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ThePaintedMan
It's been a crazy few weekends for me, but thought I'd share what I've had the chance to do recently. Three weekends ago was the Rolex 24 - had a blast as usual and the weather wasn't nearly as bad as expected.

Last weekend I drove down for the PCA 48 Hours of Sebring to volunteer. Mostly worked the scales and tech, but also did some flagging once we slowed down. Got a chance to watch greats like Randy Pobst and Patrick Long out on track (in between waving blue flags as they caught up with the slower cars). Unfortunately, I would estimate at least $1 million in damage was done between the 3 cars that were totaled and 6-7 others that crashed throughout the weekend. I learned a lot from Carlos, our resident Porsche Master mechanic as well as others and got to tune some carbs for a couple guys in need. Saturday night I got a chance to talk briefly with Patrick, which was way cool and even participated in some of the midnight golf cart laps around the track. smile.gif

This past weekend I got a call from a guy who I've known since childhood who just got a new-to-him car and had no mechanic or engineer for the SCCA weekend. It's an old Formula Ford Chassis built to SCCA D-sports racer specs with a Suzuki GSX-R engine in the back. Weighing in at a little over 1100 pounds, it's apparently a blast to drive and pretty cool to watch go around the track. I spent most of the weekend prepping the car, chasing down gremlins and avoiding several catastrophes with loose bolts and other problems which pop up with a car that's new. There was a beautiful F-Production 914 there as well, which I got to poke around and ask questions as well. Apparently he is one of Chris Foley's longtime customers and I saw several Tangerine Racing parts on the car aktion035.gif Pics below.

Anyhow, all in all an exhausting but very productive last few weeks. I'm finally getting to get my feet wet in racing and learning a lot through the process. Thank you guys for getting me this far and imparting so much knowledge upon me!



Seabird
Any more pics of the 914?

Looks like you all are parked in the infield. The attendance must have been huge to push so many people out there. How many cars do you estimate were out there?

Miguel
ThePaintedMan
QUOTE(Seabird @ Feb 10 2014, 04:58 PM) *

Any more pics of the 914?

Looks like you all are parked in the infield. The attendance must have been huge to push so many people out there. How many cars do you estimate were out there?

Miguel


Hey Miguel,
Yeah, in the infield. It's my understanding SCCA uses the infield rather than the paddock because Sebring charges $2000 more more day to open the paddock side. I heard the car count was 335 for the weekend, which is huge. Spec Miata had over 70 cars in it. It was a great weekend - it always seems more fun when there are more cars there!
ChrisFoley
George,
Is that Pedro's car?
I've never seen pics of the exterior, but he was just on the phone with me last week.
I'd probably recognize it from pics below the car, lol.
ChrisFoley
QUOTE(ThePaintedMan @ Feb 10 2014, 03:49 PM) *

Unfortunately, I would estimate at least $1 million in damage was done between the 3 cars that were totaled and 6-7 others that crashed throughout the weekend.

What cars were destroyed?
ThePaintedMan
Hey Chris,
Yeah Pedro is a very nice guy. He was dealing with an oil leak under hard right-hand turns, which I did my best to help remedy. I made a few simple suggestions for the next time out since it appeared to me to be just a valve cover gasket leak.
We talked about a few of your other products that I have installed and that he was interested in, so I'm sure you'll get another call again here soon. smile.gif In particular I recommended the cable throttle setup, but he has Solexes on the car currently, so I'm not sure that will work for him. Maybe we can convert him to Webers...



The cars that were destroyed over the PCA weekend I believe were two 997 cup cars and a 930.
f1rocks
That was a light weekend if there were only three wadded up in a cup car race!

Last year at Road Atlanta on the opening lap of Sprint Two, a freshly tubbed RSR (it's roughly $130,000 to retub) was taken out at the green flag start.

He retubbed it AGAIN, and wadded the tub up at COTA in May! The owner's parents make all the boots for the Russian Military for the last 50 years.....great gig.

Sebring tends to be a testosterone fest as it's the first PCA race of the year.

PCNA said we wouldn't have any of the new 991 based GT3 race cars till the end of the year, I believe you had 6 of them there this year!

First year I didn't race there in a while. Was hoping to scrutineer there but the docket was already full.

We will be there at the end of February (27,28,1,2) for the SVRA Vintage race. I'd be happy to put you to work. Unfortunately found sparkly stuff in the oil of the 914 so I'm bringing the 944 to run in group 8 instead but it's a blast. Come join us!!
ChrisFoley
QUOTE(ThePaintedMan @ Feb 11 2014, 10:40 AM) *

...but he has Solexes on the car currently, so I'm not sure that will work for him. Maybe we can convert him to Webers...

