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Evolution Porsche 912 Stage 1

Problem #1: The Seatbelts. The first thing about the car that needed to be changed after we purchased it was the seatbelts. The stock seatbelts were still installed in the car. I am sure that back in 1968 they were quite innovative but by today's standards they were unacceptable. Once strapped in with the old belts (involved slotting the shoulder strap through the buckle) you did not feel very safe. The lap belt, due to mounting, sat across your stomach fairly guaranteeing that if involved in an accident you would be forced to violently discharge the contents of your stomach onto the dash and steering wheel as well as possibly do yourself some serious internal injuries. The solution was to mount some high quality Schroth 4 point belts. Unfortunately due to the mounting positions of the new belts, there was still a little cut in to the stomach but comfort and safety were still significantly improved.

The Schroth 4 point belts

Problem #2: The Tires. A closer look at the tires revealed a tread ware warrantee of 60k miles. Now this is great if you are driving from here to Nebraska on a daily basis but for track use they are terrible. There is tread squirm galore and they lock so easily under breaking that they are almost dangerous. The solution to this was to install a set of Kumhos. Now Kumhos are a wonderful tire. They are designed by the same guy that designed the original R-1s, and they have a lot of the same characteristics including 1 degree of negative camber built into the tire which helps them produce fantastic grip. At $120 for each tire they are not too expensive either.

The new Kumhos

Problem #3: The Brakes. As life dictates, there are always many more things that need to be done before a track event. The seatbelts were done as soon as the car was purchased. The tires were done the week before our first track event and the brakes became necessary about 2 days before. Unfortunately, the brakes did not seem to be a particularly important item to the previous owner and accordingly even though the engine and transmission had been changed out the brakes had not been upgraded to match, hence stock 912 brakes. Now had time not been an issue, I am sure we would have upgraded the brakes from the original solid rotors to some 911S vented. However due to lack of time and an urge to shake down the car at the track, we decided to go without and just flush the brake fluid and change the pads out. This proved more difficult than anticipated. The new pads went in without too much difficulty but the flush proved to be problematic. The first squirt of fluid was very slow to come from the right rear, even though the valve was completely open and considerable pressure was being applied to the pedal. This was the case for about three pumps until out popped a large chunk of rust. Not a pleasing sign. The rest of the calipers went without too much trouble but all had a little rust in the fluid. OK, now that the pads and fluid have been done, time to bed in the pads. Breaking in new pads is not particularly difficult. It just requires a series of stops starting from slow speeds and working your way up to higher speeds. After about 15 minutes of repetitive stops, the car appears to be braking fine. There did, however, appear to be the smell of hot brakes so we hopped out to check the hubs to make sure everything was working properly. The front hubs were moderately warm as well as the right rear. Unfortunately the left rear was screaming hot. Damn, frozen caliper! At this point this was really frustrating, as it was about midnight on Thursday and we were looking to go to the track on Sunday. We have 2 days, 1 business day to get things working properly. Friday morning we called Roger at Carquip. They had several calipers in stock that we could use so we dropped by Carquip and put on a new left rear. During the test-drive the car was braking well. We checked the hubs afterwards and the left rear was cool and all the other hubs were warm. Great, so this means that all the calipers were bad, it was just the left rear that was the worst. Argh! At this point we said screw it and decided to go to the track anyway.

Boulder Falls, stopping for a rest after a good run up Peak to Peak With the M3 and the Porsche

Second Creak Second Creak is a racetrack that is close to Denver's new airport. It is about 1 hour away from Boulder or about 45 minutes at 8am on a Sunday. Paul Prigge of the local Mercedes club organized this event. He tends to run things quite casually which makes the day generally fun and relaxing. There is no wheel to wheel racing just 'driver's ed.' with passing only when gestured by and only in specified areas. This is exactly what we need to begin to dial in the Porsche. After the fiasco with the brakes we decided to get a jump on organizing things and packed the car the night before. The plan was to drive both the Porsche and Tim and Amy's BMW M3 that day. Since the M3 is a 4 door it became the designated 'support vehicle' and got stuffed to the gills with all of the necessary tools, EZ-up, chairs, lunch, etc. Due to being organized the night before we left relatively on time and arrived at the track at about 8:30am. Many cars turned out for this event, as the weather was nice and Paul's events are generally quite popular, This included a Viper, a couple Ferraris, a small showing of Porsches and many others. We pay our dues to Paul and prepare to have fun. One of the things that we have learned about going to the track is that shade and a place to sit are necessities. Without it you rapidly become hot and tired. After doing this at too many other events we purchased a simple shade and some folding chairs. This means that the first thing we do at every track we go to is to setup the EZ-up, pull out the chairs and become comfortable. The second step is to get some track time. For the first set of laps I was the passenger and Tim drove. This was mainly because I had never been on this track before and Tim had experience here on several different occasions with the Porsche club. The car felt fairly good, pulled well, and handled great. After about 5 laps Tim began to push the pace. This caused the brakes to begin to go off and the engine temperature to begin to climb. We found that we could push the brakes for 2 laps and let them cool for 1, and continue for a while. Unfortunately the engine temperature continued to climb. When it reached the 120 degrees Celsius we were forced to come in and let the car cool off. After waiting for a while for the engine to cool, I went out to try the car myself. It took me a little while to get used to the correct line and to find my brake points. The car performed well aside from the anticipated crappy brakes and the rapid climb of the engine temperature. With the brakes acting the way they were you developed a routine of flat out down the straight, pump the brakes three times, brake and go through the corner. Each run was limited to about ten laps before the engine temp rose too high. Throughout the day my times improved steadily and hit a plateau at about 1:28. I don't feel this was too bad, as it was hard to have any confidence in the brakes. I am sure Tim was substantially faster due to his greater experience, but somehow we didn't manage to time him. Bummer, I guess it is OK though as I don't like to lose. We did, however time Roger in his Porsche 911 SC. At this time Roger had G-force tires, Carerra brakes and plenty of track time with the Porsche club at this track. Being only 3 seconds off his pace in an older car with bad brakes and also having never run this track before was not too bad. The car performed fairly well, didn't brake (as in had to be towed home), and was a lot of fun.

The Porsche 912 the same day we purchased it... No modifications yet...

The day did not, however, pass without some drama. On the track that day was a black Porsche 968. The owner had been driving the car hard that day and every time he went out you could smell his brakes getting hot. In the late afternoon his brakes eventually failed at the end of the first straight coming into corner four. When this happened his foot went completely to the floor. Instead of going straight off into the grass he attempted to turn a 40mph corner at about 80mph. The only thing he succeeded in doing was to turn the car sideways as it left the track, firmly planting the left side wheels into the soft dirt after the mild drop from the track. This proved to have sufficient momentum to violently roll the car twice, finishing on its roof. The driver was uninjured but the car was a complete right off. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my digital camera with me so I do not have any pictures. What we learned: 1) The brakes sucked ---- We need to upgrade the brakes to vented discs front and rear. 2) The car overheated ---- A carrera style front oil cooler will be required. 3) Kuhmos rock ---- The tires worked excellently and have plenty of life left in them. 4) Alignment ---- Looking at the tire wear, we need an alignment. Final note… The car is just plain fun to drive!