Brit & the shitbox @ the Wendover National tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11xqdJlhiow

looks like fun! I would like to try AX some day, but how the hell do you know where to go? I mean, all the cones look the same. Is it just videos that make it look difficult, easier to see in person?

Jeff, it is very fun and something that can help turn an okay driver into good driver. It helps you look ahead and teaches you how the car feels on the edge. It can be overwhelming the first few times but you get use to it. Plus it's not that expensive. Most places are $20-$25 to run and you can run what ever you bring

Not easier at that speed....or everyone could do it.

It's an aquired skill set. You go out & walk the course and try to make it stick in your mind......I do the walk at least twice. Then it looks enitrely different sitting in a car at 30-60 mph and things happen very fast. When you first start out in the game it's a bit overwhelming.....stuff comes at you fast......but things slow down after a few events.....you become accustomed to it....you get better at memorizing the course, also. You can't go fast till you know where you're going......then you can start working on brake points, shift points, lines.....yada....

For SCCA you only get 3 runs for official time. Local events have different rules and you get more than 3 runs, but after 3 it's usually just for fun. PCA events are much more low key and you often get 6-8+ runs all of which count for time.
You can take yourself & your car to & over the limit in safety. There is no better place to learn car control.

Car made it home without any issues? You guys had fun ?

Had fun, got sunburnt, told lies, the usual AX stuff.

The car won't run on all 6 at idle but wakes up around 3K rpms. Compression on the bad hole (#4) is real good (whew!)......searching for answers......

Yea, suspect bad spark plug wire...got a new set from Clewett on order.

Already thinking of way to get more power.

-Britain

Ayup, time has passed the 2 valve motors by at the sharp end of the field.
The beemer that won the class had 500 hp to play with.....its blower helped with that........the car is also very well developed & the driver is no slouch.
Getting big numbers from a Porsche motor is hideously expensive. Time to look to Japan, me thinks.

Kind of why I gave up on the 914 autocross thing. Can't make enough power with what we got to work with.
XP allows motor swap and such.

Rode a shifter kart and I am now incurably hooked.

Most karts make 10 pounds to one HP. so it's all about keeping up with cones that get blury in 4th and 5th gear.

Oh yeah..... soooo much fun

Yeah, and they kinda start to take on a blueish tint to them as well...

Love shifter karts!

-Josh2

Leeds Gullick has a cart he hasn't used in 5 years and told me he'd sell it to me if I want. I have really been thinking about it as my interim toy. Plus, after driving one of those other cars may seem easy

I love it when Karts come in at 5 or 6 seconds faster than the previous TTOD

Brit, you did GREAT! Taking second among the company you were keeping in XP is no small feat!

There were probably more than a dozen National Championships in the trophies there. All of the other drivers in the trophies in XP have at least one, if not more than one (or even MANY more) National Championships to their name. Way to go!

Yeah, Bob's car is a beast and a half, and with him behind the wheel, he's nearly unstoppable.

-Josh2

Yea, I had a great time. I just need more power.

-Britain

I would be thinkin' somethin' in the idle jet since it's fine over 3k... You could always throw a timing light on #4 and see if you've got fire at idle. My $.02... Congrats again.
Mark D.

Best trouble shooting advise all day. and I agree with idle jet buggered up.

The idle jet was clean, but we're not too sure about something in the idle circuit......that is tough to go after in the staging lanes. The plug has spark visible using another plug while the engine is running (don't try this without thick gloves, kids), but it appears a bit weak. The plug is wet with gas after being removed from the hole.
Compression for #4 is over 200 psi.

I'm thinking the 10+ year old plug wire is failing to deliver enough spark at the lower voltage under 3000k rpms that the MSD delivers (.050 gap), then picks up at the higher voltage
above that. (voltage to the plug virtually doubles after the multi-spark feature drops out). We'll stick with that till proven wrong.

The grip a Wendover was incredible. I never came close to getting to the limit.
The tires shed rubber without leaving any black marks on the concrete......a broom sweeping picked up a pile of rubber dust and there were no boogers stuck to the tires..just a string on the inner edges...the concrete just milled the rubber off.
Outside my experience.........

Yea when grip is good, Power is king.
But Brit paxed 14th which is extremely good.

Ayup, real good. That will usually get ya where ya want to go....unless the top PAXman is your competition.

I dont know. I think the dirt roads that I would go joy riding my dads V8 F85 Oldsmobile and his Datsun 510 taught me more about car control than any silly AX. AX is next best thing but its a little safer.

Thats the understatement of the decade if youre planning on hanging in XP. We have an XP Evo here that makes Bill D's 3.2 twin plug car look like its standing still on power courses. Evo owner is cagey about telling what his HP is but I'd call it at 450 WHP minimum. That car just explodes off turns. He can light up 4 big hoosier A6's at will in 2nd gear! He's not the fastest driver but the car is a Nationals XP contender.

His pulls from 30 to 70 MPH are mind boggling fast.

In all seriosness if XP is target class and your serious about SCCA at a national level I'd sell the Porsche and buy an older EVO. You'd have more success in AWD 500 HP Evo at half the cost of any P Car. Those Evo's are AX monsters. A lightweight XP class EVO would be tough to beat. They are beatable but they are more consistently fast across all course configurations than anything I have seen.

...Stay in FP with us underachievers. Its a lot cheaper! And rather than being down 250 to 300 HP HP from competition your only down 50 to 75 HP

2 cars in the class had less power than Brit.....one finished 3rd. The class winner had maybe the same grunt as at least one of the Cobras. Power isn't everything, but it sure helps......as long as you have the grip to go with it. The car is a joy to drive at 1800lbs. I figure it ought to stay there, but another reliable 100 hp or so would be gud. I wouldn't worry much about them FWD pigs......they handle for shit and 450 hp from a 2.0L is a grenade.

I wouldn't say that 450hp from a 2.0L turbo has to be a grenade. The European market got a limited production version of the EVO called the FQ400 that had 400hp and came with a warranty.

You're right. If you went to a big time engine builder.....bringing a fat wallet...and had them build it from the ground up, they could make it last. The fact is, most guys don't. They just keep bumping up the boost....maybe run E85 with big injectors....till it something breaks. I'm sure it's all very glorious till the .