coryf

We had been thinking about building a spec boxster for quite a while. We picked up a good donor car last summer and decided to build a car. The spec boxster class just seemed like a great place to run. Reasonable cost, great competition and a fun basis for a track car.

We gave the car a shakedown run at the Roebling DE during the PCA race in December, finished it up and brought it to Sebring for the race last weekend.

We started working on the car's set up. It was challenging trying to drive around the car's limitation due to the rule's package. The lack of a limited slip was the biggest issue. The car had a decent amount of trailing entry over steer when trying to really attack the corner. It would transition to a mild push mid corner and then start spinning the inside tire and break away into over steer at corner exit. A good limited slip would probably cure the entry over steer and exit wheel spin, but since it is not allowed we had to try and tune around it. We made the car more drive-able and felt like we had come close to the best compromise considering the car's hardware limitations.

The tires were interesting. The class runs on the R888 as a spec tire. They heat cycle very well, are almost as quick on the out lap as when fully warmed up and wear like iron. Unfortunately they grip like Iron as well As long as everyone is on the same thing though, it doesn't really matter. The braking was fine. It was limited by front ABS due to the tires lack of grip. The pedal stayed fairly firm even with the abusive sebring braking zones.

The power seemed to be our limiting factor. Our car was getting pulled down the straights. Halfway through the first sprint it felt like the car lost power. I still managed a 2nd in class but definitely felt the car was a little weak. The 2nd sprint the power dropped off even more (while I was leading ). It felt like it was starving for fuel and would hardly pull on corner exit and didn't have enough power to get to redline in 4th on the back straight, not even getting close to needing 5th. I stayed out and still managed another 2nd in class but knew the car had an issue.

When I pulled in we popped the gas cap and there was a big vacuum on the fuel tank. We bypassed the vent thinking the pressure was the cause of the fuel starvation. It was just overpowering the pump and not allowing enough fuel to get to the engine.

We signed up the car for the enduro on Sunday morning. I invited one of my co-drivers, Dion Von Moltke, from the Daytona 24 the weekend before to come join me for the enduro. He started the race from dead last and made his way up through the field (he was 15 sec behind the SPB leader). Unfortunately he didn't know the pits are closed during full course yellow and came in. We didn't have a radio in the car (we hadn't planned to do the enduro), so we had to tell him in pit lane and waved him through. Unfortunately, the pit exit worker held him until the entire field passes back by. Dion came in after the track went green and I jumped in. The power was better than it had been all weekend. The car felt good and I started working my way back up. Caught the 3rd place car on the last lap going into 17 and tried to sneak by on the inside by following the overall leading cayman into the braking zone. The 3rd place car aggressively cut into the inside to block though and almost pinched me into the inside wall. I got a good run onto the front straight but the ruined momentum from 17 hurt my chance at a pass. We finished 4th, only a few seconds back from the class leader. We didn't feel too bad considering how much track position we lost coming in under yellow by mistake. I believe I ran the fastest race lap in the class and was able to circulate in the 32's without traffic.

The car was a lot of fun. It was a little frustrating at the beginning but once we started to figure out the car a little better it was fun. Unfortunately it took us till Sunday to fix the power issue, but even still I think we would have a competitive car with the best spec boxster guys in the country.

It was great meeting the Boxster guys from Texas, John Gladwill, Thomas Jones and Michael Hsu. They were very open in sharing info on the cars and tires and helped our learning curve. They also were great to race with on-track, running hard but very clean. I was very sad to see Thomas' car crash in the first sprint but they got it patched back together for the enduro. That is what this class is all about. Great competition, Solid, fun and relatively inexpensive cars, and very friendly and helpful competitors.

If we still own the car when Road Atlanta comes around, we might have to bring the little hot rod boxster with us.

MJR911

Good stuff Cory. Are there no LSD options within the class? ...I would have guessed that Porsche atleast made one an option in '97-'99.

M758

It is rules and cost containment thing. Remember spec boxster is class built to a budget. That is something everyone coming from more expensive cars needs to realize. Sure you can make the boxster faster, but spec boxster like 944 spec and spec miata is trying to find sweet spot of running a fun car on reasonable budget.

mglobe

Bring it down to Texas next month Cory, and have another shot at Gladwill, Hsu, and also most like Steve Watkins. We always have a large SpecBox field at TWS.

consolidated

Great to race with you Cory, it's nice to see a pro outfit take an interest in the series, big fields = big fun.

For what it's worth, 2nd Place shows DQ'd, Ranier might have been caught between the leader and the flag, not sure. I believe you and your co-driver got third, congrats.

I didn't take the green on the first double yellow restart before pitting and lost 3 minutes sitting in ignorance, live and learn.

racer

No LSD option on the Boxster in 97-99.. and in fact, I dont think there was one until the Gen2 987! The lack of LSD is a big gripe among cayman owners as well.

On the other hand, its a spec series, so everyone has to live within the limits (tires, shock types, no lsd etc etc.)

Potomac-Greg

Good point. You can make your car a better racer, and then everyone will have a better racer. Same result, just more money.

mglobe

Or... you could build a Spec996 which allows an LSD.

Carrera51

I goofed my pistop as well. Didn't have a crew and forgot to check my stopwatch that was keeping time for the race and forgot to look at it until after I pulled into the pit box. Ended up staying nearly 2 minutes too long.

I did have a blast driving the Spec Boxster and my first time driving Sebring. Its a great class, and the fraternal feeling you get from the other Spec Boxster racers is great! Love the track, even with all the bumps I think I like it even more than WG.

good hands

Since Porsche didn't have an LSD for the boxster I assume that it isn't allowed for E class either ? I always wondered why a well set up Boxster wouldn't be the car of choice in E .

consolidated

Or buy a used Cup car....poacher!

NJcroc

Stock car rules are not the same


5. Transmission
A. Ratios of ring and pinion and individual gear sets must be as supplied by the factory.
B. Transmission coolers are free.
C. Any limited slip differentials (LSDs) derived from a mechanical type that was delivered in a street-legal Porsche is allowed. No locked differentials will be permitted.

Werkstatt

You knuckle head! I had a stopwatch the size Flavor Flav would have been jelous of on the dash right in front of you.

Streak

Are you interpreting that to mean that LSD's are legal in stock classes regardless of model type? I'd like to read it that way

mglobe

Guilty as charged, ...and proud of it.