944 Active Aero or Cheeky Wink?

There I am, leading the 944 national champ and my engine builder Dave Dirks, into the almost 90 degree left-hander at the end of High Plains Raceway's short straight. Or starting straight. The corner highlighted by the red circle in the above track map.

Now, I removed my headlight motors and armature, but left the wiring and bulbs in place in case ever needed. And, my car is already at legal minimum weight.

But I never did affix the headlights in place. But should I.

I always noticed both headlights popped up on hard braking. And finally got an image to prove it. This snap was taken by Mitchell Taylor, the son of a fellow racer, Chuck Taylor. Click the photo for a much larger image.

Gives the car a bit of McLaren style active aero on a shoestring budget.

That is how I like to think of it. Not that it is just winking at the corners with my dodgy bodywork.

First Day NASA Instructing

That's me in the passenger seat of a 2000 Corvette instructing at High Plains Raceway this past Sunday. NASA has been good to me, so I wanted to help out and instructing offered a great opportunity.

We had a two day class. Including one day of on track exercises. And let me say, our teachers were nuts. But, I guess it does happen when a student goes into crisis mode and just stops on track!

Then Sunday was super rewarding helping my student progress as a driver. Getting much smoother and beginning to understand how to find the proper line around a turn. And yes, the Corvette has a touch more straight line speed than my SPEC car.

Photo is thanks to Rupert who has lots of awesome track shots here.

Track Day Vid - How Many Effects Can You Spot

Nothing against my neighbor who shot this video while riding shotgun, I commend him for not getting motion sick, it was a rather boring day just lapping. Nothing like the usual 944 SPEC scene.

So, on a snowy day I spent some time hacking it together and putting more effects on this than a James Cameron movie.

Hope you enjoy the vid and 'The Horror. The Horror.' Soundtrack.

SC and 500E on Track

Not many things in life are free. And even fewer things in high performance driving are free. So, it was a huge surprise when our fantastic two-year old track High Plains Raceway offered two free lapping days between Christmas and New Years.

These days were weather dependent and the weather cooperated in spades. The mercury nudged 50 and as you can see in the pictures, it was a clear Colorado day.

I went to the track with my neighbor who swapped his 78 SC for the 92 500E. One Porsche for another part-Porsche. On track, the 500E impressed most on the straights, massive torque pushing you easily into triple digits on High Plain's back straight. The heavy-handed traction control did take some of the fun out of the twisties, but the car still was so flat and poised for a eighteen-year old super sedan.

My SC was a ton of fun. It was the first time I had it on track. Engine wise it is stock except for SSIs and a 2 in 2 out muffler and cat delete. The suspension though is track oriented with 22/28 weltmeisters, Bilsteins and Tarett sway bars. It had a very neutral, composed feeling. What a ton of fun. As it is my DD, I kept the revs under 5500.

So, this cut my track time drought from five months to two and a half. And that is reason enough to give thanks.

Memorial Day Race Weekend Recap

Sorry, this took so long, but I was waiting for pictures. Am still waiting. I will add them when one of the photogs from the race posts them up. 

Now, on to the recap. First, on Saturday during the warm-up I ran a 2:21 lap. Not bad, and not pushing too hard. So I decide on a goal of 2:17 for the weekend.

In the qualifying race. I ran a 2:19 and this put me in 9th out of 18 cars. I finished the main race in the same place with a time of 2:17.

Goal reached. So set new goal. A 2:16.

Hit that on Sunday qualifying and the ran a 2:15:02 in the main race. Sweet. This was the fifth fastest lap time even though I finished the race 8th. 

It was great to be really in the mix. Lots of banging. Three of the four corners of the car got some other color paint on them. That is how close this racing is. It is incredible. Sure there are faster cars, but none that run as close as us.

Finally, on Monday in the enduro, my co-driver Chris Mosera of Garage Films and I managed to finish 9th out of 21 cars. And third out of the six or seven 944s. What a weekend. 

The only carnage was a set of wheel bearings from having a grease seal fail. But after a total of 5 and a half hours of hard racing to only need $40 in repairs was great. Engine was solid, brakes, suspension all doing well.

And for the next race, my RA-1s are just coming into the sweet spot, so they should be fast when we head to PPIR over July 4th.

I spent an open lapping day at High Plains Raceway breaking in my new motor. 

Glad to report it was uneventful.

With my old Hankooks aired up, don't want to was the RA-1s, I trailered the 901 out to HPR. I did not hook up the oil cooler as the ambient temps were low and incase something went kablamo I did not want to also replace that. 

But with a brand new radiator, the car barely got above the first temperature mark on the original water temperature gauge and struggled to break 170 on the new oil temperature gauge. Granted, I was hardly pushing the engine at race levels.

I did three 30-minute sessions. The first session kept it under 4,500 RPMS, just basically make sure the car ran and did not have a huge leak or something.

Second session did a few pulls in third up to about 5,000 RPMs on each lap. 

The third session, basically alternated fast laps with cooling laps, revving up to 6,000 RPMs.

I was expecting the biggest difference to be felt at the top end. So I was surprised when the biggest difference I felt was in the mid-range torque. I could fell the car pull out of those third and fourth gear turns much better.

But the proof will be in the racing on Memorial Day Weekend. In the meantime, I still need to cure some oversteer.

 

Making Boring Racing Pictures Look Dramatic

I was a bit disappointed I didn't grab some shots from my first race that were just great. Awesome. Ansel Adams powerful.

Oh well.

That is what Photoshop is for.

Race Day #1.

My first race is done. Body and car intact. A surprise after three hours of racing.

Nothing like jumping in with both feet and doing a three-hour enduro for one's first race.

It was a blast. Especially the start as they gridded by sign up date. So I was gridded sixth. With Corvettes, GT3 Porsches and several 400HP American Iron series cars behind me. They quickly got in front of me.

The engine and brakes were great. I believe I am down a little on power as the other 944s could walk from me on the straight but with 140,000 miles on the engine without a rebuild, that is to be expected. And the fact that a 140,000 miles engine can take 3 hours of racing, that is to be expected only from a Porsche.

The handling was OK. We had a bit of a push. The Hankook RS-2s, were good for about four laps then got a bit oily. Everyone else is running RA-1s. 

All in all a great event. The pitstops were fun too. Can't wait for my next race.

Track Debut for 944SPEC #901

After six months of non-stop work I finally got my car on the track. A rare weekend lapping day at HPR. It was fantastic. There was only 12 cars at the track. It was like having a private session. Great times.

Since I built the car, I was a little leary about the build quality. So the first few laps were in the 2:38 range. Pretty slow and the car was really oversteering. 

Came in and adjusted the rear sway bar a half inch softer and went back out. What a difference. The car was pretty well balanced now and able to slowly build speed. Getting the times down to the around 2:25. Obviously lots more time needs to be spent adjusting shocks and tire pressure, but overall I was very pleased. It is such a fun easy car to drive except, the brakes.

Wow, I have no idea what pads are on the car but they are not good. I flushed the brakes twice too. But man, after two laps they were softer then an undercooked flan. So, I ordered a set of Hawk pads and ATE Blue. With decent brakes, chopping 5 seconds off a lap should be no problem at all.

My friend Chris came with me and certainly pushed the car harder then idea. I guess he has more faith in my wrenching skills then I do. 

High Plains Raceway Trackday

Did my first DE at High Plains Raceway. Wonderful track. 2.6 miles. Lots of blind curves and elevation changes. I drove the SC and loaned the Boxster to a friend. Both cars did well, nothing broke, so a successful outing.