Pro driver (Skeen) in 944 Turbo Cup at Road America
08-02-2012, 10:53 PM
#1
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Pro driver (Skeen) in 944 Turbo Cup at Road America
Mike Skeen (World Challenge Driver) driving a 944 Turbo Cup/Escort car at the Hawk/Redman Road America Vintage Race a few weeks ago.
http://youtu.be/qlmaBzcdwPA
http://youtu.be/qlmaBzcdwPA
08-02-2012, 11:24 PM
#2
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Jim, did you happen to speak to him about it?
08-03-2012, 12:36 AM
#4
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Patrick,
I sent Dave (the car owner) an email asking what Mike's thoughts were on driving the 944. He drove it at a big vintage race at Mosport earlier this year too. I think he put it on pole and won that race.
It was close to 100F ambient temp that wknd at Road America, so track surface temps were probably 110+. Turbos dont like that kind of heat, and Im sure it was struggling for power. Also, the vintage race rules require the cars to be on tire size/wheels that were original equipment, so the 944s are on 245/16's. The lightweight 911s and 914/6s are not as hindered by the limited rubber as the much heavier 944s.
The #181 911 (passed going into Canada Corner around the 2:40 mark) is driven by Peter Kitchak, who raced 911's in the World Challenge about 12-15 years ago. He also landed a ride in a 993 GT2 at LeMans in the late 90's.
The little blue 911 w/ green and white stripes (also shown around the 2:40 mark) is a pretty quick little car. I was on track w/ it last wknd and struggled to keep up w/ it. In the background of the pic below.
I sent Dave (the car owner) an email asking what Mike's thoughts were on driving the 944. He drove it at a big vintage race at Mosport earlier this year too. I think he put it on pole and won that race.
It was close to 100F ambient temp that wknd at Road America, so track surface temps were probably 110+. Turbos dont like that kind of heat, and Im sure it was struggling for power. Also, the vintage race rules require the cars to be on tire size/wheels that were original equipment, so the 944s are on 245/16's. The lightweight 911s and 914/6s are not as hindered by the limited rubber as the much heavier 944s.
The #181 911 (passed going into Canada Corner around the 2:40 mark) is driven by Peter Kitchak, who raced 911's in the World Challenge about 12-15 years ago. He also landed a ride in a 993 GT2 at LeMans in the late 90's.
The little blue 911 w/ green and white stripes (also shown around the 2:40 mark) is a pretty quick little car. I was on track w/ it last wknd and struggled to keep up w/ it. In the background of the pic below.
08-03-2012, 04:48 AM
#6
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That's great Jim. Really enjoyed that. To your point, you can see just how much lock he pre winds into the corners due to the small tyres. Almost as if he's anticipating it pushing a little so just pre loads the front end up before it takes a set. To add, he takes an early apex with this in mind but it actually seems to bite and then just hang through that line. Surprisingly I was expecting to see him suffer under corners and braking, but he just ate them up under brakes! On the other hand he was left standing down the straights. What year are those Mustangs from? If there is any power to weight being taken into account, they certainly seem to have a heap more power. Even the 911s and 914s seem to pull away...but still shaking my head at how poor they were by comparison under brakes.
Nice video, thanks again.
Nice video, thanks again.
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08-03-2012, 10:01 AM
#8
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As far as I know, the Cup/Escort car is still at legal PCA Club Race weight, 2920 lbs w/ driver. Boost is limited to 1.0 bar by rule, so approx 15 psig is allowed. Making 270ish rwhp. Its got an S2 R/P, which is perfect for that track. It has a production manual rack, not a depowered power rack, so higher ratio - requires about 20% more steering input.
The GT class 911s like in the pic above are probably close to 2100 lbs w/o driver and are probably getting 250+ bhp at the crank out of their 2.7s. Need a real long straight away (longer than at Road America) to have enough room for the higher hp turbo to start catching those lower weight cars, and probably not going to ever happen w/ the ambient temps like that wknd.
Also a little surprised at the braking. The Cup/Escort has the stock Cup brakes, so the regular Turbo S/M030 front calipers. The vintage guys/cars might have period correct calipers on their old 911s, so that might offset the braking performance of the featherweight cars.
Not sure on those Mustangs. More motor than I would have expected. Could all of a real 400. But hard to tell for sure, as the camera lens does distort distance.
The rules/classes for vintange are really open from a competitive performance point of view. Run what you brung, drive safe, dont wreck someone elses valuable car, have fun kind of attitude. So there will be a big range of performance/hp within a class. This is the group 8 race group which includes almost any production based sports race car. A few years ago, Porsche was the honored Marque at the vintage race, and so they invited PCA Club Racers to run. Many of the PCA'rs keep going back because of the size and awe of the event, racing in front of nearly of thousands of spectators (this is the biggest event at Road America each year, more spectators than Indy Car, ALMS, etc).
For comparison, here is Skeen driving his current world challenge Hawk Corvette in another run group at the same event. Note that the yellow Cragar corvette following is driven by Ron Fellows (who drove that car in the 2010 World Challenge series).
The GT class 911s like in the pic above are probably close to 2100 lbs w/o driver and are probably getting 250+ bhp at the crank out of their 2.7s. Need a real long straight away (longer than at Road America) to have enough room for the higher hp turbo to start catching those lower weight cars, and probably not going to ever happen w/ the ambient temps like that wknd.
Also a little surprised at the braking. The Cup/Escort has the stock Cup brakes, so the regular Turbo S/M030 front calipers. The vintage guys/cars might have period correct calipers on their old 911s, so that might offset the braking performance of the featherweight cars.
Not sure on those Mustangs. More motor than I would have expected. Could all of a real 400. But hard to tell for sure, as the camera lens does distort distance.
The rules/classes for vintange are really open from a competitive performance point of view. Run what you brung, drive safe, dont wreck someone elses valuable car, have fun kind of attitude. So there will be a big range of performance/hp within a class. This is the group 8 race group which includes almost any production based sports race car. A few years ago, Porsche was the honored Marque at the vintage race, and so they invited PCA Club Racers to run. Many of the PCA'rs keep going back because of the size and awe of the event, racing in front of nearly of thousands of spectators (this is the biggest event at Road America each year, more spectators than Indy Car, ALMS, etc).
For comparison, here is Skeen driving his current world challenge Hawk Corvette in another run group at the same event. Note that the yellow Cragar corvette following is driven by Ron Fellows (who drove that car in the 2010 World Challenge series).
08-03-2012, 01:23 PM
#10
