What a day - 911 Heaven!

[widebody911]

Wow, am I glad my car was finally done! Today was the 911 track day from heaven. I don't know how many 911s there were, but it was a lot. Everything from Hank Watt's 600+ 1970 twin-turbo to a '70t and everything in between. It's not often you get to (try to) chase a GT2 down the track. Oddly, I was able to hang with him down the straight, but in the more technical sections, it was all over but the cryin'. He was running in the 2:02 range.

I got to meet BornRich and Makaio (and it never occurred to me that we'd both worked for the sane fire department, albeit at opposite ends of the food chain) and Bill and Dean and others whose names I've now forgotten. I gave rides all day except for the time trial section. I ran a 2:16.95 during the time trial, which, if you take the 5 instructors out of it, one in a GT3, one in a GT2 among others, I would have come in 2nd, 4 tenths behind a Z06. It makes sense to exclude the instructors when examining my results, doesn't it? Later in the day, with a passenger, I ran a 2:15.80 while chasing down a twin-turbo RX-7

The new transmission worked well, although it's a bit stiff. Just like my last rebuilt trans, so I'm not stressing. The pump and cooler still aren't plumbed, hope to get that done before next weekend's track event.

Another interesting finding is the steering rack. My $20 junkyard 914 rack held up fine, and I drove the car much harder than I did when I was breaking the rebuilt racks. I leave the conclusions as an excercise for the reader. Hint: rhymes with "junk"

So, I'm wiped out at home. This is a two-day event, but I chose to just do one day, as I have some catching up to do at home, and I have the SCCA event I'm doing next weekend.

Jack, you were missed, even though you weren't planning to attend.

Attached is a pic of one of the 911 lineups. For some reason the other pix just don't exist on my camera's disk any more

[widebody911]

Oh, and I didn't even have time to wash the car before I left, so I ran with several weeks work of grime on it from sitting in the shop, and a couple months worth of grime on the tail from hanging in the garage.

[Jack Olsen]

2:15.80? That's good. You're pushing the number back down, again.

Was it on the narrower wheels? I ask, because I'm thinking of changing to a 275/315 combination.

[makaio]

This was a great day ! It took me a couple runs to get back in the groove since I haven't been on the track since March. But by the end of the day I was running around 2:25, which is the fastest I've ever ran.

Thom took me for a ride in his car during the first session... ... I wan't a 3.6 in my car too!

I got some good instruction from one of the GGR instructors, and a ride in his 73' 911. It was my first time in a early car, and it didn't disapoint.

And Leland you would be proud, there were more SC's than any other model Porsche there.

[widebody911]

I went back to the 16" wheels - I don't have the gearing to run the 17" wheels effectively. Unfortunately, I don't see a tire solution to do an 16x10 or 16x11, so I can't build anything to get more lateral grip. Oh well.

[Bill Verburg]

I can tell at this early date that it's going to be a loooong winter. I just got done shoveling a couple of tons of slush off my driveway

Glad to hear that the trans. is working out. Why didn't you change the gearing to accomodate the giant tires more?

[Kurt B]

This would be a great time...at these events a lot of the same people go...I know, I know we go through it in every post, but I need to know, what cars to you fear?

Vettes, WRX's, M3s, Vipers? I mean, when the [insert car] shows up, you worry.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Kurt B
This would be a great time...at these events a lot of the same people go...I know, I know we go through it in every post, but I need to know, what cars to you fear?
Vettes, WRX's, M3s, Vipers? I mean, when the [insert car] shows up, you worry.

Here's my analysis of various street/track cars that I've been on the track with. Full-blown race cars aren't in the picture in this analysis:

• Corvette: not a threat. Formidable, but give them a few laps and you can smell their brakes 4 car lengths away
• Mustang: not a threat at all. Lots of noise, but not much to back it up
• NSX: Formidable when in capable hands, otherwise easy prey
• M3: see Corvette, but without the top end. The ones with proper brake upgrades are a threat.
• M5: M3 with top end
• RSX: You spent $25k on what? They left out the "U"
• Camaro: there's some b!tchen ones, but the rest can be lumped with the Corvettes
• Viper: I don't stand a chance
• WRX: as long as we're on a paved surface, it's not a threat
• Boxster == chicane
• 996 == chicane
• 993: difficult

[jester911]

Sounds like when the viper shows up, you worry

[Jack Olsen]

Most Vipers are easy pickins. But out west, guys like Paul Mumford and John Dearing have turned their (not strictly stock) Mopars into really capable race cars.

An E46 M3 with a lot of money thrown at it can also be very fast. Heck, even S2000's can be set up to turn great lap times.

