911 Carrera RallyCross Project

4 minute(s) of a 245 minute read

Took the car out for a "spin" yesterday.



It did surprisingly well; lots of traction from the Firestone Winterforce tires, not much understeer except at really low speeds. Very controllable oversteer at moderate speeds. I didn't get to fully open it up though so can't comment on high speed behavior.


During my play time I did get to weigh the car at a friend's shop with his very nice wireless setup:



Here's the result with me in the driver's seat, 1/2 tank of fuel and spare tire and tools removed. Race trim.

Or, if you prefer:




How does it look?

1-6-2013

This car is proving to be an ideal weapon in the world of SCCA RallyCross as yesterday, driven by guest driver Scott Harvey and owner Paul Eddleston it achieved first and second place in the Detroit Region Season Opener held in Crystal, Michigan.

Conditions were frigid for the morning session and competitors were presented with a frozen solid dirt surface with litlle snow coverage, even the portions of course inside the dirt ovel track. The Carrera, on it's Winterforce tires once again had an advantage in traction over the other Prepared RWD who's engines were all in the "wrong" place for such conditions. The course started out wide and open and gave some wonderful arse-out drifting opportunities but one had to reign it in for the last third as it got much tighter and slippier as it entered and traversed the oval to the finish, albeit by a circuitous route.

The afternoon session was a different story. The course was run backwards and with temperatures climbing into the 30s a sloppy goop had formed on top of frozen dirt, churned up by the AWD classes before us. Still, once we picked our way carefully through the oval track section we could open up the car, with a little care than we both used, to set some really quick times. One or two of our runs came to grief however as we both had instances of instananeuos oversteer in some of the faster sections, resulting in a few spins and multiple cone penalties between us. Still, the other competitors suffered similar fates and we came out on top again.

It was good to finally drive the car fast on the loose and I was amazed how competant it is. It just bites you in the bum surprisingly quickly if you overstep with no way of rescuing it. Lot to learn with this one. The car ran flawlessly agaiin despite the beating. Only issue was a burnt out blower motor for outside air but as the outside air was freezing we didn't miss it much. Might do next time. Easy fix?

Next event: round two on February 15th or thereabouts. Maybe some performance mods can be incorporated before then.

Here's some pictures and video links. More should surface over the next week or so.

IN CAR:




EXTERIOR: