JET951

Yesterday , Wakefield Park , Goulburn ( country NSW ) about 2.5 + hours highway drive from Sydney, fairly small track , but a safe track , but being small "ish" , congestion / traffic on the track is common per lap , so trying for that "Personal Best " time is much harder to achieve at Wakefield

Warm to hot dry conditions , thick blanket of morning Fog , once it burnt away the temp quickly went to 31 deg Cel ( 88 F ) by late morning , track temp was at its best mid morning , I am not sure if many PB's ( personal best ) times were achieved

Good turn out of Porsche's considering the forecast temp & distance for most owners/drivers

First track session out , just as the fog started to clear , was speed group 1 ( fastest Porsche's in the club ) about 14 or so Porsche's , mainly GT3's Cup cars on slick tyres , GT3's on "R" specs & Sean Buchanan( JET951) in his 1986 3.0L 16V E85 951 road car on "R" specs ( old ones at that )
It was interesting just how many GT3's spun off the track on the first lap , good thing no real damage done to the GT3's & 95 % of the drivers in this group has quite a bit of experience in this situation , meaning they know to respond to keep everyone safe , meaning making sure the car does not spin/ flick itself back onto the track into the path of the car behind , which in turn gives more confidence to the drivers which showed with some very fast "close " driving .

Mark Bloxham in his Mexico Blue 1986 3.0L 8V E85 951 was in speed group 2 and this was the first time at Wakefield for Mark with this new 3.0L 8 V engine Sean had made him , and with the extra torque & overall power , Mark's 951 did very well for itself

So we had Mark Bloxham & Sean Buchanan flying the flag for the 951 , with these two front engine'd 30 year old Porsches monstering this century GT3's all over the place

Both Sean & I had to be back in Sydney early that evening so we could only stay to lunchtime , so that gave Sean ( JET 951 ) only 2 track sessions and that was that , but as it turned out ,Sean still managed to win Class 1 & also became the quickest road registered Porsche there yesterday with road legal "R" spec tyres

Here is a quick list of Porsche's that were not quite as quick as Sean's 951 }

Sean's 951
991 GT3 3.8
996GT3
991GT3 RS 2016
991GT3
Mark Bloxhams 3.0 951
991GT3
997GT3
996GT3
996GT3
981 Cayman
991GT3
Cayman GT4
911RSR replica 3.8L
981 Cayman S
996GT3

Big Thanks to all who volunteered to help out at Wakefield yesterday

I think Sean may have some in car footage ? , if so he will put that together tomorrow

Regards
Bruce Buchanan
Buchanan Automotive

AlphaOmegaPower

Very nice. Great job to you both.
Would love any external footage of there is any.

333pg333

Great results yet again guys. Agreed on the outside video. Be good to see and hear a bit more of these cars.

964-C2

Thanks for the write up! Looking forward to the in car footage.

+1!
That is including driver and (some) fuel, right?

JET951

Hi 964-CS , the 1375KG a few years ago was just the car & no driver , can not remember fuel level at that time , maybe half a tank , not sure

Remember , Sean's 951 is primarily a drive to work /commuting car , fantastic A/C , full sound insulation , full standard carpets , Sean even competes with the quite thick ( heavy ) optional Porsche carpet mats , it has the standard electric sunroof , standard full glass & electric windows , electric aerial & 4 speaker stereo, all steel panels & bumpers except the carbon bonnet Sean made , in fact all we have ever done ( except bonnet) is add weight ( easy & cheap to add weight ) very expensive to add lightness

The 3.0L twin cam 16V engine is heavier than the 8V & the 928GTS front disc's are a lot heavier than the standard 1986 951 brakes, even the wheels/tyres are heavier than the standard 16"dia wheels/tyres way back in 1986 etc etc

Regards
Bruce Buchanan
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blade7

How does this sit with the GT3 owners ?

JET951

Hi Blade 7 , to answer you're question , quite OK , I think the GT3 guys ( for the most part ) find it quite amusing , we get on well with most of them & from the feed back so far they kind of like that something other than another GT3 is up there as well

Smudo

[QUOTE=JET951;13102773]Hi 964-CS , the 1375KG a few years ago was just the car & no driver , can not remember fuel level at that time , maybe half a tank , not sure

Remember , Sean's 951 is primarily a drive to work /commuting car , fantastic A/C , full sound insulation , full standard carpets , Sean even competes with the quite thick ( heavy ) optional Porsche carpet mats , it has the standard electric sunroof , standard full glass & electric windows , electric aerial & 4 speaker stereo, all steel panels & bumpers except the carbon bonnet Sean made , in fact all we have ever done ( except bonnet) is add weight ( easy & cheap to add weight ) very expensive to add lightness

