Porsche Heritage Working With the Best.

Our History with Porsche is hardwired. Having intertwined with the Porsche Motorsport community alongside our sister company in the repairing, upgrading, and servicing of Turbocharges for some of the most exciting Porsche racing legends.

We recite some snippets of heritage through the years of motorsport and road car development with Tony Taylor, the man who started our love of Porsche, in his own words.

Donnington Group 5 Race Porsche 935 Of Charles Ivey:-

" Having developed our relationship with Charles Ivey Racing through our Motorsport activities, we were appointed to service and repair the turbo on the Porsche 935 long nose group C car that they were using to compete across the UK and Europe including Le Mans.

As the first and sole appointed Borgwarner KKK service agent circa 1976, we had access to IP regarding upgrades and service items, allowing us to fully support factory teams with all turbocharging requirements.

In this case the K27 turbo used by the Charles Ivey Porsche team was a development unit categorised by its part number ending “999”. Having seen thrust bearing issues on the OEM Borgwarner K27 unit, which was a horseshoe shape with smaller oil gallery due to teams demanding higher boost pressure, we were able to upgrade to the latest 360 spec thrust bearing with better oil flow into the shaft assembly. This meant a complete solution to any thrust bearing wear and ultimately turbo failure.

Using this new upgraded Borgwarner turbo the team were able to secure 3^rd in class in qualifying.

Interestingly our own Lotus Esprit Div 2 car was competing and whilst in a lower-class, qualified 2^nd overall with driver Jim Evans behind the wheel. This car used our turbocharged Ford.

We continued to service and upgrade Porsche 935 Turbocharges used by the Charles Ivey Racing team."

Porsche 956 Le Mans Cars Group C:-

"Having had several years of success with Teams like Charles Ivey Racing we naturally began to service and repair more of the KKK K27 units for many teams including some big names around the World Championship. From here we made some interesting developments specifically for the Porsche race cars setting out for Le Mans in the 70s and 80s.

For Le Mans specifically, we ran the turbo development for Richard Lloyd Racings team, also known as GTI Engineering. We quickly realised that the cars were over boosting on the Mulsan straight and were causing major engine issues.

To control this over boost, we installed a larger AR turbine housing, specifically for the Le Mans race cars, this made the response slightly duller with a small amount of lag but allowed us to control boost pressure and heat during the long straights.

These units would be switched back to the smaller AR for tracks like Silverstone GP. This meant we could reach peak boost quicker and more effectively which in turn made the peak torque lower in the rev range and propelled the cars out of the tighter corners quicker."

John Greasley Blue Corral Porsche 935:-

"The Blue Coral Porsche 935 owned and raced by John Greasley at one time was another key customer for Turbocharging solutions.

Having been one of the recognised names in Porsche motorsport, John Greasley and the blue coral 935 Porsche approached us for our K27 Turbo fix, which can be read here in full.

This car had been built by John Greasley’s G-Force Motorsport to compete in the Modified Porsche and National GT Championship which was recognised by the BRDC. A particularly competitive race series with some key manufactures such as Lotus, Ferrari, Jaguar, Ford and more.

There were two Blue Coral Porsches competing in the 1993 Championship both supported by us. The car of Ross Hyett ultimately bagged second in the Championship whilst Greasley took the overall win.

We continue to repair and service the Blue Coral turbochargers to this day."

KKK Borgwarner K27 Turbocharger Fix:-

"The Borgwarner K27 Turbocharger was synonymous with Porsche Motorsport through the 70s, 80s and 90s, however it didn’t come without its early issues for many teams.

The K27 shaft used a right-hand thread in the early days to hold the compressor wheel in place, this was held down with a dome shaped nut. Whilst in theory this would be fine for road use as boost pressure and load demand increased, the nut would often spin loose during gear changes and sharp inputs of throttle. This resulted in the compressor wheel becoming loose and causing complete failure of the turbocharger.

Prior to an official Borgwarner KKK factory fix, we engineered a fix by cutting a longer thread onto the shaft allowing more engagement along with the use of a steel washer to spread the load bearing. We would surface grind the steel washer flat before installation to ensure complete balance as the shaft spins at high RPM. Furthermore, we would increase torque load and use a specific Loctite product to ensure the nut would not move.

KKK Borgwarner’s solution was to switch the shaft to a triangular shaped shaft end. This meant if the nut ever came loose, it would not allow the wheel to spin on the shaft like the use of a woodruff key. Whilst this was somewhat of a fix, people would still choose to use us as a total repair solution due to the nature of our bespoke service. We left nothing to chance, balancing every unit that was repaired in house where the production style of the manufacturer meant as little as 1 in 100 would be balanced and checked.

To be able to conduct our balancing service effectively we were granted access to purchase a Schenk two plane rotor balancer direct from KKK. To have this type of machinery in those days was almost unheard of meaning a huge pull towards our bespoke engineering style for customers.

Eventually the manufacturers took the decision to move to the typical left-handed thread seen in todays modern turbochargers which was a great relief for us as a service centre and many customers who still use these turbos today on historic Porsche race cars."