2001 PCA Club race at Lime Rock Park, May 4-5.

By Mike Piera

After a few hectic weeks of parts purchasing/car preparation, I was finally ready for the first race of the year. I had previously done a CVR LRP driver's Ed in the COLD about a month earlier with no car prep since the last year and the car was OK. A few weeks later I ran an open practice at Lime Rock to heat cycle my new tires and try larger front wheels. The larger front wheels seemed to work well, getting close to my best time on old tires, and not rubbbing. You can see how close they get to rubbing in the picture above in Big Bend. Oliver Zitzmann went to the practice day with me and tested out his new rear wing on his F class Carrera 2. He was having problems keeping up with me but after loosening his front sway bar he knocked off some VERY fast laps, in the mid 1:01s, faster than I ever went. He had gotten pole position at his first race at the Glen last year but blew his engine at the start of the fun race. Now his engine was rebuilt and he would make it a tough race for the F-troop.

I got a "new" used muffler as my sport muffler had fallen apart again. But for some reason it weighs 5 pounds more than my old muffler (less rust?) so I had my old modified sport muffler repaired and made some angle ends to aim the sound away from the right side of the track which is where the sound-nazis hang out. Last year I was black flagged in qualifying and lost most of the session while I drove back to my pits and installed muffler caps myself. I brought the caps again in case I was still too loud but never needed them. Unfortunately I left my muffler caps and tools in a box in pit lane after the race, if anyone found them please let me know!!

I also cut back the under-arm sides of my Kirkey Deluxe aluminum seat, as they really got in the way. I had them welded-up and edges smoothed. Then I modified the seat cover by pulling it back tight with big snaps which I riveted to the seat and attached to the cover. This left the padded section pulled tight over the cut-off edges for comfort and safety. Now it is a much better seat, especially for autocrossing. I had no bruises after the race and was held in just fine.

CHARLIE BAR INSTALLATION

I also installed a new rear Charlie bar that I ordered 2 years ago and got a year ago. Yes I do get behind on projects a bit... My old rear AJR bar was adjusted about at tight as it would go without making ugly end link angles, so I calculated the length of the new 22mm bar that would be the same as the old 19mm bar and found it would be about the same at the loosest setting so I should not worry about installing it before the race (which is usually a disaster!).

Torsion bars increase their rate by the 4th power of their diameter, so the simplest calculations would be :

19mm (old bar) to the 4th power = 130321
22mm (new bar) to the 4th power = 243256
243256 / 130321 = 1.8, so the new bar is 1.8 times stiffer than the old one.
The old one was set at 3.5" center of bar to end link uplink, so new bar should be 6.3" for the same stiffness. The new bar could be set at about 6.5" maximum so I was in luck, and since I wanted it to be stiffer anyway it looked quite good.

There are no instructions for Charlie Bars, you have to read his mind, but I installed it then called Charlie for pointers. He told me to make sure the bar is not binding in the mounts, the mounts can be bent straight by attaching one end of the bar and bending it in the desired direction. I found my bar was binding pretty badly so I made a few adjustments to my beefed-up stock rear mounts and got it swinging free. If your bar does not rotate freely, remove the end links and one of the body mounts. Your bar should hang down slightly when you remove the mount, and should hang directly below the mounting position. If it is still up tight to the body you should pull down on the bar to bend the other side down a bit, just enough so that it hangs down a bit from gravity. If the bar is hanging down a lot, you have the opposite problem and the other mount needs to be bent the other way. Maybe you can find a short rod to clamp in it and bend it the other way. If it is forward or backwards of the mount you can move the bar the opposite direction to straighten out the mount. Then clamp that side back on and do the same to the other side to get it straight.

He told me I could lube the plastic center bushings with some CV joint grease so I added a bit. Now the bar was hanging free. There are two donut clamps which go on the main bar on the insides of the body mounts to keep the bar from moving right or left. Charlie told me they should be set with about 15 thousandths clearance. I noticed mine were not even close to that - they were hitting the added metal that was used to beef up my stock mounts. So I had to machine off the shoulders of the clamps to leave room for the added metal. After getting lots of exercise with a file they were fitted and adjusted for slight clearance and the bar was looking good. The big advantages I see with the Charlie bar are:

1. No clunking or breaking- end link rod ends are beefy and should last a long time. Also the hex bar has no slop.
2. The bar mounts to the stock sway bar bolt-hole on the banana arms, not to the camber or toe adjustment eccentric bolts. This is a VERY strong bolt and will not break like the little bolts that screw into the aftermarket eccentric bolts.
3. Super easy adjustment- one hex screw and you can move the end link forward or backwards.
4. Body mounts are aluminum blocks with thin plastic bushing, no play like a rubber bushing. Easy to remove with a hex wrench.

