Great 914 day out at Alameda AX today. I know 914's were in many of the top placings and I think Steve blew everyone away - think I saw a 53 second time posted at one point? Great competition between Nathan and Demick in FM at one point they set the same exact time to the hundreth of a second on the same run! I think Demick took a class win with a clean 58 second something run. ...if Nathan hadnt of picked up a cone on his fastest run he would have taken FM with a low 58.

I spent the day learning how to drive my car. My Yoko's just didnt seem to like the surface when I got moving fast. I also have to admit that I have a hard time seeing the course at times. I guess that just comes with practice. I still managed a to set a 1:01. Nathan, thanks for the tip on taking the inside line on the circle. It definitely helped my exit speed.

Definitely a great day. Nathan and I had a great time battling back and forth for best time. His new motor combined with the new Hoosiers made for a really fast car. He was clearly faster than me all afternoon, but I managed to beat him on a technicality (sort of, he hit a cone on his fastest run).

It's great to have some close competition again. It's been 2 or 3 years since I've had some close competition. But this year it's going to be a challenge to keep up with Nathan and Howard. Trekkor, Andy, and Randal should all be right in there too. Britain needs a few more horses - his driving is there, but the lack of hp is really holding him back. I think he needs to put his turbo type4 in to the 914 instead of the 912.

Should be a fun season. Somehow I think I'm going to have to take a step up on my next set of tires - the Victoracers are good, but clearly not as fast as the Hoosiers or V710's.

Demick

Nice report! Looking foward to Marina.

Yes, this will be a great season.

What style of course did they set-up today?

Anybody take any photos?

KT

QUOTE (Demick @ May 14 2005, 08:45 PM)

Definitely a great day. Nathan and I had a great time battling back and forth for best time. His new motor combined with the new Hoosiers made for a really fast car. He was clearly faster than me all afternoon, but I managed to beat him on a technicality (sort of, he hit a cone on his fastest run). It's great to have some close competition again. It's been 2 or 3 years since I've had some close competition. But this year it's going to be a challenge to keep up with Nathan and Howard. Trekkor, Andy, and Randal should all be right in there too. Britain needs a few more horses - his driving is there, but the lack of hp is really holding him back. I think he needs to put his turbo type4 in to the 914 instead of the 912. Should be a fun season. Somehow I think I'm going to have to take a step up on my next set of tires - the Victoracers are good, but clearly not as fast as the Hoosiers or V710's. Demick

You know that you can't turbo a 914.

In the grand scheme of things, I wish that I was building a trick 914 for the AX...but I have gone to far with my 912 and I have to finish it now. Who knows, it might stand a fighting chance out there given the power/weight ratio.

In any case, thanks for the compliments Demick. I love coming out there and fine tuning my driving to try to get up there with you guys. All of you have stepped up with new motors, better tires, etc. and I haven't done a thing to my car...oh well. I am not sure how many more events I will make it to in the next couple of weeks given that the little one is on the way. However, I am really trying to get my 912 done before the season is over so that I can try it out.

-Britain

QUOTE (Demick @ May 14 2005, 07:45 PM)

Definitely a great day. Nathan and I had a great time battling back and forth for best time. His new motor combined with the new Hoosiers made for a really fast car. He was clearly faster than me all afternoon, but I managed to beat him on a technicality (sort of, he hit a cone on his fastest run). It's great to have some close competition again. It's been 2 or 3 years since I've had some close competition. But this year it's going to be a challenge to keep up with Nathan and Howard. Trekkor, Andy, and Randal should all be right in there too. Britain needs a few more horses - his driving is there, but the lack of hp is really holding him back. I think he needs to put his turbo type4 in to the 914 instead of the 912. Should be a fun season. Somehow I think I'm going to have to take a step up on my next set of tires - the Victoracers are good, but clearly not as fast as the Hoosiers or V710's. Demick

Give me slicks and a fast 2.0 and I think I could have been hunting for a 58 too. I'll have slicks in about a month and a new engine by the end of this year or the start of next. I think next year will shape up to be very good 914 year!

All...

