hp18racer

I have been enjoying the thread on the 944 spec car build and thought I'd put up something about my own project.

Until this year my driving has been all DE's. I've been building up and driving a big turbo 944 as a street/track car. I've been wanting to club race for some time and studying the various alternatives. I live in the Midwest and am faced more with limits time to devote to racing then on how much I can spend on a given weekend. PCA and SCCA are my only choices for the tracks close to me, I picked PCA for more track time on a race weekend and a better forum for the car I'd gotten comfortable working on.

A lot of my friends drive E class, but I have a little bit of a mad scientist in me that a stock car just doesn't satisfy. Turbo selection, motor tuning, fiddling with aero are a blast to me so I decided to go for a GT car.

This year my goal wasn't to have a great car or be competitive but to put a racer together and get through the rookie school. In June I bought a 944 Turbo S in an e-bay auction for $4500, brought it home and went to work. The car had been a track toy since 1991. The interior was still in it. Most of the weight reduction done to the car had not been so much to make it faster but because the car had been wrecked. Power steering, headlights and A/C were gone, the car had a lexan rear hatch. The purposeful track upgrades included an Auto Power cage, an aluminum racing seat, Weltmeister sway bars, stiffer springs and stiffer torsion bars. The car had started out life with ABS but the trailing arms were from an 86 and all the ABS sensors were gone. I was told the car needed a new clutch and that something was not working in the boost control.

hp18racer

Working mostly late nigths after my kids go to bed I replaced the clutch, timing belts, suspension front and rear, radiator hoses, all the safety equipment, and got started on interior delete. The components for my race car all came from 'stuff I had laying around the shop' either off my street car or from the wreck of the 'Flame Car'. For boost control I deleted the cycling valve and put in an adjustable check valve that cost me all of $8. I installed a set of Autothority chips. I made a gage panel and added a wide band, boost gage and oil temperature gage. For better cooling I added a Kiss cooler kit.

I sold the weltmeister sways, springs and torsion bars from the car to raise some cash. I considered selling my Sparco Pro 2000 seat (from the flame car) but couldn't get my blood stains out so I decided to put it in and sell the aluminum one that was in the car I'd just bought instead.

When all this work was done I trailered the car to a local drag strip for a test drive. At what should have been boost onset the car screamed like a stuka dive bomber and made no boost at all. I pulled the turbo and found major foreign object damage to the hot side which I guessed probably to be caused by failing ceramic liners in the head. I replace the turbo, swapped the head and got the car running the week before the club race at Hallett. I did an alignment in my shop and headed for Hallett with only a couple of minutes of seat time in the car.

hp18racer

I was suprised to not get in trouble at tech for the appearance of my car. I expected to at least get a note put in my log book that I needed to do better next year :O I got one minor squak, I had to add a metal cover over the fuel level sender. The race shop at Hallett made one for me and I was good to go. I had a variety of mechanical problems including a water pump failure but with the help of my friends I managed to keep the car running and get through the racing school. I wish I had video of me storming through the pack and passing cup cars but the best thing I can say about my driving is I didn't cause anyone else to wreck. I quit the first race early when the interior rear view mirror fell off. The last two sprint races I drove to the end.

DanR

thanks for posting, also add this to the 944 turbo forum as I would guess they would also enjoy it.

which race school did you do and what was your experience?

hp18racer

This winter I am going to work on interior cleanup, put a wing, splitter, and wide body front fenders on it. I plan to run 275/40x17's or 285/30x18's all around. I got a set of 4 Cup 1 rears for the 275's for cheap on e-bay. I got the wing off of Craig's list for under $100. I plan to do some more preventative maintenance and paint the car inside and out. I don't expect to be competitive in GT3 next year, my on track goal for 2009 is not to be consistently racing for last place :O in the field

hp18racer

I did the rookie school which is a part of the PCA club race. The PCA race school consists of a couple of classroom sessions, then they watch you on track during practice sessions and practice starts. Details on how PCA handles new racers and their racing school are all on www.pca.org. It was a very positive experience. If you like DE's you'll love club racing!

Cory M

who makes those swaybars? Kelly-Moss?

hp18racer

I have no idea. The parts are all SAE sizes, you could get most of what you need to duplicate them at an aircraft supply place. When I got them the front bar was damaged, I got raw stock at 'Metal By The Foot' and a friend of mine with a mill and lathe made me the replacements I needed to fix them.

MPD47

They look like Tarrett/Kokeln's (obviously without the fancy anodizing) to me, but I'm not 100% on that.

Weston Dillard

I remember seeing your car at Hallett. Welcome to the program!

West

hp18racer

Thanks West, hope to see you at Heartland Park in April and that my car is totally unrecognizable compared to Hallett

Ron

daigo

The bars are a Kelly Moss setup that is no longer available. I'd like to see a shot of the front.

A.Wayne

Parts to roll your own are available from HRP , will require mods and a friend with a lathe .welding equipment and beer ...

daigo

It would be great to have a base line starting point by knowing what the factory bars "rate" was. I'm in the process of making up billet mounts front and rear for the race hollow bars.

hp18racer

The fronts are currently mounted with modified factory sway bar mount brackets. My friend with the mill and lathe is making billet mounts made for the front that are similar to the Weltmeister's. The front bar is dead straight. The control linkage geometry isn't quite right as is, I'm going to make some changes over the winter to lower the force it takes to move the handles. This is the only other picture I have, kind of a mess right now, everything is covered with dust from body work in progress.