We are trying to find some free/cheap upgrades to make to our stock(ish) 74 914. If you missed it, we are Teamgravy Racing (Teamgravy Facebook) and recently raced our car at the 24 hours of LeMons Eagle Canyon Raceway and took 2nd place in class as well as the Index of Effluency (most coveted award at a LeMons race).

Now we are looking for more speed. The LeMons guys talk about the 914 as a terrible option for endurance road racing and we are on a quest to prove them wrong.
See the wrap up video from our race where they dis the 14 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...;v=jvtRq7rPn28#!

What we are looking for are some cheap to free options to make the car quicker but not sacrifice durability. The next race of the season for us is a true 24 hour straight race in MSR in Houston.

For example Mike (old914dog suggested at the last race we add some camber to the front end by loosening up the shock mounts and pulling them together with a ratchet strap.

What else is cheap/free? We are looking for a cheap dual carb setup (current single webber progressive 32/36) to get more power but looking for cheap reliable power if possible.
Thanks,
Daryl - Teamgravy Racing
car specs:
1974 914
1.8 with carb conversion
gutted no extra weight
roll cage
Stock gas tank
Stock 15" wheels 4 lug with dunlop direzza z1

Cheapest way to go faster is to lose weight. Completely strip the the interior and front trunk and do the same for the back trunk. Cut out trunk floor. You can also lose 40lbs (each) by stripping the doors, but make sure you have some NASCAR type door bars or the car won't be safe. Also build a CF or fiberglass roof and glue it in place. This will make the car tons stiffer and is lighter.

Switch to Lexan windshield/rear glass.

Lose the engine lid.

Next find some cookie cutters and put them on. They only weigh 13-14lbs so big savings there and it's all un-sprung weight. Yea you'd have to convert to 5 lug, but lots of information on this site how to do that cheaply.

Wilwood calipers will lose a bunch of un sprung weight

Fiberglass hood and trunks save a bunch of weight but not cheap.

Install needle bearings at every suspension point, i.e., trailing arms / torsion bars

Lose the headlight motors. When driving at night figure out a manual setup and lock.

What are you using for front and rear bumpers

Put an aluminum plate where the rear brake light assembly now resides and install a light weight cheap brake light.

Cut the rear valance out of the trunk

Carefully corner balance the car and set the camber / toe in. Vast improvement in handling here.

And remember:

Slot the holes in the tub and cut down the camber plates to get more camber in front. What about running a large duct to the fan to help ram cold air to the engine?

- Get rid of that boat anchor single carb. They suck. Big time.

- Good exhaust system.

- Less weight

- Seat time for the driver. The 914 is a momentum car. You need to learn to drive it that way.

- TALLER tires. That depends on the track, but if you don't have many tight low speed corners, taller tires can help you keeping up the momentum. See previous bullet point.

- Optimize the gearing of the transmission for the track you'll be running. Remeber, it's a momentum car.

- Aero drag. Limit the drag as much as possible and take care to eliminate as much of the air *under* the car as possible.

Ah! Another aero trick I've been wanting to try is to add spacers to the back of the roof creating a "slot". This supposedly helps break the vacuum/turbulence behind the rear window and helps reduce lift.

Lots of pics on our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/Teamgravy/photos_stream

We did most of the weight removal (see pics) already. Haven't cut any material out from body yet but may consider that.

Made a alu air-dam for the front, missing original valance.
bumpers are stock - nasty black rubber pads. They add weight for sure but not sure of the contact in LeMons racing we put them on.

No brake lights (single lightweight plastic wired up and sold originals for cash)
Rear window lexan now
Roof is already ALU rivited on
We have to run the engine cover per rules

Even removed the hinges and springs from hood/trunk, may try to make a fiberglass versions. We have taken most everything out to make it as light as possible.

We rebuilt the calipers and put in porterfield pads so probably won't change brakes/rotors out for next race but wondering which willwoods fit the 914 (stock rotor or only 5 lug conversion).

So needle bearings for suspension bushing... Where can I find those? Hard enough to find the stock style suspension bushings.

Light assemblies are gone, anyone want to buy them? Items for Sale - we are going to need something for the next race it's 24 hours straight but have some cheap hella's from my off road car we can use.

May try to build a splitter, the front end gets loose at high speed when the gas tank gets low.
Any cheap options for back here: Someone mentioned a Holly option?

