"Given the considerable interest in 968 Turbos voiced on your site -- Bruce's beautiful Turbo RS, the ~$72k MoTeC car, the discussion listings -- I think you will be interested in a pair of 3.0L Turbos built by David Raines of PowerHaus in Arizona.

"One is an 8-valve model installed in Graham Gillies' 1989 944 Turbo. This is the car that was featured on the cover of Excellence magazine about a year ago. After running flawlessly for about 1 year, his old 400hp+ (to the ground) 2.8L blew up after installing the Huntley Level-IV+ parts: ARC-II, injectors, and associated nonsense. Mr. Gillies went back to PowerHaus and had David construct another bulletproof turbo engine, only this time a 3.0L. The dynos are of a fresh engine with only ~250 miles. It was running custom PowerHaus turbo with a #8 hot housing, hence the instant low-RPM torque. Mr. Gillies swears the car grew considerably stronger as the rings seated in. Since that time the injectors and fuel pressure regulator were replaced with new units, and the upper RPM power has increased further. It will now spin 285-18 tires in 3rd gear at 4000rpm when he punches the throttle on an onramp (5-sp gearbox).

"David Raines' 16-valve engine was built for more upper-RPM power from the beginning. It is still driven primarily on the street, but sees plenty of club racing, too. The 420+ lb/ft of low-RPM power was an increasing liability on the track: 275-17 GSCS tires would spin constantly as the car entered the straightaway at Phoenix International Raceway at 100mph. People in the stands reported the car doing a 100+mph burnout for nearly 30 yards. Building the engine for a little more lag would make the car easier to control. Therefore it uses a much larger hot housing on the turbocharger. However, at 4000 RPM it takes off like a rocket is strapped to its back. Again, it has grown stronger as the rings have seated in, and a special set of injectors plus fuel pressure regulator have given the car more low-RPM response (torque) and still more upper-RPM power.

"Both engines use stock Porsche 3.0L blocks; they are not sleeved and do not run J&E aluminum pistons. Considerable preparation work has been done to the pistons, rods, and cylinder heads to reduce the compression to safe levels for turbocharging. Both engines use the standard Porsche 944 Turbo Bosch Motronic injection with re-mapped EPROMs; no in-cockpit adjustable add-on fuel controller like the ARC-II, Greddy Rebic, or HKS AIC is used. As you can see, while the yellow 968 Turbo featured on your site is quite spectacular visually, its 479hp is easily achieved without the $8k additional charge for MoTeC."

Visit PowerHaus' site (www.powerhaus.com), and their 968 section (www.powerhaus.com/968t.htm).