Thats what he called about.
I had already forgotten that I'm supposed to see if my kit can be installed on the solexes.
Thanks for the reminder. laugh.gif

As for v/c gasket leaks, I welded little tabs inside to retain the gaskets from bowing inward.
Or I use reworked cast aluminum covers.
ThePaintedMan
Brent,
You were spot on in your analysis. It occurred to me that most of the cars damaged were mostly high end, modern 996s and 997s. After talking with several folks, I realized that a lot of those drivers were guys who had more money than sense (or talent, in some cases). A lot of them apparently rush through the process of learning fundamentals or having proper instruction because they have the money to buy a fully prepped car and just want to go racing. The results were as expected.

Yes, we did see a few 991s, including the car Patrick was driving which was a USCR GTD Porsche America car. I believe that car raced the weekend before at Daytona, so that was a very quick turnaround. As you said, no one really expected to see many of them this year, but they are out there. That car was interesting to watch as it was being shared with another driver in a different session. Patrick was averaging 3 seconds faster per lap when he was driving, usually consistent low 2:08s, which I'm sure is probably 1-2 seconds slower than what we'll see in March under race conditions.

I would be happy to come out and work during the SVRA race. I'm only about 2 hours from Sebring, so it's a pretty easy jaunt for me to get over there. Send me a PM when you're ready and we'll figure something out.

Chris, I mentioned the same suggestion to Pedro, but he's convinced it's not necessary. I did the same thing to my valve covers to keep the gasket from walking, especially under high pressure. Piece of mind and something pretty simple to do. Apparently his first issue was due to a push rod tube seal that had fallen into the sump. Not sure how that happens?

Regarding the Solexes, I be your setup would work though the machining might need to change a little. The throttle shafts are similar, but I think the bolt pattern is different. I know that Pedro is running really short intakes now though, so that would be something for him to consider.
f1rocks
QUOTE(ThePaintedMan @ Feb 12 2014, 09:20 AM) *

Brent,
You were spot on in your analysis. It occurred to me that most of the cars damaged were mostly high end, modern 996s and 997s. After talking with several folks, I realized that a lot of those drivers were guys who had more money than sense (or talent, in some cases). A lot of them apparently rush through the process of learning fundamentals or having proper instruction because they have the money to buy a fully prepped car and just want to go racing. The results were as expected.

Yes, we did see a few 991s, including the car Patrick was driving which was a USCR GTD Porsche America car. I believe that car raced the weekend before at Daytona, so that was a very quick turnaround. As you said, no one really expected to see many of them this year, but they are out there. That car was interesting to watch as it was being shared with another driver in a different session. Patrick was averaging 3 seconds faster per lap when he was driving, usually consistent low 2:08s, which I'm sure is probably 1-2 seconds slower than what we'll see in March under race conditions.


We will definitely shoot you a note and see if you can make it down. I can get you on the crew list then so entry is free.

Patrick spent a lot of the weekend in a GTC1 (964 Cup car) and spanked the field pretty well with that.

If the 991's were running in GTC6 (specifically for 991 Cups) they had to be running Pirelli tires. That will affect the lap times a lot from when the big boys run there in a March. Anyone running a 991 last weekend will likely be back in March. If they ran in GTA2 then they were likely running the same tires as they will be on for the March race.
brant
QUOTE(f1rocks @ Feb 11 2014, 12:53 PM) *

That was a light weekend if there were only three wadded up in a cup car race!



this is the primary reason I walked away from PCA

I club raced from the 2nd year of existence until around 2006
the club racing changed from a bunch of true enthusiasts... to a bunch of spoiled rich babies with no common sense.


I find vintage racing to be so much more civilized and also much more skilled
the people are generally enthusiasts first and not idiots
sure I've been hit a couple of times by idiots... but still a significant improvement from my experience with PCA club racing
f1rocks
QUOTE(brant @ Feb 12 2014, 12:12 PM) *

QUOTE(f1rocks @ Feb 11 2014, 12:53 PM) *

That was a light weekend if there were only three wadded up in a cup car race!



this is the primary reason I walked away from PCA

I club raced from the 2nd year of existence until around 2006
the club racing changed from a bunch of true enthusiasts... to a bunch of spoiled rich babies with no common sense.


I find vintage racing to be so much more civilized and also much more skilled
the people are generally enthusiasts first and not idiots
sure I've been hit a couple of times by idiots... but still a significant improvement from my experience with PCA club racing


I think that in the classes you'd be running in with the 914, you'd see that the PCA group still has a pretty solid group of enthusiasts. I've seen both sides and some of my best friends are in the PCA group. I hope to have the same good fortune running with the vintage folks.

I've found there are idiots with money in every sanctioning body. Pick the underpowered cars and you'll avoid them. The ego far outweighs their desire to become a good driver. Some of my most frustrating races are with guys running with 2x the horsepower and half the talent. They get out, come see you to talk about "how great the racing is...." I smile and think of a happy place.
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