There were no less than 6 914's at the VARA vintage races at Willow yesterday! Mostly -6's but at least one four. A healthy contingent of early 911's too.

Unfortunately all of my camera batteries were dead (doh!) and I didn't feel like driving back to town so I shot most of these with the crappy still cam in my DV camcorder.

3-4 of the 914-6's were prepped by the same shop, Beck's Porsche Shop in Phoenix, and were unbelieveably detailed...and FAST. I met Frank Beck and several of the Pelican board racers; nice guys.

The frontrunners turn 1:32.5 - 1:35 lap times in these cars...with NO aero, 225/50 tires, and 2.0 or 2.5 engines. That is absolutely flying!

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more - there were two sweet orange cars, might be mixing 'em up

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The baby blue car is owned/driven by a woman (Edie Arrowsmith). It was just built from the ground up, no expense spared. 2.5 full race motor, prototype 3-2-1 exhaust, the works. Unbelievably clean car.

more -- note Rennshifter

By the way one of the orange cars used to belong to Edie as well...she "let" Milt Minter have a go at it yesterday.

Um...nice trailer

Another one of the quicker cars running in group 4

If I had a working camera I could've taking hundreds of pics, there were so many neat vintage machines. The Lola and Chevron Can-Am cars are some of my favs.

Ginther style six

Some kind of Formula car with amazing fab work...and a Ford V8 behind the seat.

Back to the blue car again...mega VDO race tach

And the prototype race exhaust (shot from 150ft away, LOL). Somebody said this thing picked up substantial HP over megaphones. That cubic money thing applies here...

Very impressive cars to say the least!

Those are nice pics Mr. C. For a camcorder the pics are really good. Great composure too, Good JOB

.........b

OK, last one, I'll put the rest on my web site eventually

I'm hoping to drive with either VARA and/or HSR West in the near future. It looks like they have rules that are "friendly" to 914's (unlike POC), and friendly people too.

I was motivated by seeing these sweet sixes and came home and started tearing more stuff off my car.

Decision time...whether to keep it "street legal" (cough cough) anymore, or take the plunge to trailer-only territory. It is very marginally streetable right now but still has lights, horns, wipers and (glass) windows.

I think it's a testament to the Rennshifter that it is on the "No Expenses Spared" car and there is a Fabcar 935 shifter in one of the others.

Trailer time Chris-Go for it! I had to buy another one for the street after I made that decision though .

It would be very tough to not buy a street 911 if I go that route. And that would require selling the Audi and going back to a p-car daily driver. Thusly it would have to be a "modern" 911 to meet my commuting requirements. A 914 or Boxster wouldn't work as I need the back seat for the kid.

I still very rarely take the 914 out on public roads, twice a month at most, but it's nice to have the "option" for canyon fun runs and the like.

I see that POC just changed their rules for my class to allow door glass removal, and I can't find anything on the DMV Vehicle Code saying that door windows are required, so they will come out today. I'll leave the lights and wipers intact for now.

I should pick up the bluecar in June. It has no door windows, interior, etc...I do still plan on the occasional blast around here (with the street car's license plate on it) to scare the rice burners!

Thanks for the photos Chris. I usually run with VARA but I could not make the event this weekend. I should be at the May 15 - 16 race at Buttonwillow. Look for me if you are going to attend.

VARA and HSR do have the most 914 friendly rules. I have competition licenses with both groups. The HSR 2 liter class was a lot of fun a few years ago. Right now it seems like VARA has more to offer.

Go for it! Gut the car - lose the weight.

I am impressed with the amount of 914s that are racing now. including your race pics I have seen over 20 differant cars that were racing here in so cal within the last 30 days, most of them were well turned out. very impressive

Bernie

Chris,

thanks for the photos...
very nice turn out.
I had a question, from the pictures it looks like the red and the blue car have no rear window.. is this correct?

what do you all think about pros and cons of having or not having a rear window installed...

a few cars locally have no glass in them and the other have a half window (just behind the drivers head, but open behind the pasenger side)...

I'd love to try it for aero.. but then I worry about fire protection.. especially with a GT style engine lid, and knowing that most fires actually occur on the top of the motor where the carbs are..

what does everyone think?
brant

NONE of the VARA 914's had rear glass from what I noticed.

I thought that was pretty interesting. It should have some aero advantage (?) as it gives the air blasting in thru the door window openings somewhere to exit. But I have similar concerns about fire and engine shrapnel protection. It's pretty much academic for me as POC and HSR West require the rear glass to be in place, VARA seems to be an exception.

I am contemplating cutting some holes (3-4") in a lexan rear window to see what that seems to do, airflow wise.

The white car looks to be the same one that Tom Woolford (???) built a little while ago. He had been hawking it for $50K at the larger swap meets for the past 3 years or so. New, no existing log book, so not eligible for SCCA or PCA racing due to the chopped windscreen.

Was he trying to sell it there, or did someone finally take it off his hands?

--DD

It does look quite similar, but I don't think it is the same car, as Tom's had some distinctive elements re. the rollcage and especially the rear oil cooler and lid and frankly looked a bit more "polished" than this car seemed. (Although a few weekends at Willow can do wonders to a once shiny-and-new racecar.)

Justin Desimone is listed as the driver for the white 06 car.

Chris,

I don't know about out there... but locally for vintage purposes if you tell them the holes are for driver comfort and cooling then its more legal.. as opposed to defining the holes as an aerodynamic aid which is not legal...

In classes where legality doesn't matter they locally put a half rear lexan window in... cover up the drivers side and leave open the passengers side.

Some of the local vintage guys run spyder cars with no glass.... so I think I could probably argue to get my glass out... but I'm not sure I want to for safety reasons.....

I'll probably punch a few holes in the passenger side and leave it at that...

also, I modified my roof a bit and created a 2inch gap between the targa bar and roof panel to allow more air out....

b

Great shots Chris. We had 2 914's at the NASA Buttonwillow event this weekend. Both full blown 3.2/3.4 ltr bad boys running in our fairly new race group called PRC (Porsche Race Club)


B

If so, I'd attach some ribbons by the holes to see which way the air goes. It might actually come in due to higher pressure on the other side, I don't know. But I wouldn't want to assume I was venting the cockpit when I was in fact robbing air from the motor. Just a thought.
Nice pics, by the way Chris. Thanks.

Good point about potentially effing up the airflow above the engine intake.

Until it gets blazing hot around here, I'll start off with a solid lexan window... I have a 3" inline fan setup to the cowl intake to help address the "driver comfort" department on those 130° track temp days.

BTW there are more pics -- more early 911 oriented but still very nice -- on the Pelican board here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread....threadid=157021