Yes, never realized Don would be doing customer stuff... last I talked he was working with the Audis in Grand-Am, and that tends to make people busy...

NoVA is a good place to be - used to live there myself. You may want to touch base w/ John Brown who's in Leesburg - though he runs NASA only, not IT. Still he knows these cars quite well too. You may also want to get in touch with Charlie Murphy at Intersport, through John, they're local there too. Reliability is key to getting started in racing, so having someone who knows their way around the car is very helpful.

 

Its funny you mention that. I was paying a visit to my local tech to get inspected for an upcoming DE event at Summit (woo hoo) We were talking and he offerd to sell me his 944. 64k, new trans, h20 pump/timing belt are 4k old, power steering rack, motormounts, shocks are recent, interior is in good shape. Asking $3k for it.

 

Uh, Joe,
>"differenence in cost between a strong ITB 924 and a stong ITS 944 would not be that much. '
I would respectfully disagree. A "strong ITS 944" is going to cost major, major $$ and time. And no, it might not be competitive even then. Unless your name is Finch. Oh, wait, GT class.....
Alan

 

I don't think Joe is wrong. If I were building an ITB 924 instead of an ITS 944, the only thing that would be different in the build would be the engine. The only reason an ITB 924 might cost less is due to buying an engine with less development than an ITS 944 engine from Jon Milledge. And, correspondingly, I could build a less well developed 944 engine or build one myself. And this is pretty much what I plan to do. Perhaps someday I'll be able to afford a JME engine, but not this day, and not anytime in the foreseeable future either.

 

This is true, everything else is essentially the same (at least for pricing comparisons). Only other difference might be the cost of your initial car purchase, at 2000-5000 for a 944 vs. under $1000 for a 924 (if you're smart - no point buying a running or pretty one).

So, how much would the engine cost? Excepting the Milledge comparison (not sure that there is one for these VW's?)... Places like Shine Racing Service (Walpole MA, usually do VW's, but I've seen at least one 924 racecar with their sticker on it, and might yet have them build me a motor for competition), Bildon, etc, usually charge between $3000-5000 for a fully-built ITB VW motor. I expect a 924 motor would be in the same bracket. Worst case, I wouldn't expect to pay more than $6k for a 924 2.0L that's strong enough (and legal enough) to compete for the win at the ARRC. Which is likely what I'll do someday.

 

Geo

Glad to see that you were not blown clear to Oklahoma. Did you leave Houston, or did you stay? Speaking of hurricanes, does anyone know if John Crosby made it allright? He is the head of PCA racing, and lives in Meterie (I know I spelled that wrong) La. Sure hope so.

Bill Seifert

1987 944S Race Car

 

From what I understand, both John Crosby (PCA Club Race chair) and Ken LaBorde (sp), PCA Insurance chair, are OK. We wish them all the best.
Alan

 

Thanks so much Bill.

After much flip-flopping (as much as twice a day), we decided to stay. Traffic was horrible. We didn't want to be stuck in traffic when Rita hit. On Thursday we were at Home Depot buying plywood (we were counting on an overnight resupply). We were first in line at 5 am (they opened at 6) and were panicing because overnight the projection had us at a direct hit (we're 75 miles inland, but it wasn't going to be enough) and we could see the freeway was at a standstill.

Thursday we got all the boarding done that we had planned, and this included our house and our next door neighbor's (the husband is an international cargo pilot who was overseas - he incidentally has hauled F1 cars more times than I can count). In the afternoon we were in a bonus situation and kept working with scrap and conserving full sheets. We ended up with two full sheets left over and put them to good use. I had 90% of our windows covered. In the end we had no damage. Power was lost at 2 am and returned at 6 pm. God cut us a big break on this one. Our prayers go out for those in east Texas and western Louisiana. They took the hit.

 

Vaughan, I would call Don before doing anything. You know his reputation and he's built IT 924 engines. I'd talk with him before trusting anyone else.

 

Thanks... and glad to hear you guys are OK down there!