McMark is going to put the new flares on. He will also be widening the 11 inchers if we need additional clearance for the Gotti/Avon wheel / tire combination.

Getting closer to being back out there.

I'll have to pop in for a peek.


KT

Let me know if you still want those 9" flares.

Are keeping the same two tone theme? What type of flares?

I got the flares from Patrick Motor Sports, as that is what I had originally and the wider ones will almost match the valiance.

Yea, same paint theme, although they might be white for a bit. Will get around to painting them midnight blue this winter.

I would like to paint the entire car midnight blue.

I really like the two tone theme with riveted flares. I got my inspiration from the car on Patrick Motorsports site which looks eerily similar to your car although my flares are black. Either way you go I can't wait to see yours when its done with the Gottis mounted.

I was going to paint them the same color as the car, but also saw the PMS 914 and thought midnight blue would look good on all the FG stuff.

The riveted flares have worked well. Absolutely no drama and given the venues I run I didn't want to see any cracks show up.

The flares I'm running are the Rennspeed ones. They are fairly thin and very light but have held up so far this year.

Light is good.

I'm taking about a 100# hit with the substantial cage built into the car for hill climbs.
On the other hand I wouldn't run the hills without the cage, so it's the price of admission.

If I was just running autox then I'd find ways (like Bill Charron) to get the car stiff without a cage. I think his car is about +/- 100# lighter than mine. All of Bill's modification have been really unique and work.

Actually that is an interesting question. How to get the front end stiffness without bars to the towers / and bars down to the torsion mounts in front? Same for the rear.

JP seam welded the entire car for a start. Wow.

I really need to start stiffening up my car. I was thinking a rollbar that ties into the front and rear towers, not necessarily a cage because the car still drives on the street occasionally. What's held me back is the weight penalty. I held off on boxing the inside longs and the gt kit because they look like a bandaid. Not sure which way I want to go yet. The car is 1885 lbs with 1/4 tank.

You ought to talk to Bill. He has made his car stiff without a cage.

Bill?

Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Oh, Mark has welded-in my rear fender quarter where the paint was/has been bubbling for about 8 years. I bought the replacement piece from a guy in Sacramento, Mark cut out the (pie) slice and welded in new.

So whatever rust was there is gone.

Here is the ugly.

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Here is the the fixed product.

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Flares in the process of being made wider to fit the big Avons.

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Here is the inside wheel clearance..... maybe too much. Might have to find a 4" outer barrel or have the Orville guys cut mine down to 4". I have a 7" inner barrel that would move the tire an inch closer. Don't want to be driving a firetruck through the autox course.

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As always, GREAT WORK BY ORIGINAL CUSTOMS

I measured your overall track width and with the current setup, you're gaining about 3" overall measured at the outside edge of the contact patch.

You said overall track width, i.e., the difference with the canti's mounted vs the Avon's measured from tire to tire. If that difference is only 3" I'm a happy camper.

Saw it in person. Looking good!

Randal. I can use those flares if you are getting rid of them!

KT

We will work out a deal Trekkor!

Mark is making great progress or should I say the car is done.

Nice thing about working with Mark is that he checks everything. And during this process he found a couple of faults in my car that he fixed. Things that keep the wheels from falling off, i.e., rear wheel bearing and the wheels bolted on (stud stripped where the spacers were).

Don't want wheels falling off during a hill climb.

Mark also put a set of drilled CV bolts on. Take a look at the picure.

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very nice progress.


KT

Bill Charron who drives a beautiful narrow body yellow 914. He comes to this site, but mostly hangs out at AXPaddock.com (Bill C).

On this site his user name is: Borderline

How about making a mould of those rear flares

If I were just running autox's then I'd do the standard SCCA type cage, but tie that to the front shock towers and torsion bar locations/ rear shock towers, using some lighter material. The regulation bar I used throughout is about a pound a foot. I probably have 80+ pounds (maybe more ) in mine, but I wanted a super strong cage.

Bill Charron built a CF roof and his car really stiffened up. If you could apply that type of technology to the extremities (shock towers, torsion bar locations) it would be light, strong and the car would be super stiff.

