The Official Spec Boxster Build, 914Club Style! Options

[Brad Roberts]

B the cage is ~$3k mig'ed and ~$4k tig'ed

-tony

Thank you sir (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



B

[Brad Roberts]

Why am I into these cars?

I'm beat up and worn out on fixing all the small things that happen to a 914 when they are tracked. I feel like I'm constantly chasing a small leak or headache of some sort with the 914 track cars.

7k and you get a new factory Porsche engine installed by the dealer for the Boxster (2.5)

99% of the RMS issues have been dealt with (IF) the owner had the service work done at a dealer (check paperwork) If not.. then go to the class legal light flywheel/clutch setup and do the RMS. GT3 street cars leak...LOL

I'm sure we sill see more issues, but I closely followed a east coast race team that ran Boxsters in Grand Am for several years back to back. Their biggest complaint was wheel bearings and keeping the alignments set in the rear of the car.


B

[echocanyons]

So do/can you "delete" the power brakes and power sterring in a car like this or leave it stock?
(I noticed you said the power steering gave you problems).

[Brad Roberts]

No need. The ABS and Power steering are some of the awesome features built into these cars. I personally havent had any issues with the power steering in the 2.5 car, but several S owners have had issues. I'm not sure if it is driving style or what, but the answer is a small Earls style oil cooler in-line with the pump (or slow the pump down with a different pulley)

I can only think of a few times that I have actually engaged the ABS. You dont use the brakes that often in a 2.5 car once you figure out how to drive it.

This Dec. I'll pull out the first set of brake pads we put into the car. They latested a full year with multiple track events and multiple AutoX's. The key is: cooling. GT3 street cooling ducts snap right onto the stock Boxster lower control arms nearly doubling the cooling from the stock pieces.



B

[Brad Roberts]

I think the Boxster is a better route for me long term.

You know I love the 914's, but reality is for me: (IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

Ultimate would be for me to have a 914 AutoX car and the Boxster track car.

The Boxster class BSR1 and BSR2.. BSR1 is a Boxster wih full interior and Brey Krause extensions that has ALL the same suspension components and third radiator, but doesnt have the full cage and isnt gutted. This will allow people to "graduate" to road racing by running their cars in AutoX and Time trials before making the jump to fully gutted and fully caged. Same tires as BSR2!!

I found this to be a GREAT idea considering that not everyone wants a full cage.



B

[nine14cats]

I just got Lucille back from Sportech. She looks pretty slammed but we can go lower. I didn't want to bottom her out just yet because I want to maintain as much shock travel as possible. Right now it's an eyeball job on how low to go in comparison to the shock travel. I will leave it for the AX and the first track day as is to get a baseline.

Initial settings are:

Front
====
At the current ride height the most camber we could get was -2.75 degrees. Toe is set for zero.

We did not touch initial ride height from where the build team set it.

Rear
===
We set the camber at -3.0 degrees. Toe in is set at - 1/16".

We lowered the rear another 1/4" from where the build team set it. The car now has 0.5 degree rake.

The gutted muffler sounds GREAT! I'll dyno it in a few weeks. We're hoping to pick up a few HP on the upper end of the power band for the track.

I drove the car around the neighborhood with the new alignment. The car's handling is killer!....lightning quick and very stable. I took it up over 100MPH on the expressway and it's just like a cruise on the highway....this thing is going to be one nice car!

Tonight I get to readjust the driver's seat, quick disconnect steering wheel...run belts, tie wrap all the wire hanging everywhere, and put on the roll bar padding. Oh...I need to wash the car and put on numbers before loading too....

Other than the seat, it should all go pretty quick.

Can't wait for tomorrow's AX.

Bill P.

[DanT]

Bill, see you in the early Am tomorrow. Was great to see Doris...
She looked pretty excited about the car...
I am looking forward to instructing her next year. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

With the course we have for tomorrow I am predicting a top 10 for Lucille's maiden voyage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/burnout.gif)

[DanT]

Bill, Did the custom muffler sound as good as you thought it would?

I want to see and hear the car driven in anger tomorrow (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Randal]

Bill, Did the custom muffler sound as good as you thought it would?

I want to see and hear the car driven in anger tomorrow (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

keep that thought (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[McMark]

Bill, did the rear window come out?

