Set up for Buttonwillow Vs Willow Springs

[SteveStromberg]

What changes are made to the car for the different tracks ie Gearing , Swaybar, Jetting,tyres ect. Steve

[Otto]

I race a 914/6 in southern ca. both at Willow and Buttonwillow. The gear ratios for willow are c l p t y. The gear ratios for buttonwillow are a ga k q v. Willow is a much faster track and I only do nine shifts per lap(both up and down). I shift 29 times at buttonwillow on the longest course. What class do you race in, what tire size and what horsepower???? At a shorter tighter track you need a little more toe-out so the car will turn into the corners better, as with a longer, faster you want the car to go straighter with very little toe-out. Camber settings for any particular track is set with a tire temperature guage. You try to get the footprint of the tire flat, so the tire makes the most contact with the surface. I just joined and saw that nobody knew about your question, so I thought that I would help. Any other questions just ask. TTOD OTTO

[campbellcj]

Welcome to the board Otto

What's a good "compromise" gearing setup that could be used at both tracks, and maybe at others like Streets of Willow, Thunderhill and so forth?

Some of us can't afford to (and don't know how to) switch out our gears every couple weeks.

Do you just set it up for the track you run most often and/or want to be most competitive at?

Also is a LSD absolutely necessary? Or only in the higher-powered cars that break the inside wheel loose in the turns?

[Otto]

When you load a gear box for 914s even the sixes, you load second gear as the gear to use for the slowest corner of that particular track, and the fifth gear you load for redline at the fastest part of the track and you load the gears that fit in between so you can still stay in your torque range. The only way to set a universal gearbox up is trail and error. You have got to ask yourself after getting off the track - could I use a taller 2nd, shorted second, shorted third, taller third, shorted or taller fourth, shorted or taller fifth. Then you have to run all the tracks in your mind or for real and do a compromise, slowest turn on all the tracks that you run, which will be turn one at the streets clockwise, and turn two at buttonwillow, and the fastest part of all the tracks that you run and that will be the front straight at willow. Then we will load a multi-track gearbox. Yes, I do load a gearbox for every track, not because I can, but because I have toif I want to be competitive. My track record this year isn't too bad is it either(six top time of days out of six races at the Streets of Willow, and an absolute track record for the Porsche Owners Club 1:10.535). TTOD OTTO

[Otto]

Sorry, I forgot about the LSD question. Any torque sensing device for any type of horsepowered car is favorable. We have tho option of setting the factory LSD at as low as 20% all the way up to 100%, like I do on my 914/6. We set up the LSD @ 100% because of the high horsepower because the LSD will be 75% at the end of the season. LSDs on autocross(really slow corners) have a tendency to plow or understeer. TTOD OTTO

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Unless you have the super-trick "904" mainshaft for your transmission, you are stuck with whatever 2nd gear is on it. On most 901-derived gearboxes, 2nd gear is a permanent part of the mainshaft.

Also keep in mind that swapping out gearsets is usually only legal in the more-modified classes. If you change the gears from the stock ratios, you'll wind up running against... Well, agianst people like TTOD OTTO!!

--DD

[SteveStromberg]

Thanks Otto, I was just wondering about the differances in set up between the two tracks.Steve