Paul and his time attack Porsche 944

Today’s Haltech Hero is an interesting guy. Not because of his love of Porsches – a brand usually associated with super expensive, high-end cars – but because he managed to build, maintain, and successfully race one – on a fairly modest budget.

As it’s often the case, Paul’s love for cars started early on, with his first car – an XY Falcon ending up also being his first big project. Paul fully restored the car and still has it today. Incidentally, it was also in that car that Paul got his first taste of racing.

As good as it was, the Falcon was never meant to be a race car so Paul set out to find a good platform on which to build his “proper” race car. There was plenty of motorsport action around at the time and no shortage of platforms to choose from, but it was the 944 Series that really got Paul’s attention.

The 1980’s and 1990’s front-engined Porsches (often frowned upon by the Studdgard purists) were well-balanced, great handling, all-round race cars. And as a result of the aforementioned frowning, they were also quite affordable. Paul quickly became a fan and it wasn’t long before he found himself a relatively well looked-after Porsche 944.

The car’s naturally aspirated engine was not the most powerful powerplant in the world and it wasn’t long before Paul started tinkering with it. The tinkering soon turned into a full engine rebuild.

Paul is a bit of a “Do It Yourself” kind of a guy. Whenever he can he tries to do all the work himself. Consequently, he spent countless hours in the garage fixing, building, rebuilding, tinkering, and improving the car. All this while still working full time.

After successfully competing in a number of events at the state level, Paul decided to take a leap and entered the car in the World Time Attack Challenge. With a clear goal in mind, Paul started turning the car into what it is today.

Paul first turned his attention to the car’s power – or the lack of thereof. The existing engine was just not up to the task, fortunately, there was another World Time Attack competitor running a Porsche who just happened to have an engine for sale.

The new engine was a definite step up. A 3 litre, eight valve, inline four, originally sourced from a Porsche 968 was more powerful and more infinitely reliable. The internals have been upgraded with Arrow rods and Wossner pistons. A ported head with factory valves and a honed intake manifold completed the engine package. The boost came via Garrett’s GTX3582R turbocharger with a trick, twin-wastegate setup.

Like most of the systems in the car, the fuel system is simple and straightforward, consisting of a factory Porsche fuel pump and a set of Bosch Motorsport 1300cc injectors.

The gearbox is the factory Porsche 968 H-pattern six-speed, which, Paul says is perfectly capable of handling the power.

On the suspension front, Paul opted for the popular KW Motorsport 2-way adjustable coilers at all four corners. This coupled with the 928 GTS front brakes, gave the car much-needed handling and braking power. The wheels are 8”x10” MOMO Heritage 6 on the front and rear, wrapped in Yokohama AD08R 265/35/18 tyres.

The front splitter and the wing are by TopStage Composites and provide plenty of downforce.

The piggy-back ECU was promptly replaced with a stand-alone engine management system consisting of a Haltech Elite 1500 coupled with a Wideband O2 Controller, Flex Fuel Sensor, and an iC-7 Display Dash. Paul also uses a Haltech rotary trim module for different boost levels and a GPS speed sensor.

Apart from controlling the fuel injection and ignition, the Elite 1500 also provides Paul with advanced Engine Protection – putting the car in a limp mode should any of the critical engine sensors return a “fail” signal.

Paul is currently running a cable throttle but is planning to upgrade to a drive-by-wire throttle and take advantage of the Elite’s traction control features.

“It’s been a labour of love for the past 10 years. It’s just such a fun car to drive!”

Paul Kovaceski

Tuned by Justin from Dynohouse at Narrabeen, the car laid down 354hp or 264kW and produced a whopping 901nm on just 18psi of boost. No longer underpowered nor underdeveloped, the car is now ready to take on the WTAC Clubsprint Class.

There’s no arguing that Motorsport is an expensive and time-consuming hobby, and sadly that deters a lot of entry-level racers from ever having a go. Paul and his garage-built Porsche prove that you can have just as much fun without breaking the bank.

“The best advice I can give to someone trying to build a race car on a budget is – Keep it simple. The easier it is to fix – the more you’ll be out on a track!”

Paul Kovaceski