You could get a 100# out of your car without huge expense. Like putting FG skins on for the doors would save you that. PITA to remove the doors and install the skins for every event, but 100#'s is like finding a huge amount of HP..

Can fiberglass doors be made to work with hinges, latches, and window glass? I need to run glass windows in SSM. I have been eyeing the doors for awhile now. The car is a 75 with impact beams. I know there's a ton of weight to be had there.

If you get a couple of spare doors you can cut everything out and run plastic glass. You can get rid of the mechanism if the rules allow.

Bet you could get those doors down to 25lbs. Mine (stock doors) are about 12lbs., so 25lbs wouldn't be hard, just a bunch of work.

Hey 25lbs times 2 is 50lbs. You'd feel that power increase.

A top like Bills is really light and adds to the car stiffness.

i would love to know what "bill" did, but cant find him anywhere, not here and not on ax. would anybody have a link. thanks.

Bill usually hangs out at AXPADDOCK.com. His user name is Bill C

Send him an email over there and I'm sure he will respond.

Looking fantastic, Randal. I can't wait see it. I'll be putting my car on a serious diet this winter. It really needs to shed some pounds. You planning on running with LPR next year? It would be great to battle it out with you and 222.

Come up to Medford the first weekend in October and we can battle it out in the Medford Fall Enduro. A great event. Really fun. Also challenging.

If the weather isn't hot I might run the Avon's.

I would love to go to Medford but I chose to go on vacation this year with Maria so Medford will have to be next season. You will have had several of the enduros under your belt by then so I'll have to be on my game to get within a few seconds of you but the chase will be worth it.

I am now a new tire convert. Nothing like good rubber

I can't wait to discover what you already have.

Why not a vacation in South Oregon I say?

I see there is some interest in my C/F targa top. It is about the best thing I ever did to my car. The stock chassis is so flexible that I couldn't feel even the most dramatic change in suspension setting. I made a mold of the stock targa top and then made a C/F top from it. I then bonded the top rigidyl in place and it worked wonders!!! It even gives me some protection from the rain. hehehe

Here is a photo before I painted it to match the car.

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Here's a more current photo with the top painted and the 13" wheels.

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Hey Bill,

Absolute labor of love Bill. And the fact that your car doesn't flex as much says that your top is the first thing any new racer should do. I mean think about it!

For all you racers out there, Bill's car will just about break you neck when he turns. Best turning 914 I've ever been in...

This is definitely on my list to do. Some great ideas here. Thanks for sharing.

Well one flare came out great, the base coat that is.

The other one that I started with didn't. I thought the compressor was supposed to be 25lbs., but that ended up shooting splotches.

So I increased the pressure and it worked better, as you can see by the first flare below.

Anyway, I got pissed off and totally stripped the first flare taking all the primer and a bunch of putty off. WRONG! Should have just let it dry and then hit it with 600 and then re shot the entire flare.

Painting is easy to get wrong.

So I've puttied the worst parts and will wet sand (220) the entire flare again then shoot it later this PM.

Good flare:

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Bad flare:

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Painted the clear and it actually looks OK.

In my zealousness to get a mirror finish I ended up with a couple of nice runs, but will sand those out tomorrow, then hit them with clear again.

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Paint dried quickly, so sanded out the runs and re-sprayed the clear.

Didn't turn out badly. With a little color sand it would be very nice, but hey, this is a race car, so the flares go on tomorrow..

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That is a great looking blue.

Hay, that's my line.......

Hi JP

Got one on. Hardly looks any different.

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Looks awesome buddy.

Um... yep

Looks great. I see stickers on them tyres

Hi ya, Mikey. How they hangin'?

A tad bit lower every year but not quite dragging yet. The back went south on me about two months ago and ain't never come around so I'll need to go see if the pros can tell me something I wanna hear or if it will take some cuttin'. I'm taking my time though and it isn't helping the situation none. All in all its been better than some and still fun. You on the mend? Randy's getting serious on us here, huh? 222 looks wicked and man it goes like stink. We are gonna have some fun next season.

Hey Randal? You going to make it to the last LPR event of 2012?