We have a big challenge coming up at Silverstone with the final Porsche Club Championship races this Friday and Saturday (21st and 22nd September). The wet was always the difficulty with the handling of our mid-engine'd cars (and it rained during almost all the races this year). Mid engine'd cars - while probably offering the best potential handling in the dry do suffer difficulties in the wet due to the tendency towards the spinning top effect.
It has taken most of the season of testing and changes (and then starting all over again with all the other settings for camber, toe etc) to discover the problem and secret of setting the Boxsters up to handle competitively - but we have been closing in on the right settings and for the last race at Croft - thought we were pretty well there (both cars on the front 2 rows of the grid) and a podium - but we made a bad call by fitting a new "special" clutch to Ben's car (to help him get off the line quicker against the rear engine'd 911's) and despite testing OK at Oulton the week before and lasting in race 1 - it failed off the start line - lesson learned - don't try new things in the leading car in the team! We did have a sticky clutch pedal in race one - but no time to change the plate and anyway didn't think that was the cause.
However the good thing was that both cars were within fractions of a second of the fastest 964, 996's and 993's - in fact there was only one of each slightly faster - the rest of the field well behind.
Although Silverstone is probably our fastest track (benefitting the larger engine'd 911's) - if luck is with us this time we might just find the cars doing well enough to finish right near or at the top again - we will be trying anyway!
Unfortunately the Championship rules set a bhp to weight limit but the cars are driven from about 4000 rpm out of the corners and a bigger capacity engine has more torque than our smaller engines and always picks up a bit quicker on initial grunt and acceleration - but on the other hand our superior balance allows our tyres to last longer - so it may be a case of a stalking race and fun and excitement at the end.
It has been very satisfying to take a model that Porsche did not set up as a race car (as they did with the other models) and despite only having Mcpherson strut type rear suspension (compared to the 996's double wishbone) - working through different spring rates etc to be as competitive as the best in the field (would have been much easier to build a 996 and just copy what the factory already worked hard to find on the GT versions).
With some winter testing ahead we should be able to demonstrate just how superior they are next season - if not this coming weekend.
Meanwhile if you want to see just how well your model can do against the often more revered 911's - come along and support the Boxsters this weekend.
Baz
It has taken most of the season of testing and changes (and then starting all over again with all the other settings for camber, toe etc) to discover the problem and secret of setting the Boxsters up to handle competitively - but we have been closing in on the right settings and for the last race at Croft - thought we were pretty well there (both cars on the front 2 rows of the grid) and a podium - but we made a bad call by fitting a new "special" clutch to Ben's car (to help him get off the line quicker against the rear engine'd 911's) and despite testing OK at Oulton the week before and lasting in race 1 - it failed off the start line - lesson learned - don't try new things in the leading car in the team! We did have a sticky clutch pedal in race one - but no time to change the plate and anyway didn't think that was the cause.
However the good thing was that both cars were within fractions of a second of the fastest 964, 996's and 993's - in fact there was only one of each slightly faster - the rest of the field well behind.
Although Silverstone is probably our fastest track (benefitting the larger engine'd 911's) - if luck is with us this time we might just find the cars doing well enough to finish right near or at the top again - we will be trying anyway!
Unfortunately the Championship rules set a bhp to weight limit but the cars are driven from about 4000 rpm out of the corners and a bigger capacity engine has more torque than our smaller engines and always picks up a bit quicker on initial grunt and acceleration - but on the other hand our superior balance allows our tyres to last longer - so it may be a case of a stalking race and fun and excitement at the end.
It has been very satisfying to take a model that Porsche did not set up as a race car (as they did with the other models) and despite only having Mcpherson strut type rear suspension (compared to the 996's double wishbone) - working through different spring rates etc to be as competitive as the best in the field (would have been much easier to build a 996 and just copy what the factory already worked hard to find on the GT versions).
With some winter testing ahead we should be able to demonstrate just how superior they are next season - if not this coming weekend.
Meanwhile if you want to see just how well your model can do against the often more revered 911's - come along and support the Boxsters this weekend.
Baz
