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Introducing the yellow car (Zen of wrenching and racing)

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Old 06-07-2011, 06:15 PM
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nile13
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Default Introducing the yellow car (Zen of wrenching and racing)

So I drive into the Andreas' layer in Maryland two weeks ago to do some wrenching and he goes: "What happened to your car, man?". Well, nothing, it's as dirty as usual, especially after a 450 mile hike from Boston, why? Well, he says, it used to be Aventurine Green, right? Why is it bright yellow now?

Indeed, why is it bright yellow? The avatar you see on the left is called "Melancholy baby". It is my first 993 a cab that I've been with for 6 years, rode accross teh country and wrote a diary about at the time and bonded with enough to feel like Hank Moody in Californication (I briefly considered taking the right headlight out and would have done so, but MA cops have no aesthetic sense to speak of). But a year ago I've sold it to another Rennlister in South Carolina and bought a Speed Yellow cab from a Rennlister in Cleveland. Apparently I've never put up any description of this car, so even Andreas was surprised to see it brightening up his garage.

And so it went, two 993 side by side high on jackstands, one very clean silver coupe, one very dirty but still bright yellow cab. Mr. Walter has pics that he will probably post of the pair, so I'll leave it to him. Suffice it to say that I was sworn into not making any comments on how clean his car is or on finer nuances of smell of Xenit in the morning.

The reason my car ended up on jackstands in Andreas' garage is that at 84K miles it was long overdue for suspension replacement and some other things that make the 993s more... ummm... fun on the street. as in less scary. When I bought the car at 79K miles I got it from the second owner. The first owner had it for 15 years in Florida and his idea of upgrades was simple. Add aluminum bling. Which he did with reckless abandon. The car has more shiny hot to the touch metal inside than one should be allowed for safety reasons. Let's see. All *****, door pulls, ignition surround, instrument surrounds, shifter, brake handle. In order to complete the look I've decided to also put in aluminum dead pedal and, what the hell, the rest of the pedals as well. So I can be completely surrounded by this stuff. With the way P-parts go up in price I think I can safely look at all this aluminum as future college fund base for my 13 year old.

So, to make a long story short, we spent two very long days under the car wrenching and yakking about 993s, zen of maintenance and other important things, including, but not limited to: "the cat has a hole in it". Never mind the details, but we were not discussing catalytic converters at the time. By "long" I mean 14 hours a day both Saturday and Sunday.

In that time we installed Bilstein HDs with RoW M030 springs, M030 sway bars, Walrod bushings (suspension is courtesy of MrBonus and SuperUser, Ian and Daryl, respectively. Thanks, guys and thanks, Chris, of course! Also separate hearty thanks to David for extra locking nuts for the rear!). We also installed FisterD's Golden Rod that miraculously showed up in the mail Saturday afternoon (thanks, Darin!), Weltmeister short shifter, FPB, aforementioned pedals, relocated oil cooler resistor and changed the oil. Probably a few other small things that I'm forgetting. By "installed" and "we" I mean that Andreas was wrenching and I was handing him tools and provided general entertainment. We came up with several new swear words combining German and Russian languages that both land themselves well to this kind of thing. And, more importantly, we would like to jointly introduce a new unit of measure - "ATU", which stands for one Andreas Torque Unit. Again, I'm sure that there will be some pictures from Mr. Walter as he was taking them, it's all a bit foggy to me. It was fun. Honestly. For me, anyway

And now in bold capital letters - thank you Andreas!

So, having disposed of the dirty rags, stains, sweat and some minor blood on the fingers we get to the driving part of this equation. This, after all, is the reason why we buy 993s and shed blood (ours or someone else's) modifying them to our liking, right? My strong belief is that one needs to ask a quintessential question first: "What is it that I want out of this car?". The second question is: "What is this car currently lacking to answer question #1?". And the third is: "How do I modify it to take care of those shortcomings?". I find that a lot of people have this backwards, but that's none of my money and none of my business.

