A friend and I are building a 914 for vintage racing. This is our second 914: a few months ago I wrecked the first one on turn 3 at Willow Springs (California) racing with VARA. Either the rear end lost traction because I was going to fast for cold tires, or the left halfshaft broke causing a loss of control. The body was too badly damaged to be worth fixing, so we found a replacement chassis, stripped the old chassis, and are now putting together another car.

The replacement '72 chassis I found was in amazingly good shape. It was sold new in Fresno, CA, and the combination of the dry Central Valley climate and being stored mostly indoors meant very little rust. When we bought it, it had the original black paint which really wasn't too bad but my racing partner is a fanatic (owner of a pristine '70 911E and a gorgeous '68 912) so we repainted the car: black of course. Photos below show the car before re-painting.





Below are photos showing the car after painting, and progress installing the front suspension. The front fender well photos show the original paint after cleaning with Marine Clean: it looks almost new. Some surface rust on the pans (and a few tiny holes in the passenger side pan below the seat), but after cleaning and wire brushing and 2 coats of POR15 the front trunk pan looks great. Will do the floor pans next.











Old pedal cluster removed and our previous cluster installed. There was a rodent nest in the tunnel forward of the gearshift.


In new paint with the roll bar installed. Wheels are our street wheels, not the race wheels.


Original side mirror is in pretty good condition.


The old dash top had a lot of the usual cracks, we won't be using it, plan to leave the dash bare. Need something to go behind the instruments though: any suggestions?




Rear end looks great. That's a fiberglass bumper of course.






Will be installing our fuel cell soon, support bars and straps are in place.


Empty space where the old gas tank was: it reeked of decades old gas that smelled like turpentine. We will be replacing the plastic fuel lines in the tunnel with steel lines.


Engine and trans are out of the car, and the rear suspension needs to be redone. I'll post more photos as the work progresses. Here are photos of the previous car after the crash. The body damage was greater than these photos show.












And here are the cars my racing partner owns: '68 912 and '70 911E, both are very very fine.

Wow it looks great with the new paint. Keep the pictures coming.

Larry

I'd be a bit surprised if a halfshaft failure caused the crash.
More likely it broke from the impact.

Chris, I agree that is the more likely. But vintage axels, decades old, breaking under the stress of racing is not unheard of. Here's the story of the crash.

It was my first time at Willow Springs, which is an interesting track. Only 9 turns and about 5 shift points. Fast! Not optimal for our low-powered car. Here is the
track map

Sunday morning I was on the second lap of my practice session. My co-driver had run his practice session an hour before. So tires weren't really cold, but not hot either as morning temps were cool at this time of year.

I had lined up early in the pits so was at the front of the pack on the second lap with no cars near me as I approached turn 3, downshifted into 3rd, set the wheel for the turn (which is uphill, high point of track is turn 4), hit the late apex about right, was applying power, speed maybe 40mph (tight turn) and suddenly the rear end broke free towards the outside of the turn (inside of the track), I tried to correct, probably over-corrected, swapped ends and went off the track backwards and parallel to the track direction at that point. But the loss of control was so sudden I don't see how I could have kept the car on the track.

There was a small drainage culvert there, maybe a foot deep and then an embankment. The drivers side of the car dropped down as I slid off and slammed into the embankment and I felt my left lower torso pushed into the side of the seat. I thought "that's going to hurt later" as the car tilted high up on the drivers side. I thought "I wonder if I'm going to roll". The car did not quite get to vertical, and fell back down flat as the field went by slowly through the turn. The engine was wailing even though my foot was on the clutch and off the gas. I turned the ignition off but the engine kept running. The gearshift lever wouldn't move.

After about 10 seconds of fiddling with the ignition the engine stopped. I concentrated on keeping my breathing slow and steady while waiting for the tow truck. That took awhile. I could hear the fuel pump going off and on. Must be a short somewhere? Finally they arrived, asked if I was okay, I said yes, and told them to turn off the master switch which was near rear of the right "sail" (I can't reach it from the seat: bad location, it's being moved in my next car). They did. It took quite awhile for them to figure out how to tow the car. I remained belted in as per VARA rules so I couldn't see what damage the car had sustained, but hoped it was not too severe.

Eventually they just lifted the car up from the roll bar, all wheels off the ground, and took me back to the paddock. The EMT guys asked if I wanted assistance getting out or if they should put me on a backboard. I said I could wiggle all my fingers and toes, no numbness or tingling, only minor discomfort on my left lower side. They opened the door and I eased myself out. They checked my ribs and pelvis and it seemd to me that I had not broken anything, but I was stiff. I walked around, they took my BP which was 210/80, not surprising.

I looked at the car. Damn. The left rear wheel was folded under the car and the halfshaft had snapped. Lots of body damage on the drivers side, more in the rear. When the car tilted up on its side probably at some point most of the weight of the car was on the left rear wheel. The left engine mount was broken and the suspension was twisted.

Oh well, I wasn't broken. If only I had gone off the track at almost any other turn on that course I would have just slid around and not hit anything or had any sudden stops. Where I went off was a particularly unfortunate location. And it was the first time I had ever gone 4-off on any track.

