911 Carrera RallyCross Project

13 minute(s) of a 245 minute read

Last weekend we got to take the car 4 hours north to the Sno*Drift Rally, round #1 of the Rally America series. No, we hadn't entered the car in the rally, but it was in the rally, as a "course car". We were hoping it was going to be a course opening car and run ahead of the rally but instead was delegated as a course closing car, running behind. As the whole point of the exercise was to get exposure for the car we were a little disappointed by this but we need not have been as the car was a big hit with the fans in the service areas and display parcs.

Normally for this event we'd put on a big BRAID Wheels display at the various venues but this year we just went with the course car role as I've actually never fully spectated here. Needed to fix that and did.

Temperatures, needless to say were frigid, being well below 0F most of the time. Still, as I like to believe, there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes (or tires). This adage was put to the test but me being frozen was not a feature of the weekend. The vehicles being frozen however, was.


Thursday afternoon, when I arrived in Lewiston, our home for the weekend, the poor Porsche was covered in road salt and not very happy. It did start but it didn't sound encouraging making me wonder if I'd actually broken the engine. Eventually it got over it's cold feet and sat in the snow purring away as usual. It was not a confidence inspiring moment as I retreated to our rented house for the evening.




Next day the rally took over downtown Lewiston with a Parc Expose and official start. Parc Expose is basically a free car show for rally cars and allows the fans to mingle not only with the cars but also the crews. Before I could get the car "inside" I had to scurry over to Atlanta (MI) to get it's credentials or it wasn't going anywhere. Decals suitable affixed I hurried back to find our driver for the weekend, Paul Fernadez and his wife, Kerry who would be looking after our precious vehicle for the duration. Now this car, as you know has been splattered all over various forums and has been seen at many events but it's never been exposed to the actual stage rally world in person. I must say I was absolutely stunned by the response of the people in Lewiston to the car as I trundled round down town looking for people I knew or needed to say "hi" to. Despite being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Dollars worth of high end rally cars people turned their heads and were gob smacked by the 911. I could see them patting their pockets for their camaras, nudging their friends, taking pictures, giving thumbs up. It was incredible and took me completely by surprise. It was also quite gratifying I must admit and vindicated the decision to bring the car up.

I finally tracked down Paul and Kerry and parked the car in a free spot. Then we set to work installing the green light on the roof and his radio. Then Paul gave me a ride over to meet up with one of the stage captains, Jerry Shiloff as I'd volunteered to work one of the stages Friday, twice as it turned out. It was great fun working the corner we were on as it soon filled up with lot's of boisterous fans who kept us entertained between the cars showing up. Unfortunately I didn't get to see our car follow the race on this stage as it was sharing the task with another vehicle and only doing alternate stages.










See next post for day two.

Sno*Drift Rally continued……



Freed from my work assignments of the previous day, Saturday was spent hanging out with my friends and spectatating the rally (for once). We started early by hitting the parc expose in Atlanta where I bumped into Paul and Kerry parked righ next to the ceremonial start. They explained how they were amazed by the reaction the car was getting and wished they had contacted an agent before taking on this job as they felt like celebrities and the fans like paparatzi with the amount of pictures they were taking. Job done!





Off to see a stage then. This is not NASCAR. This is not easy. What you have to do is get a map of route for the day. Pick a few stages you think you can get to before the rally does. Find a side road that intersects the course and hope you can get down it without getting stuck. Fortunately we had Ed Schowalter driving us in his 2013 Subaru WRX armed with a set of Blizzaks. Ed won the POR rally last year so he knows what he's doing too, not that it felt like that from the back seat. We managed to hit three of the stages and saw most of the remaining cars at some point but we still never saw our 911. Didn't get stuck though.


We skipped the last stage as it was getting frigid and scurried back to the house for the evening. Paul delivered the car and gave me his report. he was stunned by the whole experience but I'll let him explain:


"Kerry & I had some Real Wheel Drive fun of our own at S-D. Worked out a deal with Paul Eddleston to use his '84 Porsche 911 for the weekend to get him some BRAID exposure throughout the weekend both on and off the stages. Expected to be running as 000, but was assigned Green Light instead.  

I imagine that the 911, in the old Dakar-Rothmanns colors, was one of the most photographed cars in Northern MI over the weekend. EVERYWHERE we went, people were stopping to take pictures of the car. Kerry & I felt like celebrities being followed by the paparazzi.

This was my first experience with RWD on slippy stuff (except for karting in the rain), so I got off to an easy start on Friday as I gradually got used to the behavior of the 911. The brand new Hakka R2's were doing an excellent job of providing plenty of bite at the front. Moderate application of the accelerator in the tighter corners produced a "comfortable" level of over steer. Having lots of fun when possible, but not taking any chances either. No surprises...yet.

