Anyone headed to Sebring this weekend? It would be great to meet some of the fellow 944 guys/gals. It looks like a few will be in attendance, according to the list I was sent. I'll be driving the 944 to participate in my first NASA HPDE event (the car's first too). Only prior experience with road racing is some autocross and motorcycle racing. As far as driver protective equipment I purchased an SA2010 helmet, and picked up some gloves. I plan on wearing jeans and will bring a long sleeve shirt in case they require it. As far as the car, I've upgraded the pads to HP+ front/rear and new rotors. The car already had steel braided lines (is this a factory item?), but I replaced the front lines anyway, since the ones from Pelican are beefier. The rears are still sitting in the package. I also replaced the Proxes 4 All Seasons, with some Hankook Ventus R-S3 rubber. I hope I didn't go too aggressive for my first day, but it was the only reasonable choice in that size that fit my criteria. The tires aren't mounted yet, but I'm taking them tomorrow to get mounted and balanced. I was going to have the shop align the car too, and instruct them to dial in some negative camber. However, after doing some research, it seems that allowing a local shop fudge with the rear suspension geometry might be a mistake. Also, even though this car is only occasionally driven (to keep the fluids moving), I will be driving this a good distance to events (8-10 hours to Sebring) until I get a trailer. Should I just stick to the OEM settings? If not, what would be an ideal setup? Anyways I was just seeing if any of you were planning on attending and looking for beginner advice.

Pierre


Note: I wouldn't have made a new thread for this but I kept getting an error in my New Guy thread.

Congrats on getting your car finished! Any pics?

Don't know of any of the Southeast guys heading down to Sebring this time- I'm sure we'll make it down there sometime, though.

I think you will like the RS-3's- I used to run them and it is a great tire. If you are planning on driving your car to the track you may want to pick up a spare set of wheels and keep the Proxxes for highway driving. Your HP+'s should be a adequate.

Not sure about the rear suspension- seems like I have 2.5 or 3 degrees of negative camber back there. I'll see if I can dig up the specs on my last alignment.

Some people recommend staying with the factory settings while you learn the car and then adjusting the alignment as you move up. Seems like it would be a good way to learn how different camber/toe/etc setting change the way the car behaves but not a huge deal either way.

Aside from the typical pre-tech stuff you should keep a close eye on the oil level in between sessions- a lot of guys try to keep the level about a half quart above the "full" mark on the dipstick. Keeping the oil level high is supposed to help prevent the infamous #2 rod bearing failure.

Keep an eye on your tire pressure and wear but don't change the pressure more than a couple of pounds at time until you are used to the car- you would be suprised at what a small difference in tire pressure will do to your car's handling.

It's never a bad idea to double check any recently installed nuts and bolts after a session or two- they seem to be more prone to backing out or loosening when they are new, particularly at the track.

Other than that just listen to your instructor and have fun

Check back in and let everyone know how it went!

The car is anything but finished. Only thing I've done so far is had Lindsay Racing weld an additional oil baffle as well as ugpraded to the plastic turbo baffle. As stated above, I've also upgraded the pads, rotors, and lines for track duty. However I still need to strip the interior and glue (<--- heard that was terrible), have a cage installed, upgrade to the spec suspension, find/install a LSD & short 5th, etc.... It's going to be a while before I'm 944 spec ready, and above that, earn my racing license. I've procrastinated quite a bit, but I was deployed a lot, so thats all about to change. I have a lot more time now (lot less money) to get this stuff done.

I'm really looking forward to the next Southeast Build Party. My main reason for not participating in one yet is that I haven't had any parts to warrant doing something to the car. So my next order of business is to buy the parts I need and attend. However, I'm still undecided on exactly what I need. It would be nice to have a beginner's guide to get peeps like me on the right track. Something that focuses on rule minimums, safety, and things to extend reliability (like the oil thing mentioned). I'm sure with enough research all of these things can be found, but I think it could have a positive effect on attracting newcomers. If people could see a list of whats important to get on the track while forgoing some of the performance side of things, with a loose estimate of cost, it could make it easier for those just getting started.

Anyway, back to this weekend. I told the shop to dail in -3 degrees front, and -2.5 degrees in back, for camber settings. I don't know how its going to go, since he asked me if it was even adjustable. I just told him, if you can't do it, get it to factory spec, or call me. Thanks for the oil tip, I'll be sure to bring a few extra quarts of oil, and keep an eye on the level after each run. I've been keeping the oil level, at the middle of the dipstick so thanks for the tip, between that, and the oil baffle upgrade, hopefully oil will be kept where it needs to be.

As far as the camber adjustment, it's not going well. The local tire shop told me the rear couldn't be adjusted, and the front was going to need something grinded on each side to get maybe 1.5-2.0 degrees of camber. I'm under the assumption that 3 degrees is certainly possible front and back with the stock setup, with the rear requiring a tool to keep toe in check while adjusting height/camber. I even called the local "Porsche" repair guy, and he said he hasn't done a 944 rear camber adjustment in years and would have to locate the tool. So I just told the tire shop, just dail in as much negative camber as you possibly can in the front. Sheesh!

Thanks for the tips I'll be making sure to look over the car after each run to make sure nothing backed out, or sprang a leak. I'm really going to have to keep an eye on temps, as I've never really ran this car hard. As far as tire pressures, I'm used to adjusting them for autocross and drag racing, so it's in my routine, but I did hear that the R-S3's have a range that they are optimal in and the drop off is significant, on both the hot and cold side. Off the top of my head, I think I read, 38-39 psi when hot is about the limit. I'll have to look that up again.

I'm excited, and there's a few 944's on the list, so I hope to meet some 944 spec guys.

Pierre



EDIT: The quick reply isn't posting my messages. What sucks is after I write a novel, and hit submit from the quick reply, I backs out to the main forum page, and I lose everything I just wrote. I'm using an Apple (Safari) so that might be why, but I just wanted to point that out to and site mods/admins.