That day I drove the 6 1/2 hours back home without incident. The first couple of weeks I didn't want to cough, sneeze or laugh, it was too painful. But after a month the pain was mostly gone.

I have a little experience with crashing.
Its never good, but not getting injured is.

In the 10 years I have been vintage racing, I have seen 6 cars spin going "up" the hill and 3 of those were on the pace lap! I have seen 4 cars go off coming down the hill which is generally much worse and they all rolled, usually end over end when the front wheel dug into the ditch that caught you at the edge. Many years ago they tried filling that in but when it rains up there the dirt then would wash over the racing surface so the drainage went back in. Did you check to see if anyone got pictures from the Bud Balcony possibly as there is usually always someone up there shooting and they might have a series showing the car loosing the tail?

Did you check the engine to see if it was damaged from the shock of the crash or the spin? Hope it wasn't as that can be like adding insult to injury!

I agree that the shaft looks like it snapped from the trailing arm bending and I am surprised that the suspension console on that side did not rip out?

Glad you are OK. More glad that you are back at it.... that's a good attitude! Keep it up!

John, it was just a practice session so probably no one was shooting, but you never know.

You are right about those turns and the drainage ditches. They are a problem for the cars, but I see why they are needed.

The end of the trans was damaged but we have a replacement piece. We think the engine is okay. The twisted suspension is amazing to see isn't it?

Barry

The first time I went to Willow Springs I immediately noticed the places that had the most black marks that seemed to just run off the track! Going up the hill was one and going down the hill was another and there are only a few at turn 9 and turn 1 so I guess the people that go off there haven't had time to panic and lock up the brakes quite yet?! What I find scarey is when a Lotus or Genetta passes you in those turns and then just scoots away like you were stopped!

If you have a limited slip in the transmission, the turn 3 is easier to take since when you get on the gas and the rear end wants to step out some the effect of both wheels bitting in will force the car to go straight up the hill and then make the right turn at the top. I was taught to take turn 3 from the far right and cross into the left side of the uphill when I started there and then take the top in two apexes since we don't have the power that the big bore cars have and have to use the balance of the car to our advantage.

Hi Berry,
Glad to see you are all right. Cars can be replaced, limbs can not.
When I lived in SoCal, I ran with the POC club. I was notorious for going off track at least once a weekend durring practice, but never during a race. (Hey how are you going to know where the limit is) Fortunatly I never experienced the wrath of turn 3. On my first very time at Willow I had a driving instructor with me showing me the lines. He sent me off turn 5 twice untill I told him "I want to try it my way". After that turn 5 was easy. Then a couple of years later I got a 914-6. In turn 9 you can drive the high line in a 4. I tried the same line in the 6 and caught the edge of the track with the left rear tire and flew off. 20 years later, my minds eye still remembers it as if it happened yesterday. I never damaged the cars, just my ego.
I know you are going through hell seeing you baby all messed up. But we in the 914 community are glad you are OK and you're getting back up on your horse.
Good luck with the new car, if you need any parts I'd be glad to help.
Best wishes,
Gunther

I am not a mechanical engineer, but I stayed in a Holiday Inn last night.

The shaft looks to me to have evidence of metal fatigue. With the outer areas in the 11 to 7 o'clock positions being a slow fatigue crack (beachmarks?) and the center section (chunking as it ripped) and maybe the left section being the quick and sudden final failure. Even then, it may have been the wreck the caused the final failure.

I think it must have broke while under power comeing out of the corner .causeing the spin ...but theres not alot of evadence of that you think that shaft would have tore a buch of stuff up flopp`n around if you where under power...was it a LSD or a TBD

The differential is stock. If the axle broke and caused the loss of control, there was very little time after that for the broken axle to "flop around" before I put the clutch in and got the trans in neutral as I did a 180 and slammed into the embankment.

I think the axel photos show sign of metal fatigue, but it may well have been the act of the car going up on the drivers side that caused it to break. I'll never know for sure.

Barry

I am not sure what you mean by a "stock tranny" so I imagine it does not have any sort of limited slip then? If that is the case then the left axle would not have had any load to speak of making the turn 3 corner. I have talked to several very experienced racers, including Wayne Baker of the famous #22 914 fame and he thinks the spins are caused by the rear suspension suddenly coming unloaded after the hard comperssion caused by the "turn 3 banking" that coupled with the uphill left really loads the right rear of the car and then if the shocks and rear springs are not really stiff, the car bounces up and looses grip. Whew, a lot to try to discribe but that was one of the reasons my shop had me use Koni Sport shocks set very stiff in the rear and 300# springs in back. That also keeps me from lifting the inside front wheel when going over the top too.

If you look at the turns at Willow Springs, turn 1 has heavy banking as the left turn coming off the hill (forget the number, 6 I think?) and you can really see cars get out of shape in both those corners when the rear comes unloaded. That great turn 2 is nearly flat so the compression is a lot less.

Glad your ok. I will be watching this as I also want to build a 914 for vintage.

More photos showing the latest progress. Suspension is now in, fuel cell in place, stainless steel fuel line in the tunnel, entire underbody cleaned and painted. Getting ready to install the rear sway bar, finish up the interior, install the instruments, seat, fire system, and harness. The brakes, engine, and transaxle are next.
















Underside of rear trunk floor