My answer to question #1 is fairly simple. This is a daily driver. Just like my previous 993 cab was for 6 years. It needs to be fairly comfortable and it needs to handle well on the street. That's it. Sounds simple enough. I have a dedicated autocross appliance, so I don't get an erection by pronouncing words like "coilovers". I've got the damn coilovers. Hey, 993 came out of the factory with coilovers. So now with new suspension, let's see how the car behaves. Oh, before we do that, it has to be aligned, right? Enters stage left one Taylor Chapman of German Auto Group in Springfield, VA. Andreas recommended him. A really nice guy who truly understands what he is doing. And, more importantly, listens to the customer, asks questions and gives opinions and options. So we set the alignment at a very streetable settings, about 1 degree of camber all around. Daily driving is more important to me than an occasional autocross, so this is what we settled on. Thus it shall be done and thus it was done. Oh, and they washed the car. My offhanded comment about the car being dirty as a part of secret biological experiment almost caused them a heart attack, so I had to backtrack that statement and just thank them for a job well done.

Now, my previous 993 was upgraded to HDs and H&Rs and RoW Turbo sway bars, so it was not a dissimilar setup. The yellow car feels very sure footed on the street as it is right now. Very solid feedback and very assuring overall feel. Pretty neutral with 225/265 tires, but if I want to swing the tail a bit it's happy to do so and go sideways for a wile (no, not on the street). I don't push it much, it doesn't complain in return. Symbiotic and Zen-like if you ask me. Good enough.

The next thing is the shifter and Golden Rod. Much improved feel going through the gears. Easier to shift and significantly more pleasant than before. Still need to adjust the length of the front rod to locate the shifter properly, but that's minor. Again, very worthwhile mod and good enough result.

So I drive 500+ miles home through a hellish tornado and thunderstorm in Pennsylvania and drive it on bombed-out streets of Boston for a couple of weeks. It is stiff, but not objectionable. Very similar to previous cab, but with M030s it can be in Stock class at an occasional relaxed autocross, which was the idea. It sits a little taller than the old cab. Reason for that is the front Bilsteins don't have the extra threads, so we set the ride height to the lowest possible up front and adjusted rear accordingly. It's at RoW height now, which is perfectly fine with me. Current wheels are Sport Designs that look much better on lowered car than on SUV car. I will be putting SSRs back on, so we'll see how that looks.

And, finally, the reason I've decided to wait with this long winded post. I wanted to take the car to an autocross to shake it out a bit and understand what the hell we've created here. And I did this past Saturday. Those of you who autocross seriously will not be surprised to hear that the car lost its lunch there. Well, I'm used to a stiff narrow Hoosier-shed dedicated car. 993 is 1,000 lbs heavier and is on street tires. No miracles there. 9 cones on the first two runs and being late everywhere. Some re-thinking, some adjustments and some self-loathing later I've won the stock class and got my beer glass trophy to prove it . The pics below are a pretty telling progression from "don't drive like this" (extra points for those who can see and describe what's wrong with pic #1) to "this thing slides, but it's controllable" to "it's not bad, wish I had race tires on it".

The conclusion is simple. We've created pretty much what we set out to create. A street car that is fun enough and comfortable enough as a daily driver. It can be taken to an occasional autocross. If for no other reason than to remind me why I'm paying for Hoosiers on the other car. And that Hoosiers excuse a lot of mistakes. And that if I learn to drive this 993 faster it'll help me overall. And so that the GF can race in it and not learn on Hoosiers, which is a patently bad idea.

Oh, the next day, Sunday, was another autocross. We ran pretty much the same course as Saturday, but in reverse direction. Boy, was it fun after the street tire experience. I got PAX FTD and was of 0.2 second on raw FTD from Hoosier-shed GT3-RS. Not too bad, considering 140 sputtering squirrels that periodically go on a hunger strike.

