[Roger 911]

I thought I'd give a little update on how my 3.2 conversion is treating me. In a word, "Awesome"!

Road America - I had it up at Road America over Labor Day. This was really a great place to gauge the difference in performance, since I have been doing DEs up there pretty consistently over the last 15 years. I did 5x25 min sessions. I think by my 3rd or fourth session, I was already turning lap times about 3 seconds faster than my best ever lap time. And I really wasn't pushing it very hard, probably 8/10ths. I was able to "comfortably" extract a lot more performance from the car. I know I wasn't working hard because unlike all the previous times there, my arms and upper body were not really sore at all the next day. All in all, that was kind of indicative of the whole experience that weekend, "comfort". Using the Hawk Blue/Black combo also was a huge improvement. No brake issues at all. Actually, they were biting so hard, I was locking up quite a bit till I got used to this. I think this was the first time I have taken this car to a DE and never had to twist a wrench all weekend. Flawless!

Road Trip, SCCA Run Offs - We (my son and I) took the 911 back up to Elkhart Lake this past weekend to watch the Run Offs. This was the first real "road trip" since the drive-train swap. Again, flawless! Its nice to be in 5th gear and just hit the throttle to pass. No downshifting needed. I was also curious to see how it would handle cold starting, after sitting out all night in temps reaching down into the high 30s. No problem. Fired right up, chugged for a few seconds, then settled into a nice high idle around 1800 rpm, gradually came down as it warmed up a bit. As much as I sometimes miss the sound of my M&K race mufflers from my old 2.4, this was not one of those times. It was actually nice to cruise steadily around 3000-3200 rpms and listen to the stereo for a change. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE 911 engine sounds. But for a 2+ hour trip, a little "rock-n-roll" doesn't hurt either.

Oh, I should also mention that in close to 2000 miles of driving, including two DE events, the motor has consumed less than a quart of oil (probably more like a pint).

Roger