It was Andrew down in the 53's not me. I had to stop after my fifth run because one of the two freeze plugs for the float bowl on my Webbers popped out in the middle of my fifth run and in essence I was running a 2 cylinders. I only had 1 run where the engine was really running well - oh well - next Time.

Congrats to Andy for running so well on Saturday - he is doing a whale of a job. Sounds like the rest of the 914Club had a good battle and most importantly was having fun.

Steve

QUOTE (Steve_7x @ May 15 2005, 07:26 PM)

All... It was Andrew down in the 53's not me. I had to stop after my fifth run because one of the two freeze plugs for the float bowl on my Webbers popped out in the middle of my fifth run and in essence I was running a 2 cylinders. I only had 1 run where the engine was really running well - oh well - next Time. Congrats to Andy for running so well on Saturday - he is doing a whale of a job. Sounds like the rest of the 914Club had a good battle and most importantly was having fun. Steve

Sorry about that Andrew. Guess my eyes were playing tricks on me when I looked at the times! That was a very quick run!

just got back from the weekend -- great time on saturday... the track was a little awkward imho,

demick and I matched times on the same run -- literally back to back -- to the thousanth of a second. that's how close we were running. i'd run a little faster, then he'd beat me -- then i'd beat him, then he'd edge ahead. it was great fun. re. my last run -- it all came together for me, but he beat me fair and square: cones count. good times, demick! enjoy your vacation.

i was happy with my pm times, and felt my driving improve a little.

britain and grant were both in really good form out there. both of them could use more tire and power (especially britain).

anthony stopped by and drove the snot out of his gorgeous stock silver car.

andrew blyholder was obscenely fast. bummer that steve was having technical problems.

howard stopped by to chat. tried to lobby for him to ride the course on his ducati.

andy, brad, lyressa, trekkor, dave, jenny et al were all missed.

jenny, your car looked done to me on friday night -- what gives? trekkor, you couldn't get your brakes finished in time? again, you were all missed.

n

Ugh... I was up until 2:00 waiting to hear from Brad when Lyressa's car would be done, so I could pick it up and dirve it to Alameda in the morning. After he finished her car, he'd work on mine and trailer it up. That was the plan anyway. Then around 2 he told me to pick the car up at 6:00 and go to the AX. I said forget it. If you want to stay and work on Lyressa's car, fine. But don't stay any later to work on mine. There's no way I can get up at 5:30, get to the shop at 6, drive to Alameda, run and work all day, probably do dinner at Chevy's, and drive (in traffic) back down to the south bay on 3.5hrs of sleep. He ended up staying at the shop until about 5:30 anyway. We got almost everything done on my car on Saturday afternoon.

That's awesome about you and Demick's friendly competition. I wish I coulda been there to see it!

Jen

QUOTE (nebreitling @ May 16 2005, 10:22 AM)

andy, brad, lyressa, trekkor, dave, jenny et al were all missed.

Well, I was there, only in my truck...that would have been an interesting AX in a Tahoe. Hopefully, next weekend will work.

I am still working on my brakes.

I had other plans on Saturday, though.

Looking foward to racing you all on the 22nd

KT

the results are here:

http://www.pca-ggr.org/acresults/051405.html


my placing is wrong -- i should be in 6th, not 4th overall. i apparently clipped a cone on my 58.121 that didn't make it to this chart.

congrats andrew blyholder for puttin' the smack down on everyone!

Rock on Dudes!!!

5 out of the top 6 are 914s!

I got 7th in the PAX rankings!!

Man...I need to get my new car finished!

-Britain

Nathan, are you going to add our times to the 914cup standings?

-Britain

sure. all 914cup currently-registered competitors who participated in this AX: i'll add your scores w/out your submission.

Nicely done!

Nathan you scare me
He's super fast and yells like a cowboy.

KT

Damn the timing slip guy didnt tell me I got a cone on my fast 61 second run! Still got you on PAX Nathan. ...a shallow victory as I think PAX is bogus. Thats why I'm building a car that will give me consistent top 10 times. Still I did pretty well in my class AX11 I was only beat by a 996 turbo and a fast Boxster in my 85 hp 1.8! LOL! I still dont understand how a 1.8 with headers and mild/narrow r compounds on 5.5" wheels ends up with 996 turbo!!! On a good day I get 10 hp more than the stock 76 hp in my car with a header. 996 turbo is an awesome and powerful car that I doubt even the best driver could beat in a slightly modified 1.8.

