Nobody has mentioned nipple lube in a while and since bust was mentioned, just thought would do a public service announcement. Personally don't have any experience of the actual dangers of mixing glitter and lube. Can only imagine the rigorous testing done by strippers . . . . . . .to the Top Gun song Danger Zone . . . . .

The autocross today is 58 degrees and sunny, finally. Light breeze. 58 is cool with a breeze. Really tight on a few turns. A real challenge with an old 911 and no power steering.

Same temp as here right now. Maybe your steering will be easier with nipple lube in the rack. Probably best to skip the glitter.

The steering rack is something I rebuilt back when I did my suspension rebuild. I prefer proper grease to nipple lube for those tasks. That grease would really suck as nipple lube I suspect. It is going to leave a stain on clothing. I guess if the clothing were not used, there is no need for the lube.

I had the current president of the club drive my 911 around the track at 80% of full speed or so. Just to show him what the steering input feels like. Coming into some of the pylons that were just a 180 it is impossible to steer without both hands on the steering wheel. With the brakes shifting the load to the front tires, and a tight turn it is best to leave it in 2nd and steer around the pylon, then downshift after the corner is made.

Part of the issue is the 17 inch wheel and the 225s on the front. That is a lot more rubber than Porsche designed it for, and makes really low speed turns hard. Once it is rolling at 15 MPH or above, it turns easily. The OEM 15 inch wheels has 185s so it is a lot more rubber.

Originally 165R15... into the 70's...

Yep, and crappy tires compared to today’s tires. I like the extra grip. Stopping is way better.

Also, Porsches got a little porky since the early (SWB) days.

Right before the nail put me out of commission was practicing doing them smaller turns faster using the ebrake to initiate a higher rear end slip-angle drift. Didn't quite have it down yet, but was getting smoother and faster. When the radius of the corner is smaller than the turning radius of the car is the one time on pavement 4 wheel drifting around a corner is more like just drifting. It is really 4 wheel drifting but the turn is so tight to get the car to rotatate and maintain speed it requires a higher slip-angle. The difficult part for me was transitioning between ebrake starting the rotation and throttle to keep the rear rotating and let the car start drifting around the corner. It was easiest to let the car completely spin to stop at 180* then start moving again.

Finally did my taxes yesterday. Always wait to the last minute because taking the standard deductions I always owe something. Would rather make interest on the moneys the let the IRS just so I an get a refund. Taxes were actully the same as last year only I didn't have to go thru itemizing to take off my home office. No deductions for home office now unless you are self-employeed. At least they increased the individual deduction enough to cover what I would have gotten from my home office.

The bummer this year is that the value of my house went up enough that property taxes went up almost $10 a month. That means the city/state is taking $10 more a month from my retirement.

Stijn!!
 

I would never abuse my parking brake for turns. That is something folks that don’t plan to keep the car. The brake shoes for it are expensive and a pain to replace from what I read. Mine are in great shape and don’t need anything after 170,000 miles

It is not like you pull the parking brake on an leave it on. You push in the button, lift it, and then immedeately push the handle back down to release it, All the time holding in the button on the end of the handle to keep it from latching in position, And not being able to also heel and toem removed it from my wheelhouse of driving options. Do you use the ebrake to add bias to the rear brakes yes, do you leave it on for ANY lenght of time over just tapping the rears, no.

Ideally it would be easier if you could somehow lock the ebrake latching button in so it does not rachet and hold on the brakes and have some kind of spring to release the ebrake so you could use it like a hand operated version of the brake pedal on it only lets you tap the rear brakes only.

That is also why it takes practice. it takes practice like doing turn-ins without the ebrake. You do initiate turn-in with the weight transferred to the front and release the brakes as you turn in and apply power so the weight transfer comes back to banalced 4 wheel drift as the car is pointed to the apex with just enough power to maintain the slight drift.

Unlike the standard drift, with the ebrake intiated tighter turn the front tires do not drift as much as control the slip-angle of the rears that are in power oversteer, broken loose and spinning to rotate the car thru a tighter turn, using that slip angle to both stop the car from spinning out and accelerate the car around the tighter corner line. Like on dirt or ice. You make the car corner tighter than the available traction allows.

Stijn!!
 

Once again, with no power steering, I need both hands on the steering wheel to turn the corner. I need a third arm to downshift, and I guess a 4th hand to use the parking brake.

Some of the threads on the technical site on replacing the parking brake shoes are discuss the challenge of replacing the two little brake shoes. They don't press on the brake rotor surface. It is a separate drum as part of the wheel hub. The good news is you will not warp brake rotors of if you pull the parking brake with hot brakes. It is a totally separate system from the regular brakes. On a 914, they just use a lever to press on of the brake pucks up against the rotor. That would not be so bad, because it would just wear down the inside brake puck.

In the end, I am only out there to have fun. I can't possibly care less about the fastest time out there. With a 200 HP car and slow shifts, it ain't gonna happen. I see the modern Porsches accelerate with 300 or 400 HP and PDK millisecond shifts, and ABS brakes and traction control controlled corners and it is obvious I will never be competitive. Even against a modern Honda 4 door coupe. Torsion bar suspension and a car designed in 1963 just can't compete. But I love my car and plan on keeping it many long years. After over over 100 autocrosses on my car I have never damaged the car. Just drive and have fun.

Morning all. back to the land of cabled network and internet!!!!

How can anyone survive such primitive conditions?

On the white 944 TurboS that the brakes got really hot the ebrake actually bulged the rear hubs where the ebrake pads pushed outward. And I did not use the ebrake except to hold the vehicle after parked. Did not realize the hubs were getting hot enough to be deformed. Finally cured that by going to slotted holey rotors and actually hotter pads.

it was tooth and nail. I thought I might have to light a fire and use smoke signals.

So in other words, no one is using it today?

The rally cars have a johnson bar that they pull for the ebrake. Spring loaded and no ratchet action. You need one for the 928!

Hardest part of ebrake turns in the 944 is shifting with your right hand, and grabbing the brake on the floor with your left! What Hand turns the wheel!?

Same with the 914. It is really hard to steer with knees, shift and e-brake. Maybe that is why I never learned the procedure, or never tried it. :eek: