drnick

we pulled the intake to try and resolve the idling problem suspecting possibly the idle valve or throttle position switch - it was neither of these. the problem was not resolved untill shark tuning when the idle was set to a higher speed. but oh well, i made the most of the opportunity and roughly ground out some casting marks in the intake manifold. here is also a pic of the intake spacers we put on.

drnick

a critical point was then reached when i went with several guys to the nurburgring. i quickly found that the suspension was a lot too soft - and i had only just upgraded to the hypercoil/ bilstein package! i had been running bilstein/ eibach and that suspension set got transfered to the black SE i was also running. looking at options and numbers i decided to work with the existing shocks by having them re-valved and uprating the springs. all i can say is that suspension is a difficult thing to get right and hindsight is 20/20. i went to 650/425 hypercoil springs and the bilstein tech guy set the shocks.

driving the ring was something else, its worth a visit simply to spend time in the carpark. my first lap was as a passenger with alex p. in his grey GT - i will vividly remember goind down into the foxhole as he was still acelerating through 4th gear and into fifth.. needless to say my whole perception of driving a 928 shifted from that point and several more trips to the ring followed.

drnick

we replaced the clutch with new sachs parts and it all seems to work ok. as for the speedo, i reached the conclusion that it would be simpler to use an accessory speedo rather than try and rig a drive unit for the existing one. i looked at gauges and found a tacho, one thing led to another and i had replaced the pod instruments entirely! i never trusted the electrical gauges that were in there anyway (thats my excuse and im sticking to it!).

shortly after it was the annual uk 928 track day, i had a lap with simon in a rare porsche 928 GTS variant called the kettle (it steams!). anyway, i was much impressed at how it cornered even with substantial body roll which i had allways thought to be the enemy - not so in a 928. i was also impressed with the reduction in understeer with 255 tyres he had on the front. i tracked down a pair of 18 x 10 et 65mm fronts for my car. i had already folded the edge of the front gaurd upwards as i was getting contact with the tyre on the old suspension.

drnick

more trips to the ring followed as did a rear antiroll bar from carl to pair the front one from 928gt and more learning about track driving and car setup. the ring is a punishing circuit, tyres brakes and in my case a rear wheel bearing all took a hammering! i also found that the car ran in the upper temp range at castle combe so i decided to cut holes in the bonnet in an effort to enhance cooling for shorter tracks and hot weather.

i had by this time sharktuned the car and dynoed it at 380 bhp at the crank. it felt very fast with only this output mainly due to the weight which had been lost from the interior but power corrupts! i had already bought a supercharger from abby but in the mean time decided to purchase some headers to fit prior to the supercharger, at least this is how my plan went.

drnick

the end of the 06 season at the ring saw me with a breakdown at the ring with the car running on only 4 cylinders. its great to have mates but despite our collective efforts we could not get it to run properly so i hitched a ride home with matt in his golf and left the car to the mercy of the rac. this is a funny story, they towed it to the main porsche dealer in koblenz.. i cant imagine what the technician ther would have thought, in my haste to use the car i had not got around to tidying up the interior wiring after the dash modification.. and then when he would have tried to start the car the master caution flashes!

cutting a long story short they could not find the fault and in spite of my arguments rac sent me to collect the car. at the porsche dealer they seemed upset practicaly pushing me out the door with my keys in hand saying the car was in terrible condition which it might be if you are only used to cup cars and rsr's!! koblenz is only a short drive fron the ring so i thought it would be rude not to visit i managed about 6-8 laps before the engine again started running on 4 and i had to call the rac again! on my last lap out i managed to dislodge the four litre oil container i had stashed in the car and it flew forward and the lid came off in the passenger footwell.. it was like something out of mister bean with the car alternately running on 4 and then 8 with me trying to reach into the footwell and harness holding me back, oil poring onto the floor and thinking thats where i will next be going to try and find the electrical fault!

the car was recovered back to the uk where chris found a faulty alarm immobiliser unit. about this time alex and i had been thinking about fitting roll cages to our cars, and this happened through the winter. it was also time for me to rationalise my ownership of a rare 928 SE. absolutely fabulous car but i wanted to alter it from standard and new i would devalue it. i sold it before christmas and found a replacement early the next year

BPG_Austin

DrNick. I was reading an old thread of yours about your hood louver install. You had mentioned the AC was picking up warm air pulled from the engine louvers. Did you ever find a solution to this problem?