Apparently my confidence was increasing on Saturday morning. While transiting to the start of SS12, making the right onto Voyer Lake from M-33, gave it a bit too much gas after the apex and around we went. Fortunately no traffic and plenty of space to maneuver. Its ALL good. I got that out of my system (maybe?).

At the spectator area on SS12 (where Bruce & Suzy Beauvais were marshals), the extremely well-polished 90-right (after 2nd time through for rally cars) caught me off guard (compared to the rest of the stage up to that point) and around we went...again. We got a BIG cheer from Suzy. Bruce was upset he did not have his camera handy. We continued on without further incident until...

SS19 was another stage that was used twice, but it was my 1st time seeing it and it was completely dark. And as Jimmy mentioned, the spectator area was super slick. Getting on the gas a bit too soon on the nearly glare ice and..."it's time to make the donuts". Of course now we have NO momentum to get up the ensuing ice hill. I was scrambling for every bit of snow I could find, but we went nowhere. Then we got half way up with the help of 2 guys pushing the best they could. But it took a flat-tow from one of the marshals behind us in an Outback to make it to the top of the hill. It was a little disappointing because it was the first and only time that the 911 got "stuck" all weekend. But I think we could have made it up the hill with a proper run through that corner....maybe.

Anyway, Kerry & I had a great time in the 911. It was quite an experience. (Thanks Paul E.!)

-Paul"

Normally, on the Sunday after this rally I'd sleep in, tidy up our house and slide out of Lewiston around noon. This year I had other plans as I'd entered an ice race on Ross Lake which, in a rally drivers justification mind set was "on the way home". Well the RALIVAN had other ideas and refused to start as it was 0F outside and I guess it felt neglected. This is my first diesel and the first time I have tried to start it in these kind of conditions. No, it doesn't have a block heater but it will have one on Monday. We nudged the nose through the garage door as far as we could and after running a hair dryer on the engine for two hours finally gut the thing to fire up, though it wasn't happy about it. The Porsche, that had been in the garage overnight, was more than happy to start so we retrieved the trailer and loaded it up, way too late to make the ice race of course. It had occurred to me that it might be a bit ambitious to attempt a race the day after doing the rally but it was the Porsche I was concerned about not the van. That vehicle had no problems all weekend and just got on with it as usual. A truly amazing and versatile little work horse.

So when is the next ice race?

EVO X makes the 911 look tiny.

911 back safe and sound. RALIVAN scowling in the background. "Wait till tomorrow you stuck-up Limey".

2-23-2014

Three weeks since my last update. Interesting. Been working on the RALIVAN more than the Porsche I guess. still, there has been some action, mostly driving action which is the best kind. So I did get to do an ice race the week after the RALIVAN refused to take me to one.

The new Nokian tires were great but the ice was very polished under it's covering of snow and I only managed one run in which I did not spin the car. Ended up second in class, again, but not to my co-driver this time. To an RX7! Still, not a championship event so it was fun just to let the rear hang out for a change. An interesting aside: I let the car (and the van for that matter) idle all day to get some heat into it. That worked to some extent but driving it made it loose a bit of temperature. Here it is sitting patiently.




Why do rally cars have skid plates? Because sometimes you drive them onto the trailer too fast. DOH!



Last week was back to our normal SCCA RallyCross program. The event was supposed to be held around the various dirt ovals of I96 Speedway but because of severe drifting (snow not cars) that area of the facility was out of bounds. Instead the organizers improvised a course in the snow covered field next door which worked out great except for being a bit bumpy. Less of a problem for the 911 than others I understand. So we finished first and second again with me coming second, again. There's more competition in Modified RWD class but the car still manages to kick arse.







I only hit one cone all day too and managed to get stuck in the snow just once this time and as it was after the finish it didn't cost me any time.

After my recent excursions into the snow banks I've come to appreciate that it's a lot easier on the volunteers with the tow truck if they know where your tow hooks are so today I stuck some stickers on to help them. The fronts are very accessible but the rears not so much.





My bumper appears to have a threaded hole for a tow hook (no pic, sorry) so I'm intrigued to see if I can find something to screw into that. Any ideas? Something like this perhaps?




While I was in sticker mode I removed the Ralph Thayer sponsor decals from the roof and added some new ones in front of the doors. A much more appropriate location I think.




Next RallyCross is March 22nd. That's like 4 weeks! I'm going to have to find some more ice racing before then.