JET951

Yesterday , Sydney Motorsport park ( Eastern Creek ) NSW Australia , Porsche Club NSW last Supersprint ( last competition event ) for 2014

Sean Buchanan in his 1986 951 road car ( fast road car ) had already ( a few weeks ago ) won the Motorkhana ( Autocross) Championship for 2014 & had been doing quite well in the Supersprint events ( race track ) in his class ( Class1 )
So Sean had a decent chance of taking out the Drivers Championship

( Drivers Championship is the combined points gained in both disciplines , Motorkhana & Supersprint )

Al he had to do is break a benchmark lap time in one of the lap sessions , same goes for the other PCNSW guy's who were battling out for the Drivers championship ( so it was not a given , you had to work for it )

And yesterday was interesting because it was also a combined club day , t was the annual BMW Challenge day at the same circuit on the same day , so we had two car clubs with around 105 cars ( I think ) on the track during the day , in speed groups naturally , but even though it was held at the GP Circuit ( reasonable sized track ) it meant there was going to be a lot of traffic , this naturally means everyone had this problem of trying to do a flying lap , but coming up to a slower competitor ( in lapping etc ) & there goes you best lap down the drain
So it was interesting to watch & a bit nerve racking because of the speeds & numbers of cars ( Porsche & BMW on the track per speed group )

Sean had a rare mechanical issue ( well a coolant hose issue to be more specific ) & we had to do a emergency coolant hose repair just on Lunchtime & we didn't really trust it well enough to go out on the track unless he had to , so he had a look at the one decent lap time he did before lunch ( one of two speed group 1 sessions) & found he had just broken his benchmark time , so Sean didn't risk it and didn't go out again , better to drive home OK than risk it for no real reason & the gamble paid off , the next closest competitor needed a bigger margin to get enough points to beat Sean to the Drivers Championship

Sean Buchanan in his 1986 3.0L 16V twin cam E85 fuelled road car has won the Drivers Championship & the Motorkhana Championship for 2014

It gets even better ( if thats possible ) Paul McKinnon car builder & co driver of Patrick Garvan's 1986 951 ( once a road car ) now a track car was again the fastest car at the track yesterday , beating the best lap time of the next fastest car at the meeting ( 996GT3RSR 4.0L with Sequential trans ) by around 3.4 seconds , thats a great effort for a 28 year old front engine'd Porsche 4 Cylinder with a manual gearbox ( 968 gearbox ) & no ABS & no traction control
So because Paul had won these Supersprints outright so many times this year he has taken out the Supersprint Championship for 2014

So we have two 1986 Porsche 951 cars , neither have ABS , nor traction control or any driver assist control system and one of them drives to work in it 6 days a week( Sean ), but yet between them they have taken out the Three Big Main Trophies for the year }

Drivers Championship
Supersprint Championship
Motorkhana Championship

This has never ever happened before in the PCNSW where no rear engined Porsche cars , or even mid engined Porsche cars for that matter have not won at least one or two of these major Championships

This has hit the record books

Congratulations to Sean Buchanan, Patrick Garvan & Paul McKinnon , both Paul & Sean work together very well , helping each other after hours at Pauls workshop doing interesting mechanical upgrades to Pats 951 & Paul's fantastic fabrication skills in making fantastic components , be it roll cages , surge tanks ,dry sump & oil control & cooling systems , all done for reliability reasons

I personally want to thank all the fantastic volunteers who helped out yesterday from both clubs at the track

Last but not last a big thank you to John Vitesse for his ( as usual ) fantastic Vitesse stage 5 we run on Seans 3.0L 16V E85 & not to forget Lart who time & time again helps us get 2nd hand 951 parts from the States
Many Thanks Lart

And a big thanks to Porsche back in 1986 for building these fantastic machines

Bruce Buchanan
Buchanan Automotive

Paulyy

Well done guys. Thats amazing!

mel_t_vin

Congratulations to Sean and Patrick!

Cyberpunky

Fantastic result guys. Very impressive indeed and just shows that a car that was born on the track and designed with perfect balance, is every bit a real Porsche despite it engine being at the wrong end and having H2O cooling

blown 944

Awesome. You guys are certainly doing things right and keeping hope alive for our little cars.

333pg333

Thanks guys. It's been a fun year and congrats to Sean & Paul for displaying such great driving talent.

Here's a bit of video. New camera so we haven't figured out the over exposure but it shows just how comfortable Paul is in the car now. This is on year old tyres too. Second video shows me taking it a bit more carefully. Car was feeling quite taily and squidgy. Came in and found that the left rear was only showing 11psi hot!

https://vimeo.com/106713105

https://vimeo.com/106715445

Thom

Congratulations for the results. I bet you surprised quite a few running modern cars.

So how does the car feel now with a leak-free new intake Patrick?

333pg333

Thanks Thom. We actually did experience a boost leak over the weekend and will have to source that. We only had 1.3 bar at the end of the day when both Paul and I did our best times. Our max power on the dyno was achieved at 1.7bar so that's quite a sacrifice. We're going to write into the program for WTAC that if Paul is on a flyer and ahead of target that it will give him max boost down the straights. That should give us maybe a second per lap which is what we're going to need and then some, to win our class. However, even with power down and the very low rear tyre, if you see the video with me driving and passing the Cup car we still have a bit of speed nevertheless.

The new Aero feels fantastic! I thought I'd be too oblivious to notice but you really could feel it sucking the front down, especially through the notorious T1. We are really not very far behind the fabled Nemo for min corner speed through that turn. That's pretty amazing considering the differences in these two cars.

lart951

Aussies, wow these guys are amazing to my favorite friends BRAVO!

LUCKY DAVE

Outstanding!

glen2002

Congratulations Paul, Patrick and Sean! Amazing result especially when compared to the dollar value and modernity of the cars you are up against. Huge kudos to yourselves and support team which manages to keep these quarter century old cars way more than just competitive against the modern machinery. A nice little hub of front engined knowledge living down on the northern beaches of Sydney.

Patrick after watching your video of how well you are driving and rounding up a few beemers at 240, I cant wait to see vids of when you allow yourself to put in 12 or 13 psi in your tyre

333pg333

Thanks for the kind words Glen. Certainly been a fun season and more to come starting October 17th at W.T.A.C.

Testing today at Wakefield Park. Solved our boost issue. Failed boost controller. 1.55 bar felt pretty quick around there today on year old tyres!