Porsche 944 sp1 owners guide

Moving blog to different site

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:03:48 -0800

I'm moving my 944 spec blog to here

Car almost ready for 9 hour Enduro at Road Atlanta in Dec 2009

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:54:29 -0800

Worked on the car during this weekend. I changed the oil and oil filter to 15w50 mobil 1. The brake pads are replaced (Hawk Blue) and the brake fluid is flushed.

I added the nomex Simpon shifter boot which is secured using aluminum strips with self tapping screws. I still need to make the refueling 5 gallon tanks for fast fill of 10 gallons per stop.

I just ordered AMS Oil racing oil 15w50 which I'm buying as insurance for the engine. 9 hours at Road Atlanta is a long time so I'm wasting the mobil 1 fill I did this weekend but it's cheaper than rebuilding an engine. Amsoil dominator 5000 is about 11 bucks per quart for reference.

I just need to add some u clamps to stop my outside driver net from slipping, do the gas tanks and I think I'm as done as I can be. The Nitto NT01 tires are arriving this week too hopefully. 245/15/50 at 140 bucks per tire. One set should last the whole race.

Changed transmission fluid to Swepco 201

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:40:19 -0700

I figured it's time to change the transmission fluid so I bought two gallons of Swepco 201 not realizing it only takes about 3 quarts. It's 50 bucks a gallon so oops. Anyway, I raised the left side of the car and removed the fill plug and drain plugs. The old fluid looked in good shape. Some dust particle sized shavings in it but thats ok. We then replaced the drain plug and then with the car raised, used a hand pump for gas to pump the fluid from the container to the tranny. Once it was 'full' then we slowly lowered the car and the excess fluid came out of the fill plug. Then raise it again and replace the fill plug. Pretty easy operation with the hand pump.

Lindsey fuel lines installed

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:38:00 -0700

Eric and I installed the Lindsey Fuel lines today. I switched for fire safety reasons.

Improving fire safety

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:32:58 -0700

A Porsche 944 driver was killed in a fire at Daytona a couple of weeks ago and there are some lessons to learn from that tragedy. First, apparently his safety pin was not removed from the fire system meaning it didn't even go off which might have helped. Second, apparently he underestimated the fire and kept going to the next corner station rather than stopping and get out. Lesson here is just get out of the car as fast as possible. It looks like he had a fuel fire but because he kept the car running, the fuel kept pumping in so I guess hit the kill switch when you notice a fire which stops the gas being pumped in to the engine and feeding the fire.

Next, the inside of a car is flammable. The rubber boot on the shifter covers a big hole to under the car where the fire is likely traveling so I'm replacing that with a Nomex Simpson shifter boot which would improve over that a lot in keeping fire outside. Next, I'm probably removing the dash as it can burn. The problem with that is the car isn't SCCA ITS legal anymore once I do that so it's just PCA and NASA only as a result.

Find and seal all holes in the engine firewall and floor. I'm going to try to reduce the wiring inside the car also, it's just more plastic to burn.

Two day open lapping at Brainerd Club track configuration

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:20:26 -0700

I just did two days with BIR Performance at Brainerd. They used the club configuration which adds in a new infield. This configuration is much better than the old one. It's slower at the top but much more exciting. The old one is boring, maybe two miles of it was just straight aways. The new infield in a blast. The keyhole or carosel where turn 8 used to be is a high G turn. Once through there then its flat the rest of the way to the bus stop or turn 12. After the keyhol then it's flat, get close the the right hand wall and then turn in to get the car on the left side pronto. Then flick right and you're blasting down towards turn 12. Very nice and flows well. My car had an extra seat in it and my wife riding with me so it was about 2850lbs but I was running my Hoosier tires that I use for SCCA ITS. My best time was a 1:55.6 which I think is respectable. Looking at the data I can see about another second off that next time I'm there. Mostly in T5 and trying to avoid scrubbing speed through T1 and T2 as well as braking later in to T3. I think I can carry a little more speed through the carosel also which I'd then get the benefit off all the way to T12.

Anyways, car was reliable, weather was good and the track fun. Could be a lot worse. Only issue with the car is I'm finding it hard sometimes to downshift especially in to the T12. I need to check the transmission fluid and maybe fix some synchros.

Video of a session running 57s and 58s

SCCA Race report from Road America May 29/30 2009

nospam@example.com (Billy Newport) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:15:30 -0700

We just got back from two days of racing the Porsche 944 sp1 in an SCCA ITS class. The car isn't competitive in ITS but it is fun to race with Spec miatas etc. The fastest car in ITS did a 2:42 and I was managing 2:55s. Mark Repka has the record in a 944 sp1 and he managed a 2:46 which I haven't a prayer of doing for now. But, most of the Miatas were around my pace so while class racing is out, the SM guys are lots of fun to race with.

The weekend was 4 sessions. A qualifying and a race each day. The race is 10 laps and qualifying was 40 minutes. First qualifying went well, I did a 2:55 which is 8 seconds faster than 3 weeks ago and I put that down to line adjustments and a fresh set of tires which had a lot more grip. My RA1s from 3 weeks ago are hard and had little or no grip. I ended up 4th in class. Rob had a gravel excursion in Canada corner and banged up his belly pan so we had to straighten that out and reattach to the car.

Saturdays race was fun. The grid procedure was pretty easy and Rob was maybe 6 spots behind me. It was pretty uneventful for myself, I managed a 2:57 in the race mainly because of traffic. Rob had a spin trying to pass me in to T5 and then wrecked the car in Canada when he was brake checked by another car, he put his outside wheels off the track and it looped him and threw him in to the inside wall and then he bounced across to hit the outside wall also. The car is bent and is a parts car now. He went to hospital with a sore neck and was released later that day and cleared to race.

Sunday was the same format. My qualifying was disappointing, I was hoping to do a 2:52/3 but I got held up by a car and only managed a 2:57 in the end. That moved me down the grid for the race but I had a lot of fun racing and did a 2:55.4 in the race which was quicker than the previous day. I'll post video when I get it all updated.

Overall, aside from Robs bad luck, it was a great weekend and I've two more races in the bag.