A few members of this board have expressed interest in the 'New longer-term project' in my signature so I thought I'd start a new thread in this section - please tell me if you think it's inappropriate.

It all started in the summer of 2009 when I visited Barrie Martin (of Martin & Walker) at their Thruxton Circuit premises.

For those that don't know, Barrie Martin has been building replica 904's for the past 15 years or so (along with 550 Spyder, 356 Speedster & occasional 356 Coupe replicas) but keeps a low profile so not many people are aware of his 904.

Unlike all other 904 'replicas' produced (eg by the likes of Beck, Thunder Ranch, etc) M&W's version is very authentic, utilising a dimensionally-accurate grp body bonded to a pressed-steel welded box-section chassis & although this is already 95+% correct - the main difference being the area immediately behind the engine (which is quite a complicated pressing on the original) - I asked Barrie to incorporate some modifications in this area to make it even closer to the original.

Just a bit of background information - Porsche originally designed the 904 to accept the new (901) 6-cylinder engine but unfortunately at this early stage in the engine's development the power output meant that the 904 wouldn't have been competitive so Porsche installed the 4-cylinder 4-cam engine in 2 litre form (~ 180 bhp).

By the time the 6-cylinder engine had been sufficiently developed to make the 904 competitive (1966), Porsche was more or less ready to unveil the new 906 (which was a much lighter dedicated racecar as opposed to the 904 which was the last Porsche racer that could be realistically used on the road), hence only six 904's were Factory-built with the 6-cylinder engine. However, many of the original (110) 4-cylinder 904's were subsequently converted to 6-cylinder engines.

This is the configuration of 'my' car - the original 904 body style equipped with a 6-cylinder engine.

Apologies for the long-winded introduction !