At a certain dollar level, just about any performance car can be cranked up to competitive levels. And when you combine that with a geuninely talented driver, it can outperform cars that -- on paper -- should completely leave it in the dust.

[bornrich]

Hi guys!
Even though I have had extensive experience on TH with an RX-7 (NASA) and my bike (ZX9R), I had an intructor (Kevin E.) due to having my 911 there for thei forst time.
I did really expect to learn much, but since they use an in car communication device I was able to get feedback instantly.
I learned more about throttle control and how it affects your line in a turn. I'm much more smooth now than I ever was before!
I was a great day with great people. My only mishaps were having my new 930S steering wheel loosen up on me (easily fixed) and when I exited the track from my last session I though I had a front pad disintigrate on me. Really load grinding and it pulled to one side. I immediatly packed up and thought I could make it home on the bad pad but it clear up by the time I was exiting the track onto 162. Probably just pick up a rock. I checked all my pads when I got home and still have plenty of pad left.

I noticed some small cuts on the top outside edges of my back tires. Would these be from the fender lips contacting them? I'm running 1 inch spacers.

[MMARSH]

Widebody

I know several guys that have street driven Mustangs that can run under 2:10 at thunderhill. If they are running a full Griggs or Maximum Motorsports suspension and are really good drivers they will be under 2:05s and you will have really big troubles.

Actually every car on your list with a few mods and a decent driver will go under 2:15 at thunderhill. The reality is the good drivers of those cars just haven't been at the same events as you. Here is a sample of the touring car results for the OTC. these cars were all in the touring classes and the stickest tire they could use were A032Rs or Michelin sport cups. All these cars were driven to each track. There are some pretty impressive numbers there.


Place, Car No. ,Car Drivers, Lap1 Lap2 Lap3

TOURING 1

1 27 01 Dodge Viper ACR Mumford, Provost 2:02.454 2:02.620 2:03.125

2 5 91 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Wilson, Kryder 2:07.340 2:08.072 2:08.135

3 37 01 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Desalvo, Desalvo 2:07.305 2:08.038 2:08.288

4 208 02 Dodge Viper GTS Dearing, Wasserman 2:08.047 2:08.860 2:09.826

5 225 02 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Robinson, Humke 2:11.761 2:12.252 2:12.293

6 48 01 Porsche 996 Turbo Rooke, Nix 2:14.748 2:15.521 2:15.759

7 211 01 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 McIlree, Windsor 2:14.802 2:17.251 2:21.423


TOURING 2

1 80 01 BMW M3 Kahangi, Beck 2:05.165 2:05.436 2:05.703

2 156 94 Mazda RX7 Young, Donnelly 2:09.102 2:10.193 2:11.009

3 96 00 BMW M Coupe Mainini, Zinsmeyer 2:13.665 2:13.786 2:14.228

4 77 94 Toyota Supra Turbo Hedlund, Garnier 2:15.179 2:15.786 2:16.526

5 68 95 BMW M3 Thibaut, Thibaut 2:15.529 2:15.771 2:17.064

6 3 90 Mazda Miata (V8) Bonn, Weir Jones 2:15.829 2:16.247 2:16.315

7 6 89 Porsche 944 Turbo Fabry, Errea 2:21.272 2:21.347 2:21.904 7:04.523 20

Touring 3

Place Car No. Car Drivers Lap1 Lap2 Lap3

1 14 88 BMW M3 Hull, Arnold 2:09.827 2:10.085 2:10.237

2 66 90 Nissan 300ZX Merritt, Ramos 2:13.862 2:13.911 2:14.303

3 130 73 Porsche 911 Olsen, Schmidt 2:14.408 2:14.725 2:14.983

4 330 01 BMW 330ia Yoo, Guagenti 2:16.625 2:17.058 2:17.610


Touring 4

Place Car No. Car Drivers Lap1 Lap2 Lap3 Total Points

1 88 94 Mazda Miata R Chang, Lee 2:14.427 2:14.625 2:15.539 6:44.591 35

2 33 03 Mini Cooper S O'Dell, Hentges 2:15.752 2:16.230 2:16.815 6:48.797 30

3 42 87 Mazda RX7 II Wilnai, Haas 2:16.728 2:16.896 2:17.444 6:51.068 25

Touring AGT

Place Car No. Car Drivers Lap1 Lap2 Lap3

1 9 94 Ford Mustang Mashouf, Griggs 2:06.537 2:06.713 2:06.730

2 302 96 Ford Mustang GT Hidley, VanSchmus, Wilson 2:15.200 2:16.826 2:17.016