I also measured wheel droop when jacking up one side of the car by the side body jack point with the old sway bar and the new bar, to double-check my calculations..

ROOKIE MEETING

Thursday night I had to attend the rookie meeting due to my 13/13 probation at the previous race, Summit Point of last year. So I brought my car and trailer up to get a parking spot and save time Friday morning. The main paddock was full but some kind people made room for me just across from my F-Troop buddies. The rookie meeting was LONG and Alan covered a lot of information. He has a very good outlook on racing, I wish everyone would attend a meeting with him once a year. My old autocrossing friend Lewis Bakes was there was it was his first PCA club race. He has been racing the Ferrari challenge the last few years and is very fast. His red 993 cup car is still like new and it would be its first race. Lewis drove well all weekend and got faster and faster. He was running in GTC but was closer to the GT2 cars than than the other GTC cars in his group. I hope he had a good time and will attend more PCA races.

PRACTICE DAY

Friday morning I arrived early (for me!) and registered. The car was all set with practice Hoosiers and gas. The weather was HOT and dry, track temperature probably near 100 degrees in the sun. The first practice session I got in line a little late. That was a mistake as most of the session was spent avoiding cars which were not giving racing room. This made it difficult to pass with the smallest, least powerful engine in the group. I had no clean laps but got a low 1:03 gridding me 9th out of 27 cars so at least I would be ahead of most of the cars that gave me problems in this session. I was 2nd fastest in E which felt good, but Rocket Ron Savenor in his '87 911 prepared car was the fastest in this field of C D and E cars with a smokin' 1:00.5 on his 3rd lap! There were about 16 cars in E, making it one of the biggest classes at the race.

My car felt really good with the new rear sway bar, still a bit of plowing so I adjusted it a bit tighter for the next session. the rear end felt very good and the clunking was gone which inspired confidence. I got weighed after this session and found I was about 35 pounds heavy though I was not full of gas. I think the scales were reading high so I pulled out a 10 pound weight under the passenger's seat.

For the 2nd practice I pushed harder with some clear laps and got nearly my fastest time, just under 1:02, on my old practice tires. That moved me up to 7th overall and surrounded by C and D cars, with Ron still up front with the same times. Oliver was already showing his speed by leading the F class in nearly every session, with Bob Scotto, Jeff Burger, and Henk Westerduin following. Jeff had an old tired engine installed, had dumped oil on the track Thursday but seemed to have it under control for the race. Bob was wondering how he could beat Oliver all weekend... trying weight jacking tricks.

I had been running lower pressures than normal so I tried even lower for the next practice. It did not seem to help so I went back up for the rest of the weekend. My times were about the same and I stayed in 7th position but two E cars, Hans Warner in a similar 911RS and a blue 951 were right behind me in the low 1:02s. So I knew I had to do better.

The last session on Friday was the practice starts and fun race - this time a nice 10-lapper! Ron decided to start at the back of the pack (show off!). I had an excellent start, passing 2 cars on the outside of Big Bend and holding them off on the inside of the lefthander. I think that moved me up to 2nd from 4th. The 911 2.7 RS is a rocket ship in 2nd gear starts where the light weight and gearing pay off. But by the top of 3rd gear the other cars eat me up with higher horsepower as weight is no longer as important. So I need to get good starts and try to keep ahead. By the 3rd start, Ron was right on my tail and soon got by me. I was careful and ended up 6th overall and 2nd in E, two spots behind Ron. Lap times were not too impressive but it was good practice.

RACE DAY

Saturday morning was cloudy with a chance of rain, and MUCH cooler, sweatshirt weather as opposed to shirtless like yesterday. I decided to put my race tires on to get a feel for them in case they required adjustements. This was the ONLY TIME all weekend I removed a wheel! It seems I usually pull them off each session, to do something. I bled the brakes while they were off and everything looked fine behind the wheels. It started drizzling just as we were ready to go out, no time for rain tires, not really worth going out on Hoosiers but I though I might as well. The track was slippery and I could get no heat in the tires. I finally decided to come in just as I saw a car in the tiree wall exiting big bend, which would be a black flag all. I managed 2nd fastest (craziest!) time but that was meaningless. We were then called to a meeting with Alan, who told us to be careful with Hoosiers in the wet, even in the damp they are EVIL tires.