Gotta get rid of that Single Carb & gets a set of Duel Webers - that Single is Butt Terrible

Hey there. We're building a Chumpcar, along similar lines/rules.

I can't think of much else to add that these guys haven't.

I'd stick with the brakes you already have. If the car can lock them up, there isn't much point in going to something bigger/more expensive (although aluminum calipers might save you some weight). I think about it this way - these cars don't reach near the straightaway speeds as others, so you really shouldn't be using the brakes much anyway. My driving coach T.C. taught me that one.

Regarding the headlights - don't cheap out on this one. Trust me. I've driven at night at Sebring with a car that had HID lights, though they weren't aimed well. Anything less would have been undriveable. If you can't see where you are going, you can't drive safe, OR fast. This is one of the most overlooked parts of 'cheapo' endurance racing, in my opinion.

Pretty sure that either Chris Foley (Chris Foley welding) for McMark (on this site) has the bearings.

Did you say how much your current wheels weigh?

You can get rid of the standard steering wheel/ lock assembly and save some weight. Just a straight shaft running to the U joint with some sort of heim joint holding the shaft.

Cutting out the trunk and venting the rear trunk will save you pounds. Also makes it a ton easier to work on the transmission/ CV's.

I here ya on the lights. We run a off road race car at night where there is only moonlight to assist. I was thinking of taking my light bar off the O/R car and mount them somehow on the 14.

Four 70watt HID lights with 9" reflector. Tho I think the rules say they have to be below the roof-line so not sure I fit them on the bumper.

So dual whats? Been checking the classifieds trying to find something reasonable. Would two single barrel carbs be much better than this 1 duel barrel carb.

I'll be running the 24 Hours at MSR as well. Should be a ball. I'll probably be in a '95 Mustang.
It'll be great to see a 914 out there.

Chad, throw out a tow rope to the Gravy's when you go by!

Put in a different engine?
For us, the swap worked within the chump Car rules as well as real world dollars. We were able to sell the Type 4 and use the proceeds to cover most of the cost of our swap.

Basically, complete 2.0 T4 = cheaper common engine + junkyard radiator + used adapter + 2" square tubing to make front mount.
Transaxle and clutch remain the 914 items.

We are also doing an econo 5-bolt upgrade by drilling the rear hubs and fitting 911 front struts - the ones with the 3" ears that limit caliper choice - not an issue for us and dirt cheap as nobody wants them.

Today I spent the afternoon going through the chassis cutting off everything not required with a zip disc.

No one thing weighed a lot, but the bag of garbage was surprisingly heavy when done.


Regards,
AM

Click to view attachment

time, a drill, and this.

Create air flow:

Click to view attachment

What purpose do the hood seals serve at this point?

Excess weight to keep me near 1721#.

Cut out the impact strengtheners in the doors, they weigh a lot. Angle grind them out at each end with a small diameter disc. Careful not to cut into the door skin.

I am not sure about your rules for this.

Do you have door bars in your cage?

For a chump car type setup, I am not thinking about pretty, but less wieght.
cut a majority of the sheet metal off...rivet on aluminum panels to the remaining edge.

Remove the door skin and replace it with aluminum.
Rear trunk lid, aluminum, no hinges, 4 pins to holds the corners.
That one can be no frame, just use the lid as a template...then pin it down.

Front hood, cut out the sheet metal, leave the frame, rivet on aluminum skin

Get under the car and start thinking like air....make it smooth.

Front air damn/splitter.

Rich

we haven't done this drastic of weight reduction, but pretty much anything that was bolted on we removed. All the hinges, springs, the trunk was skinned, one door skinned and both hood/truck are on pins. May try to skin hood too as it's got 20-30 lbs extra steel in it too but we cut a hole for the gas tank.

Lemons has a rule about remove the crush structure so we would need to be smart about this sort of weight reduction. I wanted to get to this point but was also worried about air flow. do you have vents in the rear trunk as well.

Yes we have door bars on drive side and skinned door, but kept the crash supports inside the door. The underside is not smooth for sure, old AC cutout in front may be making it light up there at high speed (when tank is low too).

Love all the other suggestions guys, we are about to start tearing into it. We had some trans-axle and oil leaks I would like to address but I might think something was wrong if we didn't see some drips.