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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Wonderful Autocross day at Candlestick
Posted by: nine14cats Mar 11 2006, 09:45 PM
PCA-GGR had their first AX of the season today at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. All the reports of rain and surf and wind were wrong. Althoug cool, it was a beautiful sunny day for the most part.
Andrew Blyholder took TTOD in his 914 on a course designed by our own Fiid. Fiid was able to run his Suby powered 914 as well. That motor sounds great when stretching it's legs. I'm afraid Fiid's gonna need more tire under those fenders.... 
I was able to instruct a student in a Cayman today. Nice car!
And for Fritz' first AX, he didn't do too bad. After 1.5 years of AX exile, it was a blast competing again.
2 run groups and 10 runs total.
Really a great day for all!
Bill P.
Posted by: dan10101 Mar 11 2006, 09:48 PM
I hate weathermen. 
Glad you guys had a good day. We were kicking ourselves. 
Posted by: nine14cats Mar 11 2006, 09:52 PM
Dan,
Although cool in the morning, the sun was out all day. Clouds in the horizon all around us, but sunshine on top of us. And only ~60 cars (half the normal size).
Fiid designed a very challenging, technical course. Lots of twists with high speed sections. Damn it was fun!
Andrew Blyholder's TTOD was 1:02.5 or something like that. Most of the field was running ~1:10's or 1:11's.
10 runs of over a minute each. Great job Fiid! 
Bill P.
Posted by: ein 6er Mar 11 2006, 10:04 PM
| QUOTE (nine14cats @ Mar 11 2006, 07:45 PM) |
| PCA-GGR had their first AX of the season today at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. All the reports of rain and surf and wind were wrong. Althoug cool, it was a beautiful sunny day for the most part. |
annnnnnnnnnd .............
the pics are soon too follow ...... right?!?
Posted by: J P Stein Mar 12 2006, 09:42 AM
| QUOTE (nine14cats @ Mar 11 2006, 07:52 PM) |
| Andrew Blyholder's TTOD was 1:02.5 or something like that. Most of the field was running ~1:10's or 1:11's. Bill P. |
And Bill P's times were?
Posted by: grantsfo Mar 12 2006, 10:12 AM
| QUOTE (J P Stein @ Mar 12 2006, 07:42 AM) | ||
And Bill P's times were? |
If Bills times were anywhere within 3 seconds of Andrew he was screaming. If he was within 5 seconds he was still fast.
With my new six I will be happy if I get within 2-4 seconds of Andrews times this year.
Posted by: J P Stein Mar 12 2006, 10:56 AM
| QUOTE (grantsfo @ Mar 12 2006, 08:12 AM) |
| With my new six I will be happy if I get within 2-4 seconds of Andrews times this year. |
Are you doing the WCC AX?...Parade?
I have to check to see how much room I have on my skinny ass for bruises.
Posted by: 9146R Mar 12 2006, 11:06 AM
Weather forecast was AGAIN 100% wrong...I passed cuz I didnt want to run in the rain....oh well. Season is young. Kudos to Andrew for ttod and Fritz getting back out.
Greg 
Posted by: nine14cats Mar 12 2006, 01:58 PM
| QUOTE (grantsfo @ Mar 12 2006, 08:12 AM) | ||||
If Bills times were anywhere within 3 seconds of Andrew he was screaming. If he was within 5 seconds he was still fast. With my new six I will be happy if I get within 2-4 seconds of Andrews times this year. |
I ripped off an "unofficial" 1:05.005 during the afternoon. "Unofficial" since the timing slip guy didn't know if I hit any cones. For whatever reason the timing trailer was not calling out cone counts to him. I had an earlier run of 1:05.8 clean. Both times seemed to place me 2nd overall out of the field to Andrew, not counting a 996 driver on Hoosiers who was hella fast in the morning. He was in my run group, so I don't know how far down he got.
If I did hit a cone, I still should make top 5, top 10 for sure!
