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Lots of little things to do:
Here's the car with the original owner (and steel wheels): Attached thumbnail(s) 
First a little background story - My other '74 2.0 was recently damaged when my next door neighbor backed into it in our parking lot. Short version is that they're insurance gave me a wad of cash for the repairs (which I'll do mostly myself) and instead I used the money to purchase Dug Wright's '74 914 2.0. The "new" car is a real time capsule. Dug was only the second owner, and the original owner kept the car exceptionally maintained and held on to nearly all the service records. I've started to scan in all of the service sheets (most of which I won't bore you with), but here are some of the fun bits:   He had the stamp areas filled in three times each. The last entry was in '04 and shows over 300k documented miles! You'd never know it by looking or driving the car. More on that later.
A bunch of us went out to the Sonoma County Airport today for the PCA Redwood Region's monthly auto-x event. There were a bunch of 914club folks there, with a total of ten or so 914s. The weather was great, if not just a little on the warm side. I forgot a hat and my hair is buzzed, so I'm baked even though I was slathered in sunscreen. I made a post about the run in the paddock, so I'll steal a bit of text from that. I had gone out expecting that a) my car would be mess on the track and that B) I'd be a mess too. I've never auto crossed a 914 before, and I purchased this 914 just a month ago. However, I think we (the car and I) did rather well. The car's suspension seemed great and well tuned, though it feels like it may be swaying more when turning one direction than when turning the other. Could be my imagination, so I'll need to look into that. The car certainly needs an alignment either way, as the current alignment is a big unknown and I need to work out the little bit of tail happiness that’s there. I don't think I pushed the front end out once today. I had an instructor with me on my first run, and he said that I did really well and that he could only suggest a few things to help shave off some time. He though it best if I stay in 2nd for the whole course and that I not take the shikane (how do you *really spell that?) so wide. I was flattered, though I know some better instruction will take me further. He seemed genuinely pleased though, and I he walked away with a big grin and said he hoped I'd come out to more events. With the instructor in the car, I ran a 52.584. Without his arse in the seat I ran a 51.62. My practice lap without him in the car was a bit sloppy, though my timed lap was a bit better. My exit speed out of the go-kart section of the track (tight little turns) sucked on that lap though, and I wonder how much more time I could have shaved off had I run in the afternoon with another try or two. I know the fast cars were running 47'sh laps, so I don't feel like I did a lousy job today. I had a remote video camera pod mounted to the front-left fender, in front of the wheel, and got a good video of my instructorless run: http://www.sonic.net/randyw/914club/autox/autox.wmv 33 MB Windows Media File Attached thumbnail(s) 
Quick summery of what I've done since the last post:
Tomorrow I'm headed off to the Sonoma County Airport to auto-x with the Redwood Region PCA. Wish me luck! Borrowed Eli's cone cam setup (thanks Eli!), will post video:  
I've been doing a lot of busy work with the 914. In no particular order:
Ordered a set of sticky Falken tires for the 914 today. They'll be here mid-month!
"About every car in the stockish SCCA AutoX classes WON this past year at the SoloII Nationals in Topeka on Falkens. They last. They stick. They are affordable. They work really really well for the weight of our cars." "Run them 39 front, 41 rear ( cold ) for the a/x. Reset before every run." Followup to above numbers: "Those pressures are way too high for the 615s. I have been running between 32 and 33 front and back this season with good results. They have fairly stiff sidewalls and so there is little rollover at 32psi - just beginning to wear the little triangle. At 39 you won't be using all of the tread. They stick great on wet pavement. I ran them at the autocross at Marina where we got rained out and they did just fine." "I like Falkens (Azenis Sport RT 615), but they do have limited life and can be dangerous in the rain after about 50% of their tread life. Nothing comes close to the Falken on dry pavement. I expereinced quite a few slow leaks with Falkens compared to Bridgestones and Dunlops I have used. Probably due to tires getting sticky in summer after a few hot corners and picking up more debris than other street tires. Its a great street/AX tire." "Great stick and pretty good durability, especially if you plan to use it as a dual purpose tire." "Azenis are great 'compromise' street tires. 205/50's just fit my car with stock fenders/fuchs. With stock gearing, 3500 5th = 72mph, so speedo is about 10% off." "The great thing about the Falkens is that their lateral grip in the wet is outstanding - you can pitch the car sideways and they just dig in. Its braking, and high speed hydroplaning that I found to be the problem with these tires when standing water is a variable."
Did a bunch of work tonight, but didn't have the camera with me. Here's what I did:
 
 This blog is intented to track the work that I've done to this 1974 Porsche 914 2.0. General Information:
  | 1974 Porsche 914 2.0 Marathon Blue
The latest addition to the fleet!
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Oct 11 2008, 01:13 PM