And here it is, NASA Mid South's first 944 spec in its first race.



It's a long boring video, I get passed a lot and make more than a few mistakes.

Some comments on the experience:

This racing stuff is awesome! Even without a decent suspension, I had an absolute blast. The photo finish for 4th during the Aussie Pursuit race on Sunday was one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced. I edged Brian Edmonds out by a mere 0.010 seconds.

Driving the car:

By the end of the day Sunday, I figured out you don't want to brake this car very much. During the race on Sunday, I was braking after the last brake marker on the front straight and turning in at a higher speed, allowing the car to scrub off whatever excess speed was there, staying on maintenance throttle and back hard on it long before the apex. Flat through 2 and 3, in fact, I even started shifting to 5th before turning in to 3 and staying hard on it. I am thinking there are a couple of places I even want to shift down to 2nd, even if it's for a very short time. I need to play around with that and see what happens.

Short 5th gear...This is something I need to take a serious look at. On the front straight when I shifted into 5th, there was a 2900 RPM drop and the car just stopped accelerating. I saw around 4500-4600 at my brake marker. By the race on Sunday, I was carrying it to around 6200 before shifting, and that helped a tiny bit. I guess I never really thought about the full implications of that tall 5th gear. Now I know.

Suspension: I wish I had studied it a bit more, but someone told me you can get around 2.5 degrees of negative camber with the stock suspension. That would have been nice, but I literally ran out of time getting the car ready for this event. Next year, this car is going to be dangerous. Watch out you GTS1 and Spec E30 guys. I might be able to hang with you.

Great Job Steve. Need to check your mirrors, there will be a few more of us chasing you next summer.

Good job for your first 944-Spec racing. Welcome to the madness and keep having fun.

Do you have a build plan for the winter? Now is a great time to enhance the suspension bits and get your set up redone well ahead of the first race. Corner balancing will take hours, in my experience, the first time you do it. You will want to get the suspension stuff all done, get the ride heights set, put a good alignment on, then start corner balancing the car. When you are all finished with that, realign the car to your race spec.

A mistake that I made, for several years until someone yelled at me one day, was to not be in the car while the alignment was being done AND while the sway bars were being re-hooked.

Have fun.

Big Dog

Good points! I have some sand bags and weights that I use to replicate my weight in the car, so I can work on the corner balance without having to be in the car. Many guys make the mistake of not even disconnecting the antisway bars while doing a corner balance, or re-attaching the antisway bars with the suspension drooping. These will all trash your corner balance. Once everything is done, and the car is sitting properly weighted, make sure you adjust the end links so you can thread in the drop links by hand - then you know you have no preload.

On the video, your lines are pretty good. You could really use a short 5th there. As you get more used to the car, and dial in the suspension, you'll find you can carry more corner entry speed, and slip angle to go faster!

-Eric

Thanks guys,

I just ran out of time to get the suspension sorted before comp school, so I ran it with the stock suspension. The winter plan is to put the Paragon 944 Spec suspension on it, with camber plates and bushings throughout. Then dial it in and corner weight it.

I am taking a break on working on the car for now, I've been steady at it since August 11. A few weeks off and I'll hit it again with the suspension and rebuilding the bottom end of the engine. Rod bearings for sure, and get the oil pan baffle and oil pick up ring done as well. The engine is in great shape and runs strong, so it doesn't need much. A short 5th is now in the plan, too. That nearly 3k rpm drop from 4th to 5th is absurd.

Within the next year or two, we should have a good bunch racing 944s. 8 builds in progress and 3 of them ran last weekend. Mine in racing and two others in DE. Some of the other builds are coming along pretty good, too. Mostly wiring and cage get them on the track. They'll be with me before I know it. I need to try to stay out in front of 'em.