This thread is intended for the guy or girl who might be interested in going racing on the cheap, but doesn't know all the clubs, classes or tomfoolery associated with the journey.
In 2017 I bought a 1985.5 Porsche 944 base model car from a friend. He had bought it two years before with the intent of tracking it. This particular car had a bit of history throughout the years with Porsche Club of America (PCA) and in particular the Potomac Chapter of Zone2. Starla Phelps and her husband apparently had campaigned the car in autocross and club races back in the 1990s and early 2000s. The car was then sold to another member of the chapter, and then another, until the guy I bought it from purchased it. When I bought her, she had a bolt in rollbar, trackable seats, and a collection of what I’d call “HPDE” parts that made the car fun to drive, but nowhere near competitive.
When I picked her up, Petunia, as I named her, came with four sets of wheels and tires. The tires were old RA1 (2 sets), BFG R1 (1 set), and some MAXXIS street tires. That year I did what ended up being an enormous amount of HPDEs, as I was instructing a lot and really enjoying driving her. So, at the end of a 12HPDE weekend season instructing, I decided Petunia was going racing. I bought a bolt in roll cage from a future competitor, I bought spec legal suspension parts and brake parts. Pic below shows how she was when I was instructing in her.
The goal the first year was to simply get and retain my racing license with one of the clubs for a year and then see how competitive she might be. My first race, I found myself in the midst of another class of car, NASA’s now defunct PT-E class. My “Spec” build racecar was HEAVY, under power and this was my first sprint race. I ended up 3rd out of 6 and was hooked for life. Specs on the car that first weekend put the car very high on ride height Moderate camber in the rear and heavy on camber up front. She also was 2760# with driver. We both needed a diet. By the end of season #1 I had managed a first (no competitors), one 4th, and two 3rd place finishes to round out the season. Not a bad start.
How she looked in 2018!
But let’s stop here and talk about that first race where I was the ONLY 944Spec racer. This is a huge issue in some clubs and some regions around the country. So, what’s a boy or girl to do? Now, after 3 years of racing in THREE different classes competitively, I can break some of this down so you won’t make the same mistakes I did. But first, a lesson in clubs and club nomenclature.
- North American Sportscar Association (NASA) is an easy space for the 944 to race in. Their club structure allows for two classes to race within, 944SPEC, a spec series built for and intended to keep budgets and modifications to an absolute minimum, and Super touring. Within Super touring (ST) you can build from mild to wild. The ST principle is based on weight to power with points added or taken away based on additional modifications. The rules are more comprehensive, but once you figure out the parameters to operate within, you can build a very competitive car with some level of flexibility.
- Porsche Club of America (PCA) is the largest sportscar club in North America and is very active with their own high-performance driver’s program, as well as an offshoot, the PCA Club Racing program. PCA is special because Porsche factory professional racers also participate in the club races periodically. Within PCA, options are fairly broad within the 944CUP classes, from the mild SP1 class to SP2, more power and modifications, and SP3, a lot more power and modifications.
- Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) has no space for the 944. You read that right. I’ve inquired repeatedly and been told the Porsche 944 isn’t competitive in SCCA and so I’ve given up on that historic club.
- Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) is a gentleman racer’s club that provides a wide variety of vintage classes designed for primarily SPEC or CLASS Pedigree retired racecars to run in. I’m told 944Spec and PCA SP class cars are welcome in SVRA’s racing ranks.
At the end of that first season I knew a couple of things needed to change with the car. First, the bolt in cage was dangerous and ill fitting. Second, the driver’s seat position was also an issue. My short legs and long torso put me to far forward in order to reach the pedals. I needed to find a solution that would make me more comfortable in the car. What that solution ended up being was a custom cage through Wilson Chassis in Davidson, NC, some 6 hours from my home in Spotsylvania Va. The price drove the decision and the product speaks for itself. The cage is a work of art, is much safer and ended up saving weight along with the better “fit”. The other issue resolution ended up being custom pedal “covers” with spacers between them and the factory pedals. This pushed me further back away from the steering wheel and made me more comfortable in the car in any seat. 2019 was going to be “better” from a safety and comfort standpoint!
To provide more granularity, here’s what worked for me over the last three years and especially 2019-2020. 944SPEC in NASA has been my intended target club/class. The problem is there are few competitors at most events. Few competitors mean two things; racer development lacks and prize contingency is minimal. Essentially, you’re getting the ultimate participation trophy, which is fine if you just want to collect trophies for your man or woman cave. Not fine if you actually want to race other people in similarly classed cars. So, what this boy did at the end of the 2019 season was look at the schedule and all the races he attended. What he (I) noticed was ST6 was averaging 4 or more participants each weekend. In some cases, they had 8. So, I devised a plan to get my car more competitive in multiple classes.
