How Much Stress does AX'ing Put on your 914, Will it break a DD? Options

[ericread]

I have a nice little stock 74 914 2.0 that is my daily driver. Like I have mentioned many times before, I put about 15,000 miles a year of daily driving on her.

I have never AX'ed my 914, and I was wondering, how much stress does AX'ing put on your 914. And where are the main points of stress? I would imagine the transmission and rear CV joints would feel a lot of stress, along with the front suspension? And maybe some major tire scuffing?

So if I decided to casually AX, how much downtime should I expect to encounter? I would love to occasionally enter an AX just to learn more about my car, but at what expense and level of downtime would I encounter?

And how much wear would I place on my transmission/CV joints/suspension/etc???

My thanks.

[Betty]

My 914 is my daily driver, I've owned it for going on 24 years now and autocrossed (hard core) for about 17 years. My car currently has 322,000 plus miles on the chassis (engine rebuilt a couple of times, transmission once) and he's as dead stock as we can possibly keep him. I drive on (and race on) street tires that are fairly sticky (I don't seem to burn through them toooo fast). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Like previous posters said, if you have any maintenance issues, they will show themself quickly... but that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. No hard launches (it's an autocross... not a freakin drag race), don't miss your shifts and the car should be just fine. These little cars were BORN to be driven around corners at speed!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

I also agree with the one poster regarding staying on your street tires at first. Spend all your time and money improving YOUR skills first. Once you start to get more comfortable, then start spending time and money improving your car... if you even want to. Many people are perfectly happy racing in their stock class.

Once you want to start spending money on the car, get a set of racing belts. You wouldn't believe the difference being "one with the car" makes! Mine just hang down behind the seat and I use the stock seat belt on the road. After that I'd go for more expensive tires.

Another way to think of the whole "improve driving skills or improve the car first" argument is.... you take your driving skills with you from car to car - improvements to the car stay with that one car. As you autocross you will develop skills that could save your life on the street; whether it's driving your 914, the family people hauler, or the company truck. The quicker you develop your skills, the safer you and your passengers will be on the road.