Thread: 600,000 miles in a Porsche 930 Turbo

Second Bill
A 74-year-old and his 175-mph, 610,524-mile, one-owner 1976 930.
Story by Dan Proudfoot Photos by Brian Murphy
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NEARING 171 MPH IN A CROSSWIND AT THE TEXAS MILE set Bill MacEachern to reflecting. Not at that very moment, busy as he was behind the wheel, but later, on the way back to the hotel. He’d driven his 1976 911 Turbo some 600,000 miles up to this point — closing in on one million kilometers in international measure. Fair to say his feel for what was happening in this most recent mile exceeded the norm for seat-of-the-pants feedback.

“It just didn’t feel 100-percent stable, a little dancey-prancey shall we say,” he describes it. Bill is 74 and a story*teller. Nearly half his life is tied to this car, and life was never better than with its most recent engine developments, generating 480 hp during one run down the Texas Mile as determined by Traqmate.

“The wind was coming up — a heavy-duty side wind — and it was blowing me toward the cones,” continues Bill. “And I was going, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to turn this wheel too much because I don’t want to spin out or anything!’ So I thought on the way home to the hotel, you know, just driving over the years told me, ‘I’ll put some more air in these tires for tomorrow’s runs and see what happens.’ I had 40 psi in the rear. The rear was sticking like glue and was perfect. And I had 33 psi in the front. So I said, ‘Well, I’ll go up to 36 psi.’”

Dancey-pranceyness aside, entry number 930, the sole Porsche 930 running in the foot-to-the-floor festival in 2010, felt strong — and certainly capable of more speed the next day. How it had felt in the drive to Texas, though, from Toronto, Canada, via Atlanta, matters more in this story. And it felt better than ever before.

Bill drives everywhere, has been across the continent five times, and uses his 930 daily in his work. He loves being behind the wheel of the car he calls “The Wild Pony.”

His affinity for tire pressures began with his very first drive, May 3, 1976, on the way home from taking delivery at the Toronto airport freight depot. He was shocked to find the car wandering, the steering kicking back with every bump. Hans Pfaff, who founded the Porsche dealership that remains Canada’s largest, responded calmly when Bill climbed out of the car complaining.

“Hans just says, ‘I’m so sorry, Bill, I forgot to let some air out of the tires, they had pumped up the pressure for the shipping,’” recalls Bill. “And once he made that adjustment, it was perfect.”

His was the first 930 ordered into Cana*da, in the fall of 1975. Pfaff initially tried to talk him out of the $35,000 purchase. “He basically said, ‘Bill, are you crazy? I have a 911S in the showroom right now, this is what you should be buying. Turbo*charging is new, it’s unproven…’” But Bill’s sights were firmly set on the 3.0-liter, 234-hp Turbo Carrera, the most muscular road-going Porsche ever. His second Porsche, a 1973 911T with a fuel-injected 2.4-liter six had disappointed him by not being faster than his first, a 1969 911T purchased in 1970.

“I’m one of those guys who likes what’s new and different, and I had been reading about turbocharging ever since Porsche introduced it in racing,” he says. “Another reason it had to be a 930 Turbo: It was the time of the first fuel crisis. Word was that sports cars were an endangered species. Miles per gallon was all that was going to matter in the future. So I figured it was my last chance at buying a truly exciting car. In fact, I ordered a custom license plate that thumbed my nose at the bureaucracy: MPG 021. It made Christophorus.”

BILL’S NEW CAR TURNED OUT TO BE 350TH in a required production run of 400 cars to qualify the 934 to race in the Group 4 category. Within a year, he’d come to understand ownership made him something of a junior partner in Porsche’s experiment of putting turbocharging in the hands of the public: Pfaff called to say Porsche wanted to exchange cylinder heads at no charge, after just 20,000 miles, to examine the effects of a turbo running on unleaded gasoline. Bill gladly accepted.

The “junior partnership” became more demanding post-warranty. The turbo*charger needed to be replaced after only 25,000 miles. As time went on, turbos got better, lasting 35,000 to 40,000 miles. As for the boosted engines, Bill discovered as the years went on that rebuilds were necessary at 75,000 to 100,000 miles.

Yet not for a moment did he regret his purchase. The pleasure kept building. Sons Brian and Craig, 8 and 9 respectively when the car joined the family, grew up riding with dad to watch races at Elkhart Lake, Mont-Tremblant, and Watkins Glen.