With this very thoughts I shall leave the audience alone with a well deserved respite from the long-winded post that this has become. See the pics below, wait for Andreas' scathing response with more pics and ask questions if you've ever gotten to this point in this story





Old 06-07-2011, 06:33 PM
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vjd3
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Awesome, Mike!
Old 06-07-2011, 08:00 PM
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craig001
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Nice ride - amazing how Speed Yellow grows on you after you get one.

I do think you need to head over to the Pelican For Sale forum and pick-up the DAS Sport Rollbar that's for sale in North Jersey though. Or I just saw that RedSled113 has one for sale on the shore. (I definately miss living in South Jersey BTW)

Good story telling as well. I wish I could do all that - my SY cab was just dropped off at the shop for many of the same mods - H&R's, RUF strut brace, TRG monoball mounts all the way around, new rotors & pads and getting the top adjusted so it works electrically. Those are my big three. Then if there is money left in the kitty -Eagle Day valve covers installed, replace my plug wires and whatever. Fortunately for my they are willing to use my parts with the usual disclaimer about warranty's. It's the while you are in there concept to combine labor.

Can't wait!

Last edited by craig001; 06-07-2011 at 08:16 PM.
Old 06-07-2011, 08:39 PM
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Nice Mike. I can't believe you went to the "House of Holy Cleanliness." I'd be afraid to take my dirty car there. Good work fellas!
Old 06-07-2011, 10:15 PM
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Yeah +1 on the story telling. You were in my backyard Mike.
Old 06-07-2011, 10:45 PM
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Awesome story!
Old 06-08-2011, 12:51 PM
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Great story!! I bet the cab is way better, you should also put on a RS strut brace, to help the Cabs front end.

I bet it was hard to be clean going from a R tire race car, to a street tire, street car. Doesn't turn in or stick as well, does it?

I Auto-X my 993 C4 here in PCA stock 3 class. Before I got sticky street rubber, & did an aggressive street alignment, I would be .5-1.0 sec back off the class whipping Boxter. Now, I've been .5-1 sec faster then them, & currently beat a few GT3's, & other "faster" cars. So far have 4 class wins for the year, & hopefully making that 5(!) on Saturday!!

Old 06-09-2011, 12:01 PM
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nile13
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Thanks, guys!

Darin, i was afraid. I still am

Craig, no bars in this car. Street only. No race tires. Ever. I've "just said no" Actually, I've taken roll bar out of Miata as well. 40 lbs of dead weight up top is pretty significant. And I do not track at all.

Mike, what tires are you running at autocross, what alignment and what pressures? I'd like to take this car out a few more times to local PCA events just to give the other one a break. And the GF might end up learning autocrossing in it since I don't want her learning on Hoosiers - they mask too many mistakes.
Old 06-09-2011, 12:12 PM
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Originally Posted by nile13
Thanks, guys!

Mike, what tires are you running at autocross, what alignment and what pressures? I'd like to take this car out a few more times to local PCA events just to give the other one a break. And the GF might end up learning autocrossing in it since I don't want her learning on Hoosiers - they mask too many mistakes.
Well, I feel a Cab & C4 are very different on track, so take at your own risk. The biggie for me was going to the 18in boat anchor TT wheels. much bigger contact patch!. They are Yoko AD08's. They were the "fastest" on Tire Racks test, so far I LOVE them. Pressure so far is 34-36 front & 38-41 rear. I run the rear high to cure some understeer.

Alignment is 0 toe front & rear, 1.25 or 1.5 (can't remember) camber f/r lots of caster in front. Of course a corner balance.
Old 06-09-2011, 12:34 PM
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Thanks, Mike!

OK, so this is not all that far from what I was running on Saturday. I have about 1 to 1.1 degree camber all around. Not enough, but not that far off. Have 18" 225/265 Pilot Sports, not my favorite tire. I've ran an E36 M3 on Advan 08s before and was pretty impressed with them.