[nine14cats]

Well, well....It's 4:14am the day of the GGR AX. It took me the entire night to re-assemble the car. Ran into some fun with the belts as the pull up type lab belts don't like the Sparco's. Schroth doesn't leave enough length on the belts to have the strap rachets slide through the belt hole in the seat. You basically cannot tighten your lap belt. After some fiddling I found a temporary solution that wil work, but I will order some pull down lap belts next week.

Roll bar padding took awhile as I had to trim quite a bit to fit the custom cage and top. Lots of time spent shaving the foam.

All the wiring is zip tied and the airbag door has been velcroed in.

she is now loaded on the trailer and ready to go. I just have to decide if I should laydown for an hour or just stay up.

Man...I'm tired... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Bill P.

[nine14cats]

Bill, did the rear window come out?

Hi Mark,

I haven't had time to play with the rear window. I'll try to get to it when I return from my business trip.

Thanks,

Bill P.

[J P Stein]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif)
In 5-6 years of AX, I've had 2 breakdowns(not including the time I ran out of gas)......both simple fixes. To tar the 914 as unreliable due to lousy building or maintenance (or a T-4 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ).....sounds like a personal problem.

[Brad Roberts]

I'm beat up and worn out on fixing all the small things that happen to a 914 when they are tracked. I feel like I'm constantly chasing a small leak or headache of some sort with the 914 track cars.

Are you getting old?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/alfred.gif) TRACK CARS.. Tired of fighting TRACK cars.. I said I would have 914 AutoX car.

Super easy to maintain a car that runs hard for 30min. a year (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



B

[J P Stein]

We were off a bit this year....only 130ish passes.
It has been up to 180 some years & 150 minutes of track time.
Granted, I do some heavy maintainance come winter....but then just drive.

And, yes I am getting old, but I did read your mention of "track"....was that W2W racin' or DE? How many 914s have you run in those events lately?....your build or someone else's?

[DanT]

maiden voyage went pretty well.

Rode with Bill on his first 3 runs this morning. Car handles great. Immediated turn in, good throttle response, car rotates nicely.

All with base suspension settings.

I'll let Bill reveal his times but I think he finished pretty much where I predicted he would.

By the way the 914club was well represented today.

Tom was there with his son and 914aroo, Demick, Trekkor, Myself and a couple others that I don't know.
Demick and Trek got into the 46s, I had a 47+ with the orange putput.
Grant was scrubbing in his new tire/wheel combination on the Mazdaspeed6, and Nathan was there shredding tires with the Firehawk.

As usual The Smurf was way up on everyone. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[nine14cats]

Spec Boxster Plus driving impressions:

WOW!.....

Randal will need to post his impressions but I was truly suprised how good the platform was out of the box for us. We set the AR bars neutral and the shock rebound full soft and combined with the 450/500 springs the car was a delight to drive right from the start. We could run the car flat out on the high speed parts and yet turn very easily in the low speed stuff. That is very different from Fritz or from my earlier 914-6 which required me to adjust my AR bars for an either / or combination.

We definitely me our goal of putting the car in the top 10. On raw times we may have stuffed the car in the top 5, but I was so tired I didn't read the entire posting sheet and our second set of runs I just wanted to drive and not fiddle. For the afternoon Randal and I just drove the car, we didn't even bother checking tire temps anymore.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chairfall.gif)

I'd never flogged a Boxster except at an AX school with a studen't car. The Spec Boxster Plus feels like a slightly bigger, heavier 914 with alot of torque, and this from the 2.5L small motor version. I have been so lucky to drive some pretty fun cars, my 914-4 and my 914-6, Fritz, and now the Boxster. Taking lap times out of the equation, and based totally on the fun factor, my 914-6 was always my favorite for AX and Fritz for the track. Our Spec Boxster is easily my favorite now for AX. And soon we will be testing on the track and we'll see how that goes.

For various reasons (financial being a large part) we will keep the Spec Boxster at the mandated 2700lbs per the Spec series rules. However, the long term plan is to change the car to a lighter version with more power, all the while keeping the car narrow body for ease of double duty (AX and Track). So we'll be collecting parts that will help lighten the load (i.e. f/g lids and such), and deciding how to get more power (2.5L mods? stuff in a 3.2 "S" motor? stuff in a 996 3.4?, etc).

The evolution of the car has just begun, but if anyone wants more detail just ask me. I'll be glad to share our experiences with you, including cost. And I'm sure any of the build team would be glad to tell you what was good, bad, ugly or funky about the car.

