All the Right Pieces – Dave Holland’s 1974 911 uses the best parts from lots of different years and model Porsches

When Dave Holland bought his 1974 Porsche 911 six years ago, the car was outfitted for racing with the Porsche Club of America and in classes with the Historic Sportscar Racing Ltd. Many aspects of the car needed to be “period correct” to be eligible to race with those organizations, but not with NASA, so Holland has made some upgrades.

“I had been tracking cars,” Holland said. “I started with Datsun Z’s and then moved to some Porsches from the HPDE world. I already had a street Porsche, so when I started to look for another track car, I wanted to look for a couple of different features. I wanted to look for safety, I looked for a full roll cage, a full containment seat, a six-point harness and a fire suppression system. I also thought that if I’m going to buy a track car, maybe I’ll want to race it so maybe the best thing to do was to get a car that was dedicated to the track, and I ended up getting a racecar.” The period correct hardware included carburetors and the brakes, Holland said. He kept the carburetors and tossed out the brakes. The calipers and rotors on the car came off a 996 twin turbo, which gives increased braking power at each corner. The car also is outfitted with Tilton manual master cylinders with a balance bar to adjust bias. The engine is based on the 2.0-liter case it came with, but Holland has upgraded it with larger 2.8-liter cylinder barrels, which bolt onto the case from the outside. Holland has rebuilt the engine and upgraded the ignition system, which includes a newer-style electronic system and a two-plugs-per-cylinder setup. Holland also upgraded the transaxle in a pretty big way. For example, he sourced a six-speed from a 993. Because those cars are fitted with 3.6-liter engines that have more torque, the gearing in the transaxle wasn’t right and the little 2.8 had trouble pulling through the gears. Holland pulled the transmission and had it rebuilt with a full set of close-ratio gears so he can get out of the corners more quickly.

In terms of the car’s sheet metal, the wide-body kit came from Getty Design. Holland updated the nose piece and treated the car to a new paint job. Holland runs the car in GTS4, which is pretty serious company. The class attracts everything from well-prepped BMWs to later model Porsches. That’s stiff competition for a car with an engine displacing just 173 cubic inches or so. Holland says the car makes up for the lack of power in three distinct categories: low weight, big brakes and gobs of grip. The car weighs just 2,225 pounds without a driver, which is pretty close to Spec Miata class weights. The 996 calipers and rotors stop the car quickly and effectively. “It’s very tossable as a car,” Holland said. “Because it’s so light, you don’t need a lot of brakes to slow it down and it doesn’t wear tires that quickly.” That keeps tires usable even as a race enters its closing laps. It also helps that the car has huge tires all the way around, Hoosier R7 P245-40ZR-17s up front and P315-35ZR-17s in the rear. All that grip means Holland has to keep the car at full boil to stay with his competitors. “It’s got a small engine compared with a lot of other Porsches out there, so you do have to keep it up from a momentum standpoint to keep up with the other guys,” he said. “From that standpoint, it is a little more challenging. I just don’t have the power other cars have.” That light weight and overabundance of grip keeps consumable costs manageable. Holland said he can get a full season from a set of pads and tire wear is minimized. The end result is a car that performs like its modern stable mates, yet still tands out on its own. “I think it’s pretty unique,” Holland said. “A lot of people are in newer cars. You don’t see a lot of old cars anymore.”