Yet another rescue Porsche.

[The Glademister]

Update on the race car.

I did get the performance shifter installed and it made a HUGE improvement. Coupled with the shim under the shift fork ball and I'm able to get from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 2nd, etc. with no problems. I ran the car at a couple of regional events before last weekend's Championship Tour in Ohio.

What has been a issue is minimum weight however. That minimum in SCCA Solo DP class is displacement = weight (2-valve per cylinder cars) so that put mine at 2056 lbs. without driver. Without any ballast, the car weighs 1638 lbs. That meant over 400 lbs. of ballast. So I added hot rolled steel plates (least expensive) in 12" x 12" chunks of 1" and 1/2" thickness. It took stacks to get that weight which I bolted to the floor pans. I ran the car 4 runs in that trim at a regional with a decent course. The car handled well but acceleration was poor. For the next heat, I took out all but one 1/2" plate on the passenger side for XP minimum of 1653 lbs. Quite the difference with very good acceleration. So I'm in XP now with a greater level of preparation for many different makes and models (including engine swops). Oh well, might as well just drive as best I can and have fun.

Here's some photos of the shifter, ballast, etc. And a link to one of my runs at the Champ Tour.

Also, I started in on a restoration project some of you may be interested in. An '82 924 Turbo that needed saving.

924Board.org :: View topic - My third 924 is a 931 restore thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSvRDYE-ARI&feature=youtu.be

[TR]

Great score on the 924. Very sought after car. Can't believe it languished un loved.
You lucky bastard.

Find me a 914-6 for under 500 bucks!

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by TR

Great score on the 924. Very sought after car. Can't believe it languished un loved.
You lucky bastard.

Find me a 914-6 for under 500 bucks!

Thanks TR. It was a good score.

That's going to be a tough one. Although I did see a 914/6 sourced in middle Tennessee recently on the 914world. No mention of the price though.

[The Glademister]

A month or so later and we've got two SCCA Solo National Tour events under our belts. Wilmington OH and the Championship at Lincoln NB. Wilmington was sort of a throw away. The car ran okay but I DNF'd two runs on the second day. Chalk that up to lack of concentration. That was a pretty fast flowing course and I had to shift multiple times second to third and third to second. Good practice for Lincoln however. Here's a video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSvRDYE-ARI

And some photos by Perry Bennett...







More from Nationals in the next post.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I forget--did you replace any of the rubber engine/trans mounts with more solid materials? That can help shifting, especially if you have to shift while loaded up laterally, in a corner.

--DD

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

I forget--did you replace any of the rubber engine/trans mounts with more solid materials? That can help shifting, especially if you have to shift while loaded up laterally, in a corner.

--DD

I did Dave. I went with solid motor mounts and Wevo semi-solid transmission mounts. Those improvements in addition to the Rennsport shifter made a huge difference in shifting.

[porschetub]

Great pics,looks like you are having fun,is it hard work?.

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by porschetub

Great pics,looks like you are having fun,is it hard work?.

Yeah, Perry Bennett takes awesome autocross photos. I'm waiting for him to post the images from Nationals.

I wouldn't call it hard work but a much different race experience. Compared to modern Porsches with all the electronic "nannies", this is just driver, steering wheel, peddles and shifter. The feedback for the car is much more intense. And no windshield makes it feel like you're going 100 mph. What is more difficult is getting the car ready in paddock and keeping it protected from rain. My enclosed trailer is very tight and I wench the car in and out. We've still got our '99 Boxster so if I get tired of this one, I can jump in that for an event or two. It's nice having options

[The Glademister]

2015 SCCA Solo Nationals. The best of the best competing for class championships. No stupid PAX to worry about. Pure autocross on the tarmac of Lincoln Airport. There's two courses in use and a test n tune course. We arrived on labor day and I had registered for the Evo school on the test n tune course. Not that I needed an instructor in this car but more for ease of getting many runs in an hour. I ended doing only six to save the Hoosiers for the main event. After the test n tune I noticed some fuel dripping from the drivers side Weber air cleaner. I took off the filter and there's fuel collecting on the butterflies. At idle, fuel is dripping very steadily from the two jets. When I turn the fuel pump off, that stops however. Not wanting to disassemble the carb before the first day competition, I decide to run the car by turning the fuel pump off at idle. Just before launching switch it on. Not the best situation, but a temporary fix. I also changed motor oil that afternoon to get the gas tainted oil out.

My class ran 4th heat on the west course on Tuesday. A tight, technical course that made you really look ahead and stay on line. The car ran good but I couldn't get a clean run in. My best time on the third run was with one cone. After my heat, a mechanic named James Bricken with Gruppe 9 Autowerks in San Antonio had heard about my carb problems. Offering to help, he opened up the offending carb, inspected the floats, made a little tweek to the needle trigger and the problem was solved. Autocross is so great in that others are always willing to help.