I'm tempted to put coilovers and Falkens on my boxster to dominate the same class.

Nathan and Demick you guys put the moves on that fast red 914-6 with huge slicks!

I took a run in the Red 914 with slicks. I've known the owners for quite some time (autocrossed together in the 80's).

The car was very, very hard to turn... here's the deal... it's a 2.8 with lots of power. I was hitting the rev limiter 3 or 4 times (8k redline which is much higher then mine), and I took similar lines to what I drove earlier (before the carb crapped out) and I was 6 seconds slower.

I suggested EJ call Brad because the steering on that car was very, very heavy. I am running 9" slicks and my steering wheel is like a cadillac with power steering compared to his. Something is seriously wrong.

Did I mention that the steering was very heavy

Steve

Regarding timing slips and cone penalties...

That's my biggest beef... especially when we run the format we did last weekend with 3 or 4 cars out there. A cone is called in to the trailer - likely there is some mis communication on which car hit a cone, the timing slip guy doesn't know and doesn't add it to your slip. Even when they tell you got a cone and you ask where you hit the cone, you get shoulder shrugs.

In my car... unless you run over it... you don't hear a cone so you really don't know. So Grant... I feel your pain

Steve

QUOTE (Steve_7x @ May 18 2005, 06:08 PM)

likely there is some mis communication on which car hit a cone, the timing slip guy doesn't know and doesn't add it to your slip. Even when they tell you got a cone and you ask where you hit the cone, you get shoulder shrugs.

I could hear everything over the radio loud and clear but I was quite amazed by how many times I heard "what did you say" or "what car number".

They obviously don't have a system for telling you which cone you hit. I'm not sure how they would do that.

as a courseworker out there, i couldn't read half of the numbers on the cars...

oh, wait -- that's because half the cars didn't have any damn numbers on them! it's Bullshit. it's more than just an inconvenience -- it leads to miscommunications, inaccurate cone-counts, and cones attributed to the wrong cars. i don't care how gorgeous a car is, it needs some legible numbers on it (not just a 4" number with shoe polish)

i think that both GGR and LPR have grown too complacent with saftey protocall and rules and such... when people are doing something potentially dangerous, or when they are not playing along with the rules, i think they need talking to.

just my 02

QUOTE (nebreitling @ May 18 2005, 06:52 PM)

as a courseworker out there, i couldn't read half of the numbers on the cars... oh, wait -- that's because half the cars didn't have any damn numbers on them! it's Bullshit. it's more than just an inconvenience -- it leads to miscommunications, inaccurate cone-counts, and cones attributed to the wrong cars. i don't care how gorgeous a car is, it needs some legible numbers on it (not just a 4" number with shoe polish) i think that both GGR and LPR have grown too complacent with saftey protocall and rules and such... when people are doing something potentially dangerous, or when they are not playing along with the rules, i think they need talking to. just my 02

I agree those small shoe polish numbers were a joke. No one could read them. Many confused calls when I was out there as hardly anyone could see the numbers. Calls like the 911 has one cone when there were 2 911's out on the course.

I really enjoyed SVR AX. Much less chaotic and calls from the field were typically accurate. LPR does a good job too. I liked RR AX in Santa Rosa although lack of Sound System was difficult at times.

QUOTE

I liked RR AX in Santa Rosa

I'm gonna give GGR a/x's a rest for a while. LPR and RR for me.
I'll hit the SVR Zone events as well.

GGR is too crowded, not enough runs, people skip out on their work assignments leaving me 1/2 mile away while they load up there car. Plus, I don't like the surface...

Waaa, waaa, waaa!

KT

nah-- alameda is great. plus it's deeper competition, which makes me a better driver.

Nate, your avatar is you getting HUGE at RR.
Mine is at LPR.

KT

hopefully the new 200#s will cure that....

QUOTE (nebreitling @ May 19 2005, 08:52 PM)

nah-- alameda is great. plus it's deeper competition, which makes me a better driver.

There it is.