Was playing with pressures all day and settled on 34F/38R which made the car fairly neutral for me. The problem was that I was late everywhere. Because when you are on crack (sweet race tire crack), your braking and turning is pretty much immediate, unlike on street tires. Once I got the car fairly neutral and my head out of deep recesses of my *** and remember to do everything way earlier, the car mostly behaved for me. It just didn't have the sure feel of control and immediacy that one has in a CSP car. Than again, it's not a CSP car
Old 06-09-2011, 12:36 PM
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Great story.
Old 06-09-2011, 01:57 PM
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Originally Posted by nile13
The pics below are a pretty telling progression from "don't drive like this" (extra points for those who can see and describe what's wrong with pic #1)
....
hmmm, I'll take a shot...
1. No cones in the picture. You've either driven way off the course and into lala land or you are a bit off the apex cone. (I'm going to go with the first, considering #2 below...)
2. You appear to be turning left from the front tires direction. However, the left rear tells something different. The inside tire doesn't loadup in a turn...

So, you're either:
1. at a drifting comp
2. working on your pitch & catch technique

I'm going with....Nice Spin!
Old 06-09-2011, 02:11 PM
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OK, I'll wait for others to chime in before I reveal THE THRUTH (tm)
Old 06-09-2011, 10:22 PM
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Originally Posted by nile13
Thanks, Mike!

OK, so this is not all that far from what I was running on Saturday. I have about 1 to 1.1 degree camber all around. Not enough, but not that far off. Have 18" 225/265 Pilot Sports, not my favorite tire. I've ran an E36 M3 on Advan 08s before and was pretty impressed with them.

Was playing with pressures all day and settled on 34F/38R which made the car fairly neutral for me. The problem was that I was late everywhere. Because when you are on crack (sweet race tire crack), your braking and turning is pretty much immediate, unlike on street tires. Once I got the car fairly neutral and my head out of deep recesses of my *** and remember to do everything way earlier, the car mostly behaved for me. It just didn't have the sure feel of control and immediacy that one has in a CSP car. Than again, it's not a CSP car
NEWS Flash, your street Cab is not a RACE CAR!

I do most everything early in the 993, for me the key was to trail break hard, then right before the apex roll on throttle. It lets me be faster then some GT3's out there. Not bad for a 106kmi 270HP AWD Beast!

My tire last year was the PS2's, & the AD08's have WAY, WAY more grip, & turn in. I had real trouble getting heat in the PS2's. If it's a wet day they work the same as the hot days. My only wins with them was in the wet, when the gummy tires were way less gummy, mine were the same.

My last Auto-X car was a "R" Mitia, & an prepped 300+HP E30 M3. It took me time to get the 993 right.

Originally Posted by kjr914
hmmm, I'll take a shot...
1. No cones in the picture. You've either driven way off the course and into lala land or you are a bit off the apex cone. (I'm going to go with the first, considering #2 below...)
2. You appear to be turning left from the front tires direction. However, the left rear tells something different. The inside tire doesn't loadup in a turn...

So, you're either:
1. at a drifting comp
2. working on your pitch & catch technique

I'm going with....Nice Spin!
Notice the helmet is facing the right, something is going on there. "oops wrong way"
Old 06-09-2011, 11:12 PM
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nile13
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Mike, I hear what you are saying. It's a street car and that's my main point - it was intended to made into a street car and it was. But we will race anything that moves, of course...

I've never been a fan of any Michelins, especially for the price. My last cab was on Azenis for quite some time and was sticking OK when they were new. I'm thinking of trying Hankook R-S3s as the next street set.

As far as pic 1, it's interesting. I'm obviously going right. Witness the loaded rear left tire and the head turned to where the car is supposed to be going. Of course the car slides its *** out to the left so quick countersteer input is needed. It was interesting for me to see that the head is still turned the right way. Generally, I don't think I look far enough ahead. Oh, the cones are wider as this point so the photog decided to make a tight shot of the car's back only. At least that's the crop I got.


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