Who's Looking for Some Hot Action?, 914 Style This Weekend Options

[EdwardBlume]

Check This Out

For Nor Cal 914 and Porsche Owners, this is the first LPR PCA Autocross of the 2004 season. Come out this Sunday and have some fun. All you need is your Porsche, a helmet (loaners are available), and $30.

914 owners that will be at the WCC AX are encouraged to go to get valuable AX and AX worker experience.

Questions? Informaton? Feel free to PM, or call me at 408.370.7842 (Rob Ways).

Hope to see you there!

[nine14cats]

Hey Rob,

Have fun this Sunday. We can't make it due to a schedule conflict but we should be able to make the rest of the LPR season.

How's the car running?

Bill

[EdwardBlume]

Car runs.. I think. It needs some love for sure. We'll miss you Sunday, but I guess TTOD will just be higher now. Would you be interested in designing a track for April's AX?

[EdwardBlume]

Hope to see some Nor Cal 914s out there.... .

[J P Stein]

OOOOOh....looks like lotso nice smooth concrete...nice. Tomorrow I'll be dealing with a none too large section of low traction lumpy axphalt (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Good luck to both of us.

[SirAndy]

Hope to see some Nor Cal 914s out there.... .

brad and i will be there early. if i can get my sorry-ass out of bed @ 4:30 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Andy

[jonwatts]

You were home and posting to the BBS by 9:30!!!!????!!!!!

[SirAndy]

You were home and posting to the BBS by 9:30!!!!????!!!!!

i have a fast car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[SirAndy]

hey rob, thanks for putting this on, that was fun today! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

now i can confidently say that i suck @ AX.
and my little car does too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

so, what exactly does DNF mean on all those time-charts of mine? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
Andy

[J P Stein]

*EVERYBODY* sux the first time out. Some of us are gluttons for punishment and keep going back for more.

The car was very good today, but my driving ain't improved much. I may have squeaked into the top 20. My co-driver may have squeaked into the top 10. Next SCCA AX, we'll try the new tiars.
Nice day.....lots of folks out...prolly close to 150.

[nine14cats]

JP,

How did the suspension mods feel? I'm curious if you could tell the difference with the roller bearings and 225's.....

Bill P.

[J P Stein]

I ran these 225s all last year (R3S03s all around), so that's about the only thing I didn't change.

The bearings seem fine.....no squeaks, but the biggest difference is the shocks. They are no longer overpowered by the springs......the ride over the I-5 bridge was even decent. No more bounding over our bumpy AX course....if nuthin else, my confidence was much higher. I'm sure the bearings helped with the suppleness (?) of the ride. I can prolly go to stiffer springs in back.....they're cheep enuff, now, that I can afford a collection.

As you know, measuring performance at an AX is tough. One can only go by how you do against competitors. Both Chuck and I beat folks that beat us last year. They threw us a curve by having a short
course....TTOD was 26.9 sec (CSP Miata)...good course for a 914 (with HP),tho. Chuck went 27.5 & I went 28.5...about. Ole Chuck would have been damn close to TTOD with the new tiars, I figure.

Word from the National Tour is that the new Kuhmos are quicker than the new Hoosiers...half sec on a 60 sec course.....but they only get 16 heat cycles out of them.

[nine14cats]

Hi JP,

Thanks for the info. The heat cycle thing is a big deal. Hoosier and Goodyear slicks will get between 8 - 12 heat cycles at the track. For an auto-x, they seem to last longer but many times they don't come up to temperature because you never get to run them long enough. I'm logging the performance vs heat cycles of my current set of track tires and I'll post them after I find out.

I've talked to the Hoosier guys and they say that the auto-x specific tires such as yours and the new Kumhos are much softer than the slick compound. The slicks are made for road racing.

The problem I'm facing is that I don't want to blow my budget on another set of rims, say 17" or 18" rims in order to get the ultra sticky shoes. I'm competitive for TTOD with the canti's. I've got 5 sets of cookies that were only $50 each. Hard to want to part with the big $'s after that! If I actually had any driving talent I probably wouldn't need all of this hardware! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Bill P.

[J P Stein]

The results are out today and Chuck finished 5th OA....I wuz somewhat further back. Our region has gone to "only the first 3 runs count"...my quickest was my 4th.....figures. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Gotta work on the new(to me) seat. On 2 runs, it slid back from where I had it set under acceleration....once, clear back to the fire wall.....didn't mean to lift there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I have no idea how long the A3S04s are gonna hold up. JIC, we're only gonna run them at SCCA. The AX "heat cycle" is kinda confusing. Dunno if is it 16 events or 16 passes.....16 passes would be a show stopper.

I was looking at the SD national tour held eariler this month. All the ought6s at the top were running the Kuhmos. The guy that won SS gets em' for free.
Those cars are pretty heavy compared to the 914, so who knows? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Since Kuhmo don't make em' in my size, it's a moot point, I guess.

[EdwardBlume]

The LPR AX was a good time. We hope to see more N Cal 914s at the April 25th event. Same place, same faces, new track.

The list of 914 folks that lit up the track were:

Darren
Rich B
Sir Andy
me
Paul
& Nancy (in a 914-6 GT replica)
Mark P.
Ken H.
Brad

For newbies, Sir Andy and Darren drove hard and made strong showings. I'll post results later.

Thanks to all and we'll see you again! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[J P Stein]

The LPR AX was a good time. We hope to see more N Cal 914s at the April 25th event. Same place, same faces, new track.
For newbies, Sir Andy and Darren drove hard and made strong showings. I'll post results later.

Results!
We want results! (enter foot stomping smiley here) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Brad Roberts]

Rob... I had a blast. It was great to see "my children" ripping up the course you laid out. Darren was the sleeper surprise of the event for me. I knew you could drive and I know your car is dialed in..

RichB was NUTTY for running on 10 year old 205/60/15 A008's Yok's...LOL in a car that hadnt seen the street in 10 years (last event was a PCA parade AutoX)

Andy needs to get his car aligned and he will be fine.

I'll let everyone know that I disconnected 3 sway bars on 914's at the AutoX and everyone went faster... go figure. It helps when you have a clue and can "watch" people struggle with their cars and offer them sound advice when they come in from a run...


B

[TimT]

I read somewhere that in qualifying the fifth lap is the fastest..

Then I found this to be true

dunno much about AX though

[Brad Roberts]

I'm not a huge fan of autocross... I was basically there to support Rob and to drum up some new business for us. I vividly recall my first autoX. I was 18 and basically had NO one to assist/help/guide me so I went to help Darren and Andy for their first events.(even though I only had 4.75 hours of sleep the night before after moving all day Saturday.)


B

[SirAndy]

Andy needs to get his car aligned and he will be fine

frankly, i was amazed about how well the car was still controllable, even though it was understeering like a pig.

i mean, i had the front sliding in every corner, but it actually only spun out twice and in one out of the two occassions, i managed to get back in control before hitting the cones.

nothing like drifting through a corner in 2nd on full throttle with your front sliding and the tires screaming. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

i'm looking forward to the next event!
Andy