That first summer, returning elated from Quebec, where Gilles Villeneuve had beaten Formula One world champion James Hunt in a Formula Atlan*tic race (and George Follmer edged Al Holbert in 934s in the Trans-Am event), the highway along the St. Lawrence appeared before him clear and perfect for a high-speed run.

“So I’m driving along at 125 and I decide to take it up to 150, which it did easily,” says Bill with a sparkle in his eyes. “I said to the boys, ‘Okay you guys, don’t let me ever see you do this except in a Por*sche Tur*bo.’ I’ve been quoted in print on this story before, but the qualification ‘except in a Porsche Turbo’ got left out and it’s crucial.”

A Porsche Club of America driving school at Watkins Glen with 907-racer Steve Cohen instructing took Bill to new levels in relishing his 930. Track days at Mosport further developed his involvement. Sponsoring a 934 in the SCCA Trans-Am racing series, however, was a step he could scarcely believe himself.

“Al Holbert was my great hero,” Bill says of the American road-racing legend who later headed Porsche’s foray into Indy racing. “I couldn’t believe it when Ludwig Heim*rath, a Canadian, beat him at Mosport in the Trans-Am race in August of 1976. The next year I went to Ludwig’s shop and asked him if my sons and I could help out in the pits. Mid-season, I asked him, ‘How much would it cost to get my company’s name on your car?’ And that’s how for $2,000 I became a Trans-Am team’s sponsor. That’s all it cost in 1977.”

Bill started his carpet-cleaning company in 1970, and his 911T was central to the business. He set out soliciting business with his steam-cleaning equipment packed into the 911’s passenger seat and rear luggage cavity. “I thought the high-tech image of the Porsche gave me credibility,” he says with a chuckle. “At the time, steam cleaning was heresy.” Now Deep Steam Cleaning was on the fen*ders of the 934 that Heimrath drove to the Trans-Am championship, defeating Peter Gregg (albeit after a prolonged legal dispute with the SCCA and international racing authorities).

How to make his 930 a little more like Ludwig’s 934? At the time, few modifications were available, so Bill turned to vintage racing for his fun. For a decade, he and son Brian alternated behind the wheel of a gorgeous, polished-aluminum Lotus 11, competing across North America, including at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE 930 HIS OWN would wait 15 years before it began in earnest. After Brian moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina to open MacEachern Motor*sport, which specializes in vintage racing engines, Bill’s attention returned to the 930 and a series of developments that continue, really, to this day.

Incompetents and scoundrels lie in wait. Also, Jerry Woods in Campbell, Cali*fornia, whose wheel alignment in their first meeting corrected bothersome handling that had existed since some flawed magician in Toron*to changed the suspension bushings. Another gem: Auguste Lecourt, Heim*rath’s race mechanic in ’77, whose Auguste Automobile Service in St. Catharines, Ontario provided refuge whenever somebody else’s promises delivered grief.

Bill talks about the peaks and valleys inevi*table in longterm ownership. The car was repainted in 1995 — two decades into his ownership — in the same Mid*night Blue he had insisted on in 1975 (Porsche initially declared it unavailable). That was a peak, absolutely. Budget troubles just as his first rebuilt engine expired, a valley.

A call from Canadian racer Rick Bye, whom Bill knew from Heimrath’s shop, was a lifesaver: Bye asked if Bill knew anyone interested in a 3.3-liter engine built by Tom Milner’s operation (Milner went on to run BMW’s North American race team) with a Garretson intercooler? For $5,000? How quickly do you suppose Bill replied?

Driving to Laguna Seca, California in 1998 when Porsche was honored at the Monterey Historics, another peak. Seeing the oil temperature climb in the mountains during the return trip, smelling exhaust when on boost, a low. Milner’s outstanding engine required renewal with 275,000 miles showing on the odometer.

See the full story here:

Excellence :: Second Bill : 1976 930 with 600,000+miles : page 6

Thank is beyond awesome....

that is a true enthusiast

That really takes some thing to have a car like that.....that's more than just a car, that's another living being with as much as that car has seen and done......wow

That is just great. Looks like he's due for a detail with one of the Detailing Forum Sponsors.

Shared with over eleventy billion people.

wow! incredible

I love stories like that. Thanks for sharing.

That is amazing!

I love this guy! (no homo... not that I'm against homosexuality (dodged a bullet there), just that I want to make it clear that this is bromance, and not romance).

I *love* stories like this. I want to do this.