I really believe this platform is going to be a good one for me to enjoy my weekend racer fantasies!

And again, I want to thank the build team for all the help.

THANK YOU to the Spec Boxster build team:

McMark
SirAndy
Brad
Dan (Almaden Valley)
Randal
Special Guest Ken J. from the Boxster Racing Board (unofficial photographer)

I really owe you guys big time!

Bill P.

[Randal]

Spec Boxster Plus driving impressions:

WOW!.....

Randal will need to post his impressions but I was truly suprised how good the platform was out of the box for us. We set the AR bars neutral and the shock rebound full soft and combined with the 450/500 springs the car was a delight to drive right from the start. We could run the car flat out on the high speed parts and yet turn very easily in the low speed stuff. That is very different from Fritz or from my earlier 914-6 which required me to adjust my AR bars for an either / or combination.

We definitely me our goal of putting the car in the top 10. On raw times we may have stuffed the car in the top 5, but I was so tired I didn't read the entire posting sheet and our second set of runs I just wanted to drive and not fiddle. For the afternoon Randal and I just drove the car, we didn't even bother checking tire temps anymore.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chairfall.gif)

I'd never flogged a Boxster except at an AX school with a studen't car. The Spec Boxster Plus feels like a slightly bigger, heavier 914 with alot of torque, and this from the 2.5L small motor version. I have been so lucky to drive some pretty fun cars, my 914-4 and my 914-6, Fritz, and now the Boxster. Taking lap times out of the equation, and based totally on the fun factor, my 914-6 was always my favorite for AX and Fritz for the track. Our Spec Boxster is easily my favorite now for AX. And soon we will be testing on the track and we'll see how that goes.

For various reasons (financial being a large part) we will keep the Spec Boxster at the mandated 2700lbs per the Spec series rules. However, the long term plan is to change the car to a lighter version with more power, all the while keeping the car narrow body for ease of double duty (AX and Track). So we'll be collecting parts that will help lighten the load (i.e. f/g lids and such), and deciding how to get more power (2.5L mods? stuff in a 3.2 "S" motor? stuff in a 996 3.4?, etc).

The evolution of the car has just begun, but if anyone wants more detail just ask me. I'll be glad to share our experiences with you, including cost. And I'm sure any of the build team would be glad to tell you what was good, bad, ugly or funky about the car.

I really believe this platform is going to be a good one for me to enjoy my weekend racer fantasies!

And again, I want to thank the build team for all the help.

THANK YOU to the Spec Boxster build team:

McMark
SirAndy
Brad
Dan (Almaden Valley)
Randal
Special Guest Ken J. from the Boxster Racing Board (unofficial photographer)

I really owe you guys big time!

Bill P.

Driving impressions:

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

To get into a newly modified car, without having driven it more than 500 yards and feel as comfortable as both Bill and I did is saying something.

As Bill mentioned we didn't have to change a thing on the car...

I don't know how to describe this accurately, but this is definitely a car that you have to drive way out in front, i.e., it doesn't reward late or dramatic input. In other words if I ran off the track it wasn’t due to under steer, but to a late turn in that was going to force me off the track in any event (driver error).

No question this is the quickest car to turn I have ever driven. At 2600-2700lbs that's impressive. You’ve got to love it when a car is totally neutral.

The car tracks well, i.e., straight, cornering or slide slipping, although to test the limits of this car we will need to run slicks or AutoX DOT’s to find out how fast we can corner. The track tires were OK, but not a good indication of how fast this car can corner.

After driving Fritz I was a bit reluctant to really pound the brakes, so I can’t give you any impression on how the anit-lock brakes should have been working. I felt them only once and that was in a high speed spin, i.e., both feet in... Lots of time left out there under braking.

I reached the corning limit in only one corner, i.e., the small left hand sweeper that turned back towards the finish and that was a totally controllable 4 drift. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

Oh, and thanks again Trekkor for that piece of roll bar padding. Elbows and naked roll cages don't do well together.

Wonderful car Bill.

[nine14cats]

Action picks from GGR#9....from street car to Spec in 8 days.....

Dan Thompson and I at the sweeper at end of course....

Bill P.

[nine14cats]

another...

Dan Thompson and I braking and turn in after the high speed section of the course....