All street cars are heavy, even in 1985 standards. I’m blessed to have the space and the tools to be able to do all my own work at home, so removing the weight in the car was made simpler with space, tools, and time. I also have scales and do my own chassis setup at home as well. This is important when trying to target a specific weight to power ratio. My car at the end of the 2018 season was still around 2700#-Car and driver. I needed the car to be at 2600# if I was going to be competitive in 944Spec. But I also wanted it to be competitive with the ST6 guys. If I was careful and didn’t go to far, I could cross over and race in PCA’s SP1 class, which I managed to do in 2019 as a rookie.
2019 PCA Club 944CUP (I'm on the left)
So… I’ve touched three classes to this point, let me explain further what they mean to you:
944Spec and SP1 are “sister” classes within the two clubs, intended for cross club pollination between NASA and PCA. In recent years they have deviated slightly, but if you read the rules carefully for both and maintain the rigid guidelines where both series work together, you can maintain the two. What this means is insuring you understand that both series require 2600# minimum car-driver combo at the end of a race. Both series allow ballast, but in PCA ALL ballast must reside at or forward of the front seat bolt mounting points. Both series allow identical modifications to the suspensions and both require stock engine/manifolds and allow for factory LSD and short fifth gear options. Both allow Lexan windshield and ¼ windows. Neither allow for Lexan hatches. Here’s the “big” difference in the two. NASA requires a dyno sheet showing MAXIMUM power at no more than 3% over 140wheel HP or 140 torque. They provide specifics on the dyno to be used as well. PCA does not have or require a dyno certification. They pull data from your vehicle throughout the weekend to monitor and see who is making what power based on the parts present and the times you run. It all appears very subjective on the surface.
However, as I’ve found in 2020, there’s a third class, and that’s ST6. In the fall of 2019, I started down the path of building the ultimate “flexibility” into the car. In order to be competitive in ST6 where power to weight is an average of 18#-1HP, I decided to start where the least money would be spent, which was weight on car and driver. Before I started working on the car, I weighed it and the car empty of driver and fuel came in at 2356#. The first thing I did was remove the factory fuse box, factory wiring harness, and battery. I also removed the excess metal where I thought it would make sense in the unibody or chassis. Going by the rule book I trimmed tabs and shaved off parts I didn’t need. In the process I removed much more than I would have thought. I next moved onto the windshield and replaced it with a Five Star Bodies ¼ inch Lexan windshield and 1/8th inch rear hatch. The combination would remove an additional 43 pounds. I installed a Lithium 3.5# battery in place of the 17# “lightweight” battery I was previously using. The last thing I did was ditch the dual cooling fans on the radiator and installed one flat blade 14-inch SPAL unit that I now control on a toggle switch. The total combination net reduction brought the car, empty of fuel and driver, down to 2273 pounds. That driver also lost 35 pounds during the great pandemic and ensuing “honey-do” list provided by my task master/wife.
How she looked at the end of 2019:
In the process of doing the wiring, I decided I’d make it simple for “if” an issue arose at the track. The dash now had a series of 6 toggle switches and a push button start, a master switch and my AIM display unit replaced all gauges. It also held a 10-circuit fuse panel and a T pull handle for my fire system. I control all electrical from within the cabin, including the fan, fuel pump, wiper motor (1 speed), cool suit box, rain lights and ignition. For each circuit, I have a fuse in the panel, which includes those items above and the brake lights. Other than that, I have 7 wires off the DME plug that get power from the master “on” and control the EFI and computer for the engine. That’s it. No more mystery guessing on the whole “what wire burned up now”?
The combination of Lexan, light battery weight, and removal of the fuse panel (heavy) and all OEM wiring/relays and related unwanted fire hazard netted me the weight to power to be competitive in the ST6 ranks. If I wanted to go to PCA and race in SP1 all I had to do was swap the rear hatch to the glass stock unit, add ballast in the floor pan and rebalance/scale the car.
- NASA Super Touring 6 – 18 pounds per HP – 2530# car and driver, avg power 130HP at 5900 RPM.
- NASA 944SPEC – 18.5 Pounds per HP – 2600# car and driver, max HP 137HP
- PCA SP1 – 2600# car and driver – HP? I’m making 137HP. I have no clue what the competition is doing.
Now, onto the most important part of this “plan”. Tires. In all three of the above classes the option to use the same tire exists and I used that to my advantage in ST6. You can use Hoosiers in ST6, but you can also use the Spec series tire for 944SPEC and SP1, the TOYO RR, which is less expensive, more heat cycle stable, and more predictable in performance throughout a complete race session. Pro Jason Stanley claimed testing between the two tires showed the Hoosier to be half a second faster for initial laps, but would fall off in performance and stability after about 5 laps. The Toyo RR was more stable and consistent through out the span of a race, which makes it competitive against drivers on Hoosiers in ST6.
