RacerX wrote:


I understand the basic physics behind it, my point was that we are not dealing with modern race cars here where you'd most certainly be limited by the shifter if you had to row the gears a good distance. It's been my experience that you have to wait for the revs to get up there to up shift, wait till you're slowed down enough and revs are back down to down shift, a good amount of waiting vs. a bang shift as fast as you can type action because the revs change so fast. I'd think I can shift just as fast with a short throw as with a stock shifter but the short throw would just "feel" better and that is in my understanding of the reason for the rule proposal, not performance advantage.

Hey Alberto, what kind of car are you sitting in in your picture. Is it on of them there I talian jobs?

rd7839 wrote:


Nope, American job. It's a Tesla Roadster (not my car).

Crooks, I recommended the call on the dyno, and know that I did not do so lightly. Randomly disregarding the dyno will cause issues, I agree, and before NASA came to a decision on this, I brought all the data we had before Ryan Flaherty, who is one of the three owners of NASA, and the highest offical present at VIR. I also brought all the racers there together before the championship race, and all agreed to race under final solution - Hoods & DME's sealed for those clustered with "high HP", and unlimited tuning to get those low up as close as possible).

The goal of 944 Spec racing is to have equal cars. All of the cars, save two, were clusterd nicely, but *all* very high (not borderline). This was not random variation, but a calibration issue, which was confirmed when we took representative cars to the other dyno present, and they stay clustered, but at much lower HP levels (lower 130's). See the pictures in Dan's post for reference. Those comparisons were done directly back to back. Of the two remaining cars (ostensibly legal), one was pouring black smoke (and when tuned made at least equal power to the rest), and then there was Jason's car. It seemed to run fine, but made less HP than the rest.

To meet the letter of the law, we would have to withhold all cars save 2 from the qualifying race, and then find a way to detune the others 7-10HP (depending on how close to the limit they wanted to be) for the Championship race. *If* this detuning could be done given the means available (we had no proven means to detune cars that much, as the nomimal HP reading were unprecendented), it would cost the competitors $1,000's of dollars in dyno time to meet a flawed standard. On the other dyno present, those cars would have to be detuned deep into the 120's. That option seemd highly unreasonable for the group as a whole. The other option was to keep the cluster of cars as is, and bring the low lying cars up to where the group was. This is what Ryan Flaherty recommended, and what was discussed, and agreed upon by an all drivers meeting.

The poorly running car just needed to be leaned out, and made solidly mid-pack power. Jason's peers helped him out by donating a Hanksville pipe, and tuning expertise. In the end, Jason's car made good power as well. Yes, he ended up on the lower end of the cluster, which is unfortunate, but it was a tight group, with the top guys within 5 horsepower.

In the end, we had very tight HP spread, and as equal of cars as Skip Barber could make them. All of the top cars turned very tight lap times, and we had 4 different cars lead the race. It was a driver's duel, and the best competetion I've seen at a Championship race. Success in terms of the the class mission.

I hope this situation never repeats itself. It was a mess, that we took a good hard look at, and made the best of, looking first at the intent of the class. The dyno should not be ignored, and I think some of the guys on the West Coast will tell you that we don't do that, or take it lightly. There are times when a given tool is broken. If the scales read 100lbs light for all cars but one, we would not have the rest of the guys bolt in 100 lbs, we'd use other scales if available, or equalize around the group. Making this decision/deviation requires a very high standard, not just a car, or two (or three) out of line. This There should not be an expectation moving forward that we will do this again, outside of a drastic, and clear pattern (vs. random variation).

As an aside, rule change season always brings out some emotions, no different this year, and better than most .

Racing is a passionate thing, as it should be, and the internet can magnify things. Having been to most of the regions, I know most all of you guys are good guys and are well intentioned. Local cultures and priorities vary, but in the end we're all part of a tight band of brothers.

I'm just glad I don't have to make the decisions this year! [Whew!]

You can please some of the people most of the time...

Go easy on Dan, guys!

RacerX wrote:


Well said Ken. This was the exact reason for me to get into this class. Sold my Mustang track car after Road America last year and bought a 1988 944. The car will be finished for next year and I'm ready for some FUN!

Sean