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After two years of building, I'm finally racing my latest 944. After a couple of "test" races I'm in full swing with O/A and Class wins in Portland, Kent and Spokane. The EIP class in ICSCC (Conference) is the same as EP in SCCA.
With the help of a lot of people, time, research and money, I've built a competitive N/A 8 Valve 944 that's REALLY fun to drive on the limit. Here are some pics....
First test, January 2022. The Ridge Motorsports Park, Shelton, WA First test, January 2022 First test race, October 2021. SOVREN Fall Finale, Pacific Raceways, Kent, WA. Third O/A, First in class.
The car started as an '87 N/A runner but was immediately stripped and dipped. 101 lbs of undercoating and paint came off the car. Caged and painted, ready for glass flares. 2.5L 8-valve N/A with dry sump. Built to the SCCA E-Production specs. Dyno on first tune was 222 rrhp, 260 at the crank. It can rev to 8000 if needed. The weight limit with me in the car is 2295lbs. I'm about 15 to 20 lbs over with 2 gallons of 110 left. Perfect!
Second race, Febraury 2022. Sonoma, CA. The car got hit from behind on the first lap, fourth corner and DQed. Cold tires with an inexperienced driver caused the wreck. Fixed the car in three weeks.
The latest four races since Sonoma have turned out really well. Suspension and tire management are my main focus now. So far, touch wood, the motor has been bullet proof.
Doug, the cam housing ports are part of Lindsey Racing's solid lifter upgrade. They allow valve lash adjustment, which is necessary with solid lifters. Mike Lindsey was extremely helpful with this motor build. Block, cylinder head, valvetrain, dry sump, etc.
The cam was developed by a "retired engineer". It's rather extreme, requiring all the other components to be able to rev to 8,000rpm. It is very difficult to make an 8-valve 2.5L motor make 260hp under the SCCA rule set.
The whole other side of the story is the chassis. Another huge list of things there....
Thanks for the comps guys. The flares, valence, hood and sunroof are from https://www.gt-racing.com/. Joel is the dude. I decided to use Dzus fasteners instead of bonding although I've had to do some "glass" work for mounting purposes. Not sure if it was easier or not but might help when the eventual "contact" happens.
More tidbits: The suspension arms are stock late-offset parts front and rear. Springs are 450 front, 600 rear with MCS two way dampers with remote reservoirs all around. Torsion bars have been removed. I big help was freeing up ALL the bushings, bearings and pickup points with Elephant or similar parts. Tarret sway bars front and rear. Adjustability is the key right now as I'm still sorting out the suspension at different tracks and conditions. I'm allowed Wilwood calipers in the front for a 45lb weight penalty, I think they're worth it. Stock rear calipers with a bias valve in the cockpit. Negative camber, 3.5 front, 2.5 rear with excellent tire temps in,mid and out. I'm running Hoosier radial slicks starting at 24psi cold, another thing I'm getting used to. Cheers!
Thanks for the comps guys. The flares, valence, hood and sunroof are from https://www.gt-racing.com/. Joel is the dude. I decided to use Dzus fasteners instead of bonding although I've had to do some "glass" work for mounting purposes. Not sure if it was easier or not but might help when the eventual "contact" happens.
More tidbits: The suspension arms are stock late-offset parts front and rear. Springs are 450 front, 600 rear with MCS two way dampers with remote reservoirs all around. Torsion bars have been removed. I big help was freeing up ALL the bushings, bearings and pickup points with Elephant or similar parts. Tarret sway bars front and rear. Adjustability is the key right now as I'm still sorting out the suspension at different tracks and conditions. I'm allowed Wilwood calipers in the front for a 45lb weight penalty, I think they're worth it. Stock rear calipers with a bias valve in the cockpit. Negative camber, 3.5 front, 2.5 rear with excellent tire temps in,mid and out. I'm running Hoosier radial slicks starting at 24psi cold, another thing I'm getting used to. Cheers!
My experience with 944 Tarret front and rear sway bars is not good. The geometry of the sway bar link to the front LCA's and the rear aluminum control arms has a vertical perpendicular force in ONLY one position, mid-point. Making a softer or stiffer sway bar adjustment, there are two force,s one vertical and one horizontal, leading to a diagonal force component which is non-linear.
I went to M030 front sway bar, 25.5 mm with front 400 lb/in springs and rear torsion bar effective spring of 337 lb/in with rear 19mm rear sway bar at full hard.
The handling is neutral with great rotation on slow speed corners. Previously, the race car understeered.
My calculation would indicate that the rear spring rate should be at least 700 lb/in.. The fronts might need to be 400 lb /in to make the car rotate and not understeer from apex to corner exit.
Tarett has great engineered products but not the 944 sway bars
Last edited by T&T Racing; 06-14-2022 at 08:27 PM.
Interesting T & T and I agree with the non-linear path of the Tarrets but I really like the adjustability. The combination of my other suspension components and the 2295lb weight are working really well. (Are Spec944 weights still 2600lbs?) Still testing and probably will forever.
One problem I am having is understeer in sharp, low-speed corners. This is due to the 47mm wheel spacers that offset the spindle geometry. I'm losing front contact patch when cranking the wheel. No way to fix that without serious and complicated fabrication, so I'll live with it and change my driving at corner entry. Cheers!
Interesting T & T and I agree with the non-linear path of the Tarrets but I really like the adjustability. The combination of my other suspension components and the 2295lb weight are working really well. (Are Spec944 weights still 2600lbs?) Still testing and probably will forever.
One problem I am having is understeer in sharp, low-speed corners. This is due to the 47mm wheel spacers that offset the spindle geometry. I'm losing front contact patch when cranking the wheel. No way to fix that without serious and complicated fabrication, so I'll live with it and change my driving at corner entry. Cheers!
Understeer in sharp, low-speed corners is the front is too stiff. If you like the Tarret setup, lower the front spring rate
50 lb/in or 100 lb/in to get a major change.
Thanks Jim. Like I've mentioned above, the suspension components are mostly stock. I've eliminated the rear torsion bars altogether so I'm relying solely on the coil over springs. That alone changes quite a bit of the rear since the weight of the car (and ride height) is supported by the shock mounting bolts on the trailing arms. But it works and works well!. I've also modified the front spindles to accommodate longer 19mm ball joints, which are necessary when lowering ride height.
I'm still married to the 47mm H&R spacers all around, which add 26 lbs to the car, not good. One fix for that is to have really expensive wheels made with zero or less offset, three sets, not happening. The other fix is to go all out and fabricate the A-arms and trailing arms, nope!
The car handles great anyway so I'm sticking with what I've got.
Just got back from my 11th race of the year, championship is in the bag, great car!
OK Jim, I've got some in car video from this year on my Vimeo (links below, turn up the volume!). I don't have any outside video yet. The car is featured on a few websites and I always get comments and questions at the races. A lot of corner workers and volunteers have come up to me with compliments too, that's really cool because they see them all. I return the favor by thanking them for their help, without them we wouldn't be racing.
I'll be tearing the motor apart soon to freshen up the bottom and figure out how to get even more power, of course!
06-04-2022, 01:59 PM
944 E Production race car