By the end of the 2019 season I had managed to “win” my class on points in NASA Mid-Atlantic. What happened at the end of that season was a little dejecting. Nobody is at fault here, but there was no “champion” award. No “Well done Mike’ here’s a trophy for showing up and putting in the hard work”. There simply were not enough competitors in the class to make my wins “mean” anything, or the points to “matter”. Yup, it was all for “nothing”? Not really. I learned a lot in 2019 and although it was disappointing to hear other 944Spec racers “talk” about racing, it was a lesson for me to not listen to talk, but simply look at the numbers and figure out what was best for me, not them. I also learned to be cautious when someone in one class would start trash talking another class I could race in, or maybe say things about one of those class competitors to color my judgement.
What’s that really mean? Build a car to a class that you have participation numbers in. In the South East they have 10 cars on many weekends in 944Spec. Sometimes more. Sometimes less, but on average those folks have reasonably good competition car counts. In the Mid-Atlantic there are members with great intentions, but as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with… Good intentions.
In 2020 I decided to go racing in Super Touring 6 and on the first race I got a great start, jumped out to a heck of a lead and for 6 laps I ran a great race, but inside the car I was having a battle of another kind. The engine oil and coolant temps were climbing and at a rapid pace. The 30-minute race would see 17 laps, but by lap 7 I was pulling off and waving my competitors by. I was done for the weekend. Fortunately, I didn’t hurt the motor. I may have lost the battle, but I was going to be able to save a shot at winning the war. Upon arriving back home I tore into the cooling system and replaced everything external to the motor, and I removed the thermostat completely. New radiator, coolant expansion tank, cap, hoses, all of it. I also bled the system.
2020 she is much lighter, much quicker!
Next up was the PCA 944Cup Nationals at Summit Point WVa. I lost first place in 2019 as a rookie, making a rookie mistake of miscalculating my fuel. That miscalculation found me starving for fuel in the carrousel on the second to last lap just as I caught first place. In the end I would defend my second-place position instead of holding the coveted “CUP” and claiming my first ever championships as a rookie. In 2020 I would not make that mistake again. I arrived with a plan, stuck to it from the first practice day through the end of the race weekend and I won the 944CUP in SP1. Car counts were low due to COVID-19 restrictions, but this time, it didn’t matter. I threw down very consistent and very quick consecutive laps.
So as this little story draws to an “initial” end, I wanted to leave a list of MUST Dos on your initial build. Do not make the mistakes I made by wanting to just “jump in” and race the car:
- Buy a factory service manual for your car, including an extensive wiring diagram.
- Remove the WHOLE of the chassis wiring harness and fuse box. LEAVE the EFI alone and in place.
- Remove all HVAC components and build blank out plates to cover the holes the massive HVAC unit and the heater core hoses will leave.
- Remove the cruise control module and all wiring associated with.
- Remove all moving parts in and associated with the motorized headlight modules, making the lids “fixed” in place.
- Remove every interior trim piece including the head liner.
- Remove the heavy battery and replace with the lightest battery (and trickle charging system) your wallet can afford.
- Remove all the horsehair/sound deadening inside the car
- Remove all door and window electrical and glass, along with the door braces provided by the factory
- Remove the factory dash board and rework it to include aftermarket gauges or replace it with something lighter and less complex/restrictive for your new controls/gauges.
- Remove the factory sunroof and motor equipment/drains. Replace with THIN aluminum riveted and sealed in place.
- Replace the factory chassis electrical with your own new fresh wiring for the things you will need.
- Map out those things you will need and only those things.
- Do NOT remove the hood and hatch lift struts. They’re far to convenient with little weight penalty. Keep them, you’ll thank me later.
- Get a custom cage welded in while you have all the interior out of the car and the doors gutted.
- Removing all exterior light wiring except the wiring to the tail light assemblies/brake lamps
Once you have completed all that, you will be ready to inspect all the mechanical for suitable race condition. You’ll want to:
- Do leak down and compression testing on the motor.
- Replace the timing and balancer shaft belts/rollers. I didn’t do this and it ruined my head at the end of the first race weekend in 2018. Don’t be Mike, replace that set of belts!!
- Inspect or replace the rod bearings in the motor.
- inspect or replace all wheel bearings, lug studs, and brake hardware.
- Make sure the calipers are in proper order and make sure to purchase the correct hawk spec racing brake pads per the rules.
- Inspect and or replace the clutch kit in the drivetrain
- Replace the shifter with the appropriate 944Spec short shifter hardware. Make sure it’s installed properly and safety wire the hardware at the rear on the transaxle
- Add an oil cooler to the system. Make sure the lines are at minimum -10 in size, but -12 is more optimal.
- Remove the AC compressor and buy the delete bracket.
- Remove the steering rack and convert it to manual. You want to do this for two reasons; Fluid leaks/maintenance, and power loss from the added belt drag.
- Install hood pins (I run one steel pin in the center of the front edge of the hood)
- Install a short 5th gear and factory LSD or find a transaxle already equipped with those components.