Ben

drnick

ben, yes i did. i decided to only drive during the colder months! the AC has been deleted but the air still comes in from the intake at the base of the windshield. at lower speeds its possible to just wind down the window but when travelling on the motorway in sunshine it gets really hot unless you crack the windows and persevere with wind noise.

after my first trip to the ring in 07 with the cage installed i realised this was no-longer a proper road car - there is something about a cage which changes the way the car feels psychologicaly. it also translated into quicker times at the nordschlife and i managed a bridge to gantry time of 8:49. i know of guys who go faster in golfs so this is no great shakes but it still represents a fair step on from conventional road driving! the last pic is coming back on the cross channel ferry from one of our ring weekends, absolutely shattered - i think its about 1am to boot!

drnick

castle combe in 07 was the cars last track outing. by this time i had accumulated a growing list of 'minor niggles' that needed attention. getting in the car at castle combe and realising a whole year had elapsed and i still had not sorted the wiring following the pod upgrade gave me pause for thought - as did watching the video i recorded which clearly showed oil pressure drops in some corners. i put this down to my improved driving, i was defnitely going faster this year than i had been the year before. i decided the car would not go back on track untill it was drysumped, and in the mean time i would try and address some of the 'niggles' that needed attention.

drnick

after i realised the car was no longer a daily driver i decided to bias it even more for the track, prior to castle combe i had replaced the headlights with hella lamps and fibreglass surrounds and deleted the front and rear bumpers to save weight. aftre this more weight was stripped out from the interior and it was painted and this is about where its at, 1395 kg dry.

i finaly got around to pulling the exhaust off and fitting the devek level 2 headers. i pulled the factory manifolds outside my house with the car on axle stands - horrible job. then i took it to promax who are local to me and who agreed to adapt the drivers side manifold to fit RHD. by the way for anyone else who wants to do this, you will need to replace pipes 1 and 4 on the appropriate manifold.

BC

Very nice.

Did you roll the fenders (front) with the intent of not cracking the paint? Did you succeed? if so, can you tell us how?

mark kibort

what oil are you using?????

Im pulling probalby even more g's and have never seen any reduced oil pressure. I hate to say it, but, amzoil might reduce foaming, keep viscosity up during high temp track activities, to fight the oil pressure issue i saw clearly with mobil 1. (and valvoline racing oil in scots car)

mk

Marine Blue

Very cool Nick! Glad to be able to live vicariously through your postings.

Sounds like you're living a dream....a combination of octane, adrenaline and probably caffiene to make it through the weekends.

mark kibort

Where did you get the spacers? do you have the templates for them.
I want to do them with the stroker

thanks,
MK

BC

If you are okay with about a 1/2 inches, then maybe you and I could be the start of a run that would reduce the cost? Thats four so far.

drnick

brendan, no i couldnt fold the inner edge for the front fender without cracking the paint. my technique was to place a folded towel over the fender edge followed by a piece of wood to distribute the load and then apply some pressure to the lip via a pipe wrench. i did this progressively and got the lip rolled without major paint cracking issues - although i suspect its only a matter of time before some of it lifts.

mark, the oil is castrol 10/60 synthetic. ive no doubt that some oils perform better than others but at this stage it seems to me that the holbert car is an anomaly when it is surrounded by many other engines that have failed on track with oiling probs. i cant remember whether you are planning on any countermeasures for your stroker engine or just amsoil.. it would be a shame to ruin it!

as for the spacers - they are only thick enough to allow for removal of or fitting of some fiddly bolt or other - ive forgotten which ones, or was it the injectors?? cant remember. chris at loe bank motors here in the uk had them machined from stainless and they were not cheap, also needed was a customised gasket iirc.

my hidden agenda in suspending track time was not only to sort issues but also to devote time to other things ie the significant other: http://web.mac.com/wkd928/iWeb/Site%203/Welcome.html oh yeah, and the girlfriend!