Hi,
So many of the members in here will know us already, but actually Nineexcellence or should I say 9e as we are commonly known has undergone dramatic changes in the last two years so worth a read below when you have the time.
Who are we?
- 9e was created 7 years ago and we are a Porsche specialist - we don't do any other brand but Porsche.
- We are based in Horley just a few minutes from Gatwick Airport
- We have customer base primarily in the UK, but also have a large number of customers in Europe down to our turbo exploits in the early days.
Facilities
- Major upgrade over the last 12 months
- New showroom and new workshop
- 11000 sq feet
- 6 ramps and four post geometry set up
- Detailing bay
- Engine building room
- Parts store
- Clean, tidy and very professional at all times
- Nice reception area for customers with wifi and working facilities for while you wait work
Staffing
- Today we have 8 staff including 5 full time technicians
- We now cover ALL Porsche models from early 356 right the way through to 991. I should point out that this is a change in the last two years because we tended to avoid anything pre 89 for example but we have one tech who has 25 years Porsche experience who is an expert in this area and that knowledge has been spread throughout the team – we can tune carbs in house for example
- We have two Gold Star Porsche technicians (Highest level you can get) qualified through to 2017 models including being hybrid qualified. One of those techs was Porsche leading tech for over 10 years in the whole of the South before we stole him from them 8 months ago
- We have parts department – we are the largest spending independent with Porsche
- I cover currently marketing, sales and tuning at the moment.
Our Relationship with Porsche
- We have a very strong relationship with them
- We are now buying new cars from them to develop aftermarket components on our upgrade side of the business e.g. tuning, exhausts etc
- We are the largest spending independent in the whole of the South including the London area in terms of Porsche parts by double our near competitor
- Our relationship is strong in that we have access to information that is not available to others in terms of internal documentation
- It is a two-way working relationship – we get asked for help occasionally as well, especially on the turbo cars
What services do we offer?
- In simple terms anything now that you can think. I would say the only thing we will try and stay away from is bodywork in terms of backdates etc.
- All
servicing regardless of year and model of Porsche – we regularly look after cars that come out of the Porsche network for their second service e.g. 4 years old
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Sales – this is a new part of the business in the last 6 months. We have a great showroom facility now and we buy and sell Porsche. Buying can be outright cash purchase or SOR. This is a part of the business that we are looking to expand in 2018. We have financial backing to purchase.
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Detailing - we have this onsite now (Gtecniq) and will be expanding early 2018 into ppf onsite as well.
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Geometry - all aspects of road and track set up - this is an area that we really have focused on the last couple of years and we have full facilities on site to meet customer requirements including 3D Beissbarth machine, corner weighting facilities. We offer custom set ups and have a lot of experience whether it is pre 89 or latest 991.
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Drivetrain – again all aspects including Diff plates, transmissions including for example shorter ratios on the GT4, LWFW, upgraded clutches, RWD conversions, upgraded driveshafts, wevo shifters etc
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Suspension – Full refresh, latest PASM controllers (DSC). We generally use Ohlins or Bilstein and tend to stay away from KW through choice. We hope to be able to announce soon another major player in the market soon.
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Brake upgrades – on any Porsche we have a lot of difference options
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Interiors – generally on the older models fitting cages, bucket seats etc or any other interior requirements and we have a great offsite re-trim service.
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Exterior – We use Porsche approved Body Shop but at better prices that you could achieve and also have another body shop when the Porsche price is prohibitive
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Tyres – we have a good set up with Michelin for next day supply
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Wheel refurbs – we use lepsons with 3 day turnaround if you car is in with us.
Specialised areas
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Engine Building – this is probably a core area for us in terms of strength. We build stock and customised engines from very early 911s through to the latest generations including all front engine cars excluding Cayenne (no body does Cayennes!)
- We partnered with Protomotive in the USA very early on because Todd Knighton is probably the best known engine builder for the last 30 years for custom Porsche engines – he was building 4L engines on 964 for example before Porsche even invented a crankshaft to do this – he created his own – his engines have set world records more often than any other. We have been fortunate to have him here in the last few years for over a month for him to pass on his engine building skills – that ip cost us a large 5 figure sum of investment, but gives us a competitive advantage.
- On the customised side we have proven that we can build turbo based engines to well over 1000hp
- On air cooled we have in the last two years been building one a month either stock or customised – this is an area that we have now taken our turbo based engine expertise and applied that to air cooled. We offer anything basically including TB based set ups – for example we are just producing a customised 350ps 964 engine with lots of trick stuff including TBs, cams, and so on.
- On the air cooled side we have taken our tuning expertise in water cooled and now use MoTeC to provide modern control on air cooled engines – this is very important – you spend £35k on an engine and don’t protect it is not a good recipe so we have air cooled engines that have full sensors installed including the ability to put the cars into limp mode like modern day Porsche cars. Simple things like restricting rpm until oil is at a certain temp.
- We offer two year in house warranty on engines – we don’t need to underwrite our engines builds because we have confidence in our builds
- In the last two years we have built 19 engines and not one has had a failure from air cooled to two over 1000hp turbo engines
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Tuning packages - These have been designed in house
- On the turbo side we have proven consistently that our packages are reliable and out perform
- Same for air cooled – we offer different levels of tuning in conjunction with our engine building skills
- We do not believe in dynos
§ This has always been our view
§ Dyno figures never simulate on the road conditions
§ We use performance telemetry to show customers real gains in performance instead
Latest developments
- Currently we aim to offer our services within 48 hours. This timeframe is not offered within the OPC network or in others outside the network. We were like most before with a 2 week waiting list but now we are trying to take cars in next day
- We have approx. 30 cars in overnight with approx 4-6 changing over on frequent basis as the work completes
- In 2018 we will expand our new website to offer more parts directly
- We have new B4 718 Cayman S coming new to us this month to start the development process for that engine including tuning, exhaust etc.
I am happy to answer questions or contact me directly at
ken.napier@nineexcellence.com
Ken
MD 9e.
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