't. Instead, it came from a glorified piece of farm equipment!"
The bodywork had to be sanded back down and several more sleepless nights were spent preparing the car for its second paint job. This time, when the tub emerged from the paint booth, it came out exactly as Nielsen wanted it to - in a steely blue that looks serious and period-correct at the same time. The paint was carefully color-sanded and buffed.
This is the point in high-budget projects where all of the chrome and aluminum trim comes back from the platers, usually with hefty bills attached. Nielsen, looking for a different look and watching his bottom line, had a different idea. By using Scotch Brite on aluminum trim bits such as the window surrounds, Nielsen achieved a dull luster. He liked the effect enough to take Scotch Brite to his 15x8 and 15x9 Fuchs, saving a lot of money over having a professional wheel shop re-anodize them. Once he had a uniform finish, Nielsen painted the inlays himself. Tire selections for the 15x8s and 15x9s are limited, but Nielsen would end up buying a set of Dunlop 225/50R15s and 245/50R15s to fill out the flares.
The suspension was sourced from a friend's recently dismantled 1986 Carrera. Re-valved Bilstein shock absorbers provide damping for 22-mm front and 28-mm rear torsion bars while Weltmeister suspension bushings and anti-roll bars yield better precision and a reduction in body roll. For brakes, Hurst Airheart four-piston calipers squeeze gas-slotted Carrera 3.2 rotors while maintaining a period-correct look under the 15-inch Fuchs.
As the running gear and outer trim were coming together, Nielsen turned to the interior. He snagged a pair of vintage factory 911 S-T seats with corduroy inserts from eBay for a stunningly low price and installed them along with an S-T-style steering wheel he found at a swap meet for $10, with the correct horn button! Niel-sen installed a German velour carpet kit from Autobahn Interiors along with a black perforated headliner, a TRE vintage-look roll bar, racing harnesses, a German fire extinguisher, and simplified door panels.
At this stage, Nielsen decided to use a 1987 911 Carrera 3.2-liter flat six he had acquired from a friend during his college days. Nielsen dragged the engine around as he moved from apartment to apartment during graduate school, using it as a piece of living-room sculpture. Now he had the perfect car in which to install it. Against the advice of mechanic Bernie Buschen of Fall City, Washington as well as others who wanted to see a 2.5-liter flat six under this S-Treplica's alloy decklid, Nielsen opted for the modern, Motronic-equipped Carrera powerplant for reasons of torque and fuel efficiency.
Buschen rebuilt the motor with Web-Cam 20/21 grind camshafts, a back-dated heater, an old-style cooling fan, 906 plug-wire retainers, and a red fan shroud. The transmission is a 1986 aluminum 915 with stock gears and a 40-percent factory ZF limited-slip differential, fed power through a Patrick Motorsports flywheel and a Sachs sport clutch. All of these additions, along with SSI heat exchangers, a home-made muffler, and a Steve Wong performance chip, yield performance that beats or approximates the thrust from S-T motors, but with a superior torque band.
Nielsen, however, has been won over by the 2.5-liter proponents and hopes to build a motor to more closely approach factory S-T specifications at some point - but says the swap will have to wait until the right deal can be struck. We wouldn't be surprised if the right deal comes up quickly. Nielsen works quickly, even by the standards of many professional restoration shops; he completed this project in just under two years.
Nielsen had hoped to finish the car in time to join up with the Pac-West R Gruppe Chapter's high-speed caravan from Seattle to Sonoma, California for the May, 2006 R Gruppe Treffen. As is the case with many large-scale car projects, however, Nielsen found the last ten percent of the build to be the most time consuming and intensive. The final hours were the toughest of all, says Nielsen: "It was the night before we were supposed to leave, and I didn't even have the motor in the car! A leaky transmission seal had Bernie and I stumped - so a last-minute decision to swap transmissions with my íƒÚRSR' was made. With the swap completed and the car packed, my dad and I headed out at 7:00 a.m. for the trip of a lifetime. It was a beautiful day with great company and an incredible car -and this was our inaugural test drive, a 3,500-mile trip to California and back. So much for a shake-down!"
When Nielsen reached Sonoma, he wheeled the blue 911 into the Flamingo's parking lot, which was filled with trick early 911s. Despite some serious iron, his S-Tgenerated as much interest as anything else on the lot. The totally unique color, stunning yet understated, set off the S-T flares perfectly. In a sea of RS- and RSR-look 911s, Nielsen's tail-less, wide-body S-T replica stood tall, prompting some R Gruppers to offer to buy it on the spot. Even though he had built the car for a song, Nielsen declined - partly out of a desire to avoid playing the same tune again, partly because he wanted to enjoy the car for more than one trip down the left coast.
Walking around Nielsen's 911, one can easily see why. It's a car that puts the purpose in "sports-purpose." There's an overall feeling to this 911 that moves it away from "concours" and firmly towards "road racer." The brushed aluminum brightwork and wheels give the car a certain sense of patina that belies its relatively recent completion. The other surprise is the noise when Nielsen fires up the flat six. Motronic may be on duty, but the sound is loud, guttural, and perfectly appropriate for an early 911 that looks like this one does.
Driving this recreation of one of Por-sche's earliest sporting 911s is a blast. At 2,150 pounds with a claimed 240 horsepower, it's a wonderful mix of nimbleness and real power. The exhaust note - a low, seductive burble at idle -changes as the needle sweeps past the big 2 and 3 on the tachometer and erupts into a deafening howl past 4000 rpm. The suspension is the right mix of firm and comfort, providing fine wheel control without being so stiff as to interfere with the enjoyment felt while winding out the first three gears along a bumpy country road.
The result is a willing, predictable early 911. Want to point the car with the throttle? Or tip into the brakes and then accelerate early through a big, sweeping corner? Nielsen's 911 reacts instantly and accurately, rewarding you with fluidity and confidence-inspiring grip that never fails to excite the senses. This is what a light, wide-stance, 3.2-powered early 911 is all about - balance and poise. Sitting in the snug driver's seat, hands grasping the 380-mm steering wheel with that 10,000-rpm tachometer staring back at you... well, it makes you feel like you've just landed in a real-deal vintage 911 rally car.
Without a doubt, this is an RGruppe 911 built up with passion, resourcefulness, and a unique vision. The perseverance that saw it through to completion can only serve as an inspiration to others. Nielsen's persistence in tracking down deals, hard work, and hands-on ethic - along with more than a little "luck" on eBay - have kept his total investment, discounting his time, to a number Nielsen chuckles about but wants to keep to himself. Sure, it would have been easier to pay someone else to source the parts and build the car, but Nielsen says this project was as much about the journey as it was about the final result.
And, judging by the final result, it must have been quite a journey indeed.