The 3.0L twin cam 16V engine is heavier than the 8V & the 928GTS front disc's are a lot heavier than the standard 1986 951 brakes, even the wheels/tyres are heavier than the standard 16"dia wheels/tyres way back in 1986 etc etc

Regards
Bruce Buchanan
-----------------------------[/QUOTE

According to owners manual 951's DIN with is exactly 1350 kg (that includes 80 liters of gas which is around 60 kg, spare tire, tools etc.). It does not include additional equipment ordered by the first purchaser and driver). From there you can try to calculate the actual weight if you know all mods that were made. It might be complicated if the car is highly modded

blade7

Hello Bruce,
Fair play to them . I was under the impression the better rear suspension and weight over the rear wheels gave the 911 a handling advantage ?

Paul.

964-C2

Ok, thanks for your answer.
My 1988 turbo S was 1350 kg when it was 100% stock, I thought the earlier cars were lighter (yours is from 86, is it?). I guess it depends on mods and equipment.

refresh951

Sean must be an unbelievable driver! Congrats!

333pg333

I remember when they weren't quite so accepting of the 944 crowd. When we first joined in 2006 they ignored us for a few years. As we started getting faster they took a little more notice but were still generally somewhat dismissive of us. When we started to beat them then they sat up a little more. Of course we were often accused of cheating but that's normal for turbo cars. Now many of the old rear engine crowd have left and the current ones seem a lot more accepting.

JET951

Hi 964-C2 , the 1375 KG was years ago when Sean had the heavy front brakes & the much heavier Simmons 3 piece wheels ( 17" dia ) + The spec book doesn't seem to differentiate between a 951 without a electric sunroof & one with an electric sunroof , when we removed all the parts for the electric sunroof out of Marks 951 & the heavy fibreglass roof & the extra steel work in the roof to allow the sunroof hole to be there , the weight difference off all this equipment would ( from memory ) be al least 25 + Kilo's as compared to the non sunroof version & worst still the weight is mostly up high

JET951

Hi Paul ( blade 7 ) , in relation to the the 911 and weight distribution & if we stay just for the moment with like for like , meaning 911's from the same era as Sean's 951( 1970's / 1980's etc ) , we know from basic physics that if you have too much weight at one end , this can be a disadvantage in quite a few areas & an advantage in one area , so as the air-cooled 911 engines got bigger & heavier this become a factor that one had to drive around this issue ( if possible ) & or throw lots more money at the suspension set up to mask the rear weight bias
The one advantage with the rear weight bias is you can accelerate out of corners very hard ( so long as there is enough grip ) however going into the corner the same 911 will go in slower , meaning they have to do their braking in the straight line position & then commit to the corner , meaning slow in & fast out

The 951 is quite different , perfect weight distribution , so the 951 ( that is set up for club track stuff ) will go into the corner much faster & can even brake mid corner ( a bit ) without too much issue , but will struggle to get the same grip from the rear wheels / tyres coming out of the corner as opposed to the same era 911

Now the water cooled quad cam 911 engines( 996.997/991) & their massive weight( plus all the exhaust system ) & its all behind the rear wheels in the 996 , 997 , 991 , Porsche has done a fantastic job of masking this massive weight bias , meaning the rear of the car weighs way too much and as like the air cooled 911 the water cooled GT3's etc come out of corners very well , but when they let go( slip) there is no coming back , they just disappear off the track and into the in field / outfield quicker than you can blink ( spin out of control) , this is their biggest shortcoming , or put another way their user friendliness is a very fine line , where as a car that has perfect weight distribution will let you know what's about to happen & give you more built in stability to do something about it

Its just simple physics

The new GT4 mid engine'd Porsche sports car has a much better weight distribution & its built in user friendliness is a big factor & that's what Porsche is aiming at more & more

We heard at a recent track day that Porsche is considering or is in the process of superseding the rear engine'd GT3 with a mid engined sports car that will be their replacement ( GT4 on steroids ) , if this is so then this will give Porsche a much better platform to take on Lamborghini & Ferrari in sports car racing in the future , the rear engined 911 ( 991 etc ) will continue as a road car but will not be raced

And if so , makes sense because of Weight Distribution

Regards
Bruce Buchanan
Buchanan Automotive

333pg333

Well it's only fair that the Factory spends countless Billions to defeat a car designed in the 1970's hehehe.