Wednesday we're on the east course and it's a different animal. Long, flowing with big sweepers. The speeds are much higher than the west course and I know I'm going to be spending time in 3rd gear. My second run on that course was my best and it just seemed that everything went right. All the up-shifts, down-shifts, throttle inputs and steering were spot on. I was really racing and felt as one with the 914!

In grid, the XP class was a bunch of great guys. A diverse set of highly prepared cars like 240Z, Lotus Elise, MR2, etc. All of those had extensive wings and spoilers. A lot of the drivers were curious why I had such a under-prepared and under-powered car in class. Of course I explained my problems with DP weight and why I thought it would just be fun to compete at 1653 lbs. XP weight. My goal for the event was to not be last in class. I finished 14 of 19 competitors and was pleased. I think I also surprised the other competitors on that finish. James watched my runs on Wednesday and said the car could be two seconds faster if "I would get serious". He said he thought the engine was very strong for a 2056 build.

We've got one more event before end of season and that will probably toast the tires. I'm not making any major changes to the 914 before next year as I've got an on-going 931 restoration in progress. I guess I'll just keep having fun









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFN7A77gQDM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh6yW_n4Vh4

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Jim is a (former?) Pelican. He did a bunch of 911 tech stuff around here for quite a while. Not sure if he still is or not.

--DD

[The Glademister]

End of year update - I ran the Hairy Ant Nest Racing 914 a couple more regional events and the car did really well. The last event in Huntsville I had a really good TRSCCA driver co-drive and we had a blast. That site has really reflective noise issues and the club is under pressure to keep within SCCA regulations. Anyway, we got warnings on our first couple of runs but figured out that if we up-shifted to 3rd near the sound meter, we were good. We ended up 3rd & 4th raw time out of about 75 entries so that was great. Here's Geoff launching...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdAn8GYpEWc

Part of the noise issue was some back-firing that I'll have to look into. I think a close carb adjustment and timing check is in order. I'm also taking apart the two spare transmissions and will hopefully have enough good parts to make one solid transmission with autocross gear set. I've started a thread on that process here...

914World.com - The fastest growing online 914 community!

I'll have to keep the 914 racing mods and fixes costs low as I've also got this 931 restoration going on and that CIS stuff is crazy!

924Board.org :: View topic - My third 924 is a 931 restore thread

[The Glademister]

Our 2016 Solo season is off to a good start. I ran the car several weeks ago at a Test N Tune and was pleased. But last weekend we ran at the Dixie Championship Tour 2016 in HCR class. It was a blast but no competition in class unfortunately. I found that the car had better times at the Test N Tune with a passenger (less push) so I added 160 lbs. ballast to the passenger side floor pan. I'm still under HCR weight (2056 lbs.) but that does help understeer; coupled with loosening a half turn on the front Konis.

My times at Dixie were good in comparison to other classes. Good grip from the A7s with temps being mild both days. What does need to be addressed is rev limit and gearing. I just spoke to Greg at FAT Performance and we're going to switch to a 7100 rpm rotor. That's going to help get 2nd gear top speeds up and make that transition from 2nd to 3rd more in the power band. He's given me some notes on carb and valve adjustments. So I'll need to do those along with the rotor change.

And... to make the car HCR legal, I'm switching to 8" wide rear wheels. the folks at Bogart Racing Wheels say they can replicate the outer rings on my 8" fronts and all I'll have to do is put the narrow outer rings on the rears. After that, I'll need to add more weight and part of that will be a race cage. Time to speed some $$$ on the race car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXLSWIR1-rw

[The Glademister]

Caged!

[Emo993]

Nice shots Glademister, looks like a really fun 914 to drive. Can you post some of the cars spec's, if not secret ( engine, suspension, camber, wheel sizes etc.s)....regarding your push, are you running some toe-out on the front. Best, Mark

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by Emo993

Nice shots Glademister, looks like a really fun 914 to drive. Can you post some of the cars spec's, if not secret ( engine, suspension, camber, wheel sizes etc.s)....regarding your push, are you running some toe-out on the front. Best, Mark

Engine is a 2056 build from FAT Performance. Dual 44 Webers, Webcam, lightened flywheel, 44 mm intake valves, welded valve seats, decked and balanced. FAT Performance dyno'ed the engine 140 HP @ 6500 rpm, 140 FP torque at 3500 rpm.

Stock 901 side sift transmission, solid motor mounts and semi-solid transmission mounts. Renn-shifter.

Brakes are stock with stock pads.

Wheels are 8" x 15" Dura Lite. I'm currently running 245 x 40 Hoosier A7 tires.