"Fritz" will be competitive in AX. The course design was great, but one high speed section bottomed out about 3/4's of the way down it then back up leading into a hairpin. Because of my front spoiler design (very low) that holds my front hood in place, I had to brake hard before that section. That had to cost me at least a second, maybe two.
Initially, I tried to leave the suspension settings for the big track on the car. I pushed bad all morning, running 1:09's. I loosened the front bar by over an inch and a half and took 4lbs out of the rear tires and 2 out of the front and bingo......the car was good! Gained the 4 seconds.
The 911 still won't be as nimble as our 914. You can feel the weight in the back, but it was sure fun! I hope I can make the next GGR event at Alameda. I won't have to lift there for sure....great venue....
Bill P.
Posted by: fiid Mar 12 2006, 02:07 PM
It was an awesome day.
I posted pictures (I took 250 - all of the RED rungroup (which was where Bill & Fritz were running)) here:
http://www.fiid.net/modules/gallery/pca-ax-2006-1
Lessons for the day:
1) My tires suck and in addition - I don't have enough rubber. The Ecsta 712s seem to be inferior to the Yoko Intermediates I've been running until now.
2) What works for an 80hp 1.7 doesn't work for a 180hp 2.0 turbo (mainly around rear suspension). I need some beefier springs in the back, and probably need to get some flares sorted out relatively quickly.
3) My alignment/ride height is terrible.
4) Throttle steer is fun. So is going sideways. I have to learn to drive all over again though - totally different experience with all that power.
5) Guages read better when grounded properly.
6) The cooling system actually works - even though the fan kicks in kind of late (I have a fix in mind for that.)
I was hoping for some better times - but the areas for improvement are pretty obvious at this point.
All in all - it was a blast!
Posted by: fiid Mar 12 2006, 02:10 PM
Oh yeah - my best time was a 1:14:1something.
Posted by: ppickerell Mar 12 2006, 02:26 PM
I drove by and watched for awhile. Loved that layout!
Posted by: Randal Mar 14 2006, 10:00 AM
The results are here:
http://pca-ggr.org/acresults/031106.html
Bill is back on form; he actually did pretty well considering he had to completely lift off in several places on the course due to Candlestick's elevation changes. 
Our other members also did well on fiij's course.
Congratulations to all!
Posted by: Chris Hamilton Mar 14 2006, 01:31 PM
| QUOTE (fiid @ Mar 12 2006, 12:07 PM) |
| It was an awesome day. I posted pictures (I took 250 - all of the RED rungroup (which was where Bill & Fritz were running)) here: http://www.fiid.net/modules/gallery/pca-ax-2006-1 Lessons for the day: 1) My tires suck and in addition - I don't have enough rubber. The Ecsta 712s seem to be inferior to the Yoko Intermediates I've been running until now. 2) What works for an 80hp 1.7 doesn't work for a 180hp 2.0 turbo (mainly around rear suspension). I need some beefier springs in the back, and probably need to get some flares sorted out relatively quickly. 3) My alignment/ride height is terrible. 4) Throttle steer is fun. So is going sideways. I have to learn to drive all over again though - totally different experience with all that power. 5) Guages read better when grounded properly. 6) The cooling system actually works - even though the fan kicks in kind of late (I have a fix in mind for that.) I was hoping for some better times - but the areas for improvement are pretty obvious at this point. All in all - it was a blast! |
I liked the car, you did a really clean job of mounting it ( might want to put those wires in tie wraps or cable ties though ).
1) Before you put more tire on the car I suggest stiffening up the car. Wider tires will hinder you with the 914 suspension geometry whenever the suspension travels, as you will be riding on the edges of the tires.
2) I think you should just cut a few windings off your springs in the back. That would serve the double purpose of raising the spring constant ( stiffening ), and also lowering the ride height at the same time.
Hope to see you at alameda in a month or so. We may or may not be going to Santa Rosa, depending on the status of our tow vehicle and whether we decide to run the Zone events or not.
I'll have some pictures I took uploaded soon. Crappy 1.3MP camera though.
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