QUALIFYING

About 11 am we lined up for qualifying, I was gassed up and ready for some hot laps. People spread out on the track and nobody tried to pass on the warmup lap. The 1st lap I got a pretty good time, just under 1:02. then I got a mid 1:01 which was my fastest lap ever, but I knew there was more time out there. I pushed harder into the uphill and West bend, braking less and going to full throttle half way from the turn-in point to the apex. That gave me an extra 200 RPMs at the top of the hill and deeper into my powerband (5000 RPMs, just above my torque peak). My next lap was a 1:01:3 which should get me into the thick of the fast D cars for qualifying. I then hit lapped traffic so I started to practice driving off-line and passing cars. I never had another clear lap but got much practice on the new tires and everything felt good.

The results showed Ron still on the pole, but he could not quite beat the magic minute mark with a 1:00.03. There were three C cars (modified RS Americas and a 930) behind Ron, and Mayo Smith in a '73 RS lightweight in D, about 2/10ths ahead of me, on the pole for D. Then I was in 6th with two more D class 3.6 liter 911RS Americas behind me, then Hans Warner's 2.7 RS about a second back and several other E cars behind him in the high 1:02s. I was happy to have a D cushion behind me!

THE RACE

For the race I was gridded on the outside of the 3rd row, just where I wanted to be. I hoped to repeat the fun race start where I was able to pass cars on the outside of big bend by carrying in more speed and then staying inside of them for the lefthander. Ron took us down the hill at a nice speed, in the thick of 2nd gear. I again got a good jump at the green flag and passed a few cars on the outside. Two powerful C cars got ahead of Ron so that put me right on Ron's bumper by the left hand turn! I tried to stay with him but his car pulled out onto no-name VERY strongly and he gained a few car lengths. My car normally stays with anyone coming onto no-name as it's right in the meat of 3rd gear. That 2nd lap following Ron was both of our fastest laps- a 1:01.6 for me and a 1:01.4 for Ron. I tried to keep up with Ron but soon the powerful D cars were aside me at the end of the straight. I tried to hold them off for a while but it seemed they were faster so I let them by at the end of the straight and hoped I would drive better following them than watching them in my mirrors. We were still within site of Ron but were not gaining on him. I was getting held up in the Uphill and West Bend, but the RS Americas were faster in the downhill and the straight. I saw Hans in my rearview mirror a few times so I knew he was running strong. Coming out of the esses I saw a mad waving yellow and dirt in the air, then saw the fast blue 951 on his door, with the driver George Engel poking out of the side window like a submarine's hatch.

That caused a black flag all, so we headed for the pits. Ken Lubell pulled to the side of the pits in his red D class RS America and told me he was hit from behind in Big Bend by Hans... Looks like there are at least two more of us with 13/13 probation after this race. Ken was OK to continue but bummed out a bit. After about 10 minutes were were sent back onto the track in single file. At the start I was not able to get ahead of the RS Americas in front of me, I did not try hard enough in the lefthander but just poked my nose in a little to try to rattle him. We had four more laps to go until the end of the race and stayed pretty much in order for those four laps, with Ron in site with two D cars between us, but too fast to pass. Ron ended up in 5th place, driving "just fast enough to win" and not wanting to battle with the three fast C cars that were ahead of him, or Mayo who finished a strong 4th overall and 1st in D with a fast 1:01.1 towards the end of the race. I finished 8th overall, 2nd in E with Ken right behind followed by a bunch of E cars headed by Harry Kintzi's red 951 which benefited from Hans and George's incidents.

I was happy with my results and the car's performance, but knew where I made my mistakes. I should not have let the RS Americas pass so easily, they were killing me on the straight because of their power but ALSO because I am taking the downhill turn TOO SLOWLY. I have to learn to take it without slowing so much or I will continue to get beaten on the straightaway where it is too easy to pass me. I had old autocross friend Wilson Wright, 2 time recent SCCA GT4 National Champion helping me out for the race and he watched my in-car video and confirmed my problems. Wilson can turn laps at Lime Rock in his SCCA GT4 Nissan Sentra with a 1500 engine (well under 200HP) as fast as any of our 280HP GT4 cars.

The F class race saw Bob almost keeping up with Oliver for a few laps, then Oliver pulling out a decent lead. But then his gas pedal came off the linkage and he had to pull into the grass to re-attach it. By the time he was back on track the other cars were too far gone but he set some amazing lap times while passing cars to get back to mid pack. Oliver got a rookie award for his efforts. I received a $50 gift certificate from Strasse for 2nd best prepared car! I guess the dent on my front hood (see picture) from Summit Point gave John Horton the win. ;-)

Next race is Pocono where I did very well last year. But now Ronnie is back, last year he had a sick engine at Pocono, he will be tough to beat but there is only one straight for him to beat me on and only one scary fast turn which I can handle OK. Nobody should beat me in slow turns due to all my autocross experience. Stay tuned!!!

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