Fiberglass Sparco seats with Racequip 5-point harness. The roll cage is from Tangerine Racing. The steering wheel is a 15" midget racer with quick release that I bought from Smiley's Racing. Stock steering column and rack. Upgraded the steering rod ends to 911. Stock (but rebuilt) peddles.

Rear suspension is stock trailing arms (strengthened) on Bilstien HD height adjustable coil-overs. Rear spring rate unknown but I suspect it's about 200 FP.

Front struts are stock with single adjustable Koni inserts. Stock torsen bars. Front sway bar is stock and I deleted the stock rear bar.

Without ballast the car weight 1638 lbs. Two of the classes I run in have minimum weight of 2056 (displacement=weight) so there's a lot of 1" and 1/2" plate steel for ballast. Most of that's in the floor pans but one chunk is under the fuel cell in the front truck. Braided fuel line from tank, through tunnel, into Holley fuel filter and pressure regulator. Carter fuel pump.

All the wiring is custom. Headlights and tail lights gutted. Head light covers bolted down. Tail light holes covered with sheet metal and welded. Turn signals deleted and the holes covered. All the glass is removed. Doors gutted except for door opener mechanisms. Window glass slots covered with sheet metal and welded.

Fiberglass wheel fairs pop-riveted to enlarged wheel openings. Front and rear trunk lids latches removed and flush mount latches installed. Front bumper and facia removed and fiberglass replacements installed. Rear bumper is the rubber bumper off my '76 parts car, mounted to custom brackets and steel beam removed.

Regarding alignment... I had the car aligned a couple years ago and the front is OEM toe-in (maybe .1) and camber is max for the stock upper strut mounts (maybe -2). No camber plates. I've been struggling with the rear as those strengthened trailing arms were warped when the builder welded the steel on. Basically I've got no shims and the brackets pushed all the way in-board and had to grind some material off the brackets to get zero toe. That does give some good camber however, probably about -2.5.

We'll see how the push goes at the next event. Probably will be better considering I'll have about 400 lbs. of ballast in the car

[Emo993]

Thanks Glademister, thats great information and really nice HP. If I remember right, two turns of the tie-rod took the front from normal negative to a strong 1/8 positive toe, worked really well for auto-cross and way to darty for track events. I changed mine at every event, did not even have to jack up the car.....thanks again, I will study your data again, some good tips in there.....Best, Mark

[The Glademister]

Yesterday was the first event after installing the cage. I also had most of the ballast needed to be DP or HCR weight compliant. I had a very accomplished co-driver but he struggled with the 914 shifting. We both landed in the top 10 RAW time and PAX time out of a field of 150 drivers. Randall lead me by .15 to win the HCR class. The extra weight definitely affects acceleration but handling was good. As long as I can maintain momentum, I'll be okay. I think the cage is helping the chassis rigidity but that NCM autocross pad is super flat and without any bumps.

When the car came off the trailer, the right rear caliper parking brake locked on because the caliper bolts were falling out! I'm very thankful that didn't happen on course! That caused the parking brake arm on the caliper to get bent so about an hour and half wrestling all that back into shape. It was super hot at NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green KY and I was a ball of sweat by 7:30 AM. We drove second heat so it was probably already over 90 degrees and brutal. The only relief was on course with the breeze coming through the non-wind shield. Really good grip from the Hoosier A7s and we were spaying water on them after two runs. Again, I'm not missing the 10" wide rears at all. The 8" square set-up is fine. After eight runs oil pressure at idle was only 20 PSI which was a bit concerning but otherwise the engine ran well.

Before the next event I'll pull that caliper and properly straighten the arm out. Hopefully I'll also get some loaner scales and set the car at 2056 lbs. as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2Dx6hXZZM

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

If the idle pressure is 10 PSI or more, you should generally be fine. That's likely your oil getting up to operating temp or a bit warmer.

--DD

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

If the idle pressure is 10 PSI or more, you should generally be fine. That's likely your oil getting up to operating temp or a bit warmer.

--DD

Copy that Dave. I've also got that external oil pressure sender which FAT mounted above the fan shroud. That's a good spot but there always seems to be a very small amount of oil in that area. The hose connection is tight but I need to pull it and use some thread sealer there.

[The Glademister]

Here's what I thought was my best run at Wilmington Champ Tour last weekend. It was followed by a faster re-run (after a red flag) but I missed several shifts and coasted a lot. This 5th run felt the best and salvaged what was a trying event. The Hairy Ant Nest 914 was throwing it's belt regularly. In fact, it threw right at 45 sec. on this video. The new rev limiter 7200 rpm is helping the 2nd to 3rd transitions and I'm achieving 54 mph in 2nd gear. Note that I was up to 60 mph in the first slalom and that was quite fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XkIPiEr74