I finally finished the 1970 Porsche 914 race car. I will race it in E Production in VARA on the West coast. Before and after pictures below.

It has five lug disc brakes. Stock 914 front rotors drilled and tapped to 5 bolt patter at a local machine shop. Stock 914 rear rotors drilled and five studs added by PMB Performance. BMW 320i front brake calipers, Porsche 911 rear calipers By PMB Performance. Lightweight Porsche 944 wheels. Turbo tie rods. Front adjustable sway bar and rear stock sway bar. Coil over Bilstein racing shocks in the rear. Dual downdraft Weber 40 IDF carbs on the 1.7L Porsche 914 engine. 15 gal ATL fuel cel. Side shift transmission. Racing headers with Supertrap exhaust. Racing fuel cel. Front mounted RX-7 aluminum oil cooler. Autometer racing tachometer with shift light. Tangerine Racing full roll cage. Fiberglass hood, front and rear bumpers....It is quite the little beasty.

Looks great!

Cool stuff - hope to join you out there with VARA sometime

Yes, I highly recommend VARA...Very laid back. Great group of motorheads. Excellent racing on some great tracks. Call Jeanette and she will set you up. The VARA University driving school is coming up in two weeks. The VARA license is transferable to other organizations. It is a very good deal for getting your competition license.

By the way...I just love to see the 914's beat the 911's on the track.....VARA draws several 914-6's and 914-4 2.0L's. I think I will be the only 1.7L out there.

Welcome and congratulations! Post a link to some video when you have it - would love to watch your car go...

Tony

Nice work and a ton of it for sure. Also like your choice of components! What did you do to the engine?

Can you run spoilers and splitters in your class?

That is just awesome! Your car looks great

I've never raced VARA but as I get older, wiser and a bit more conservative, I really like their no contact rule. I might look into it when my car is finished.

When I raced SCCA there was quite a bit of "rubbing." If you were scared to swap paint you didn't place. I was repainting the sides of the car and buffing out tire marks all the time.

Yes, I had to clean off every nut and bolt as I put it back together. Had I had a blaster, I would have stripped off all the old paint.

I had the heads rebuilt. I then put on the Dual 40IDF downdraft Webers. To make them work best, I just punched a 1/2 in hole in the firewall and ran the throttle cable straight back. I put a rubber grommet at the firewall. I used 2ft of 3/8in brake line as a sleeve for the cable from the pedal back to the seat. It is held down with metal clamps with rubber sleeves. There is just too much binding in the cable running it from underneath the car.

I also added the huge stock aluminum RX-7 oil cooler to the front. I used AN 10 steel braided lines. I am essentially cooling the engine with the oil. Will run the engine as stock till I get the handling sorted out. Then will move up to a competition cam, and higher compression ratio forged pistons. I am going to do a test day and try running it without an alternator like a formula car to see if I can do 20 laps...pretty much like how a super V runs.

To stay in VARA E Production, you can run a stock rear spoiler and the 915 front air dam. The best aero gain is from removing the windshield and lowering the car. That also helps to get air to the engine bay.

For a good aero analysis, take a look at the chart at the bottom of this link:

http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/aerodynamic_aids/

But VARA is VERY flexible. If you wanted to run a wing etc. they will just bump you up to a GT class.

Will do. I run cockpit cam all the time as a diagnostic tool when I race my Miata and other cars.

Thanks Bill! I will see if I can make it - finding free weekends AND money at the same time is challenging these days.

My original game plan was to get licensed with POC first and then jump over to VARA, which I may still pursue as I don't think POC will honor the VARA license but the other way around may work.

For sure I'll be in a GT class with both groups as my car is extensively modded. With POC now I'm still running time trials under one of their old points-based classes which are pretty much deserted now. Just need to get the car officially weighed and dynoed to peg its GT class, probably GT3 or maybe it'll squeak into GT4.

I've never run VARA so take this with a grain of salt
but in other clubs I've run (SVRA, CSRG, HMSA, RMVR, CVAR) a stock motor is going to put you at a huge disadvantage in a 914

even in highly tuned state, an air cooled 914 is pretty under powered compared to the water cooled competition. The good drivers can still win due to handling, but they expect to get pulled down the straights by "built" 1275cc bugeye sprites and other water cooled small bores


I like your plan to get seat time, but eventually you will need that motor to run in the top half of the pack.


Nice looking car!
watch that fuel pressure gauge mounted to the motor
(although I couldn't tell if it was a rigid mounting from your picture)

I've seen brass fittings work harden and crack when mounted on motors
its a big fire if it happens.... so usually recommended to mount them onto the chassis

brant

Thanks for the valuable input. I agree that the stock motor is at a disadvantage. Stock cams are never a good idea since they are set to accommodate the lower rpms... I plan on taking things slow and see what I need to do as things develop. I want to develop the handling first. Willow Springs is a scary enough track to start out with a bunch of Hp....plus I don't expect Penske or others will come a knocking any time soon to give me a ride....

Darn. The VARA school is 1/16-17 which conflicts with a POC event as well but unfortunately I can't do either one due to family (son's band) obligations.

I'll figure something out, perhaps an SCCA-sanctioned school i.e. Barber or Bondurant. If I stick with my POC game plan I won't have a full non-rookie license till well into 2017. Their 2016 schools are May and December and two are required.

Chris - Be careful here... Racing can make a small fortune (out of BIG one)!

If you must...go for the SCCA licensing school - well respected and accepted nearly everywhere.

FWIW.

Tony

The SCCA driver's school is the 9th and 10th of this month. They only have one school per year due to the economy. You only need this one school. The VARA and the SCCA licenses are interchangeable.

Your car does not have to be fully up to spec to go use at the school. I would suggest a full roll cage, 5 point harness and fire bottle to be safe.

To compete you will have to meet all the regs.

I am taking my Miata to the VARA school which is VARA Club Racer 2 legal but needs the Spec Miata suspension package to be legal for SCCA Sealed Spec Miata.

Thanks again Bill. I did not realize that about SCCA's school(s) - bummer!

My car is fully race-prepped and should have no problem passing tech for VARA/SCCA/NASA/POC etc.