Had an awful weekend at VIR in July, starting with my car being mysteriously damaged while on my trailer, still have no clue how it happened. Then handling very poorly, couldn't surpass my hyperfest time of 1:53 in spite of being on sticker Pirelli Slicks vs well worn A6's. Culminating in a big off exiting the esses due to too much bravery and too little DF. Took some wing out as my 170 mph car was getting walked badly by the other cars in the top tier (180-185 mph). Managed 6th with only 3 laps completed though. Not sure if car is worth fixing, getting a second opinion this week.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear about the car! I hope you didn't damage those beautiful cup doors, talk about expensive parts. On a side note, where did you get the dashboard or is that a stock one chopped up? Hard to tell from the video.

Hope to see you back on track

 

Hate hearing that heavy, hope you can get it back on the track. My ST1 car has been sitting all year finally got to it and found a broken timing chain.

 

Park, I actually thought about you this weekend as I was asked to instruct at Road Atlanta and while I was there a good friend of mine asked me (more like forced me) to drive his 427 C5 Vette. Its a good build that he's been tinkering with for 4 years now due to engine issues. I got in it and on my 3rd (of 4 laps) did a 1:30.1 before catching traffic, he made me go out again and I did a 1:28.3 which is 2 seconds off my best in my TT. The tires were old crusty A6's and the lap was super easy, considering I was worried about the notchy shifter and old tires so not pushing at all. I have to work significantly harder in my car to run that time. I started looking for a race C5 that night. Still might do it. It's just the powerplants are not trustworthy enough for me, as you mention with the timing belt. I see dudes with these issues almost weekly. The only way they last is with minimal mods. With more time and fresh tires on his car, it's 1:25 all day. It was just so easy to drive.......

 

Custom dash from a local fabricator. Very lightweight.

 

I thought I'd had used the C5r timing chain should have worked, I'm bringing a partner on with the car for next year to give the car another go, with a full forged motor, dry sump, mellow compression it should work for awhile but.....
My ls6 came out at 110,000 miles still being tracked and running great maybe that should go back in. I do think they are easy to drive fast as well.
How much damage is there to your car? there was that turbo tub for sale on here.

 

So frustrating to hear about your crash, glad you are in one piece. I've crashed myself into hospital when chasing lap records in a 996. These things can be repaired even from bad crashes to very quick and straight cars. The bad thing with us "time attack" drivers is, if we lose the car, it always happens at very high speeds....so when you go off, the damage is bad. I would rather kiss some wall with a moderate speed...

What geometry (uprights front and rear) are you using? And how do you like them, did you feel a difference or did you upgrade them with lots of parts at the same time?

 

i have the solution! get a c5 and install the turbo mezger engine i have for sale seriously sorry to hear about the crash and its nice to see a face to go with the screename

 

Your tub or roller was the one I was talking about, it it still available?

 

Sorry to hear about the accident Dez. When pushing these cars it's the risk we take unfortunately. Hopefully you can get it sorted soon or find a cheap tub to swap all your parts to. I wouldn't give up on the Porsche platform. These cars have amazing potential and when set up properly they are virtually unbeatable. Yesterday I ran a MoTeC verified 1:54.45 at HPR which beats any published NASA TT record time for that track according to NASA. With the tires fully warmed up I was on a MoTeC predicted 1:53.30 on the next lap when I ran into traffic. This is with a full interior fully street legal emission compliant car on DOT Kumho V710 tires, which I consider relatively mediocre. If the car was gutted on slicks I can see it cracking a 1:50. I have yet to run into any Corvette that would come close to those times and I've run with a lot of the NASA TT prepped Vettes most of which are in the 1.56-57 range at best. Certainly not knocking that platform at all as I know there are very fast Vettes out there like Park's but I think ultimately the Porsche can be made into a faster car, albeit at a much higher cost. I would imagine that the operating costs on the Vette would be quite a bit cheaper than the TT which makes the Vette very attractive. Too bad Park didn't have his Vette running at Miller a couple of weeks ago. It would have been fun to see how our cars would have stacked up against each other. Hope you get it running soon man. Keep the updates coming..

 

Certainly not knocking that platform at all as I know there are very fast Vettes out there like Park's

Haha none of these lap times come cheap I'm over 80k in just parts on the z06, there a reason it's fast between the three of us I would hate to see the total spent

 

It's amazing how expensive every tenth of a second is getting now. Bordering on the ridiculous. I'm planning on having Chris gut the car next year and set it up for racing PCA (yeah, that's gonna be cheap, lol) and some TT. I figure we'd be able to shed about 300lbs from the car and get it to 2900#. Maybe I'll get it done before Miller next year if I get motivated. Any chance you'd wanna come down to COTA with us next May? We're gonna have a group of us go, maybe ship the cars down there..

 

Would love to! might be able to make that happen, hopefully heavy can get his car repaired and meet us, is that NASA or PCA?

 

It would be fun if all 3 of us could meet up. COTA is pretty equidistant for all of us. The May event is PCA. It sells out quickly, generally the day registration opens it sells out. I'll keep you posted. There is also a February event there but the weather can be a bit dicey. We are going down in February for the 9 and 7 hr enduro running the Spec Boxsters.

 

I'm just weighing my options. Ideally, I'd like to fix my car as it has some sentimental value. I know the 996 platform is potent, hence the numerous NASA TT records I have had and currently hold at 5 tracks (Roebling, Mid-Ohio, Road Atlanta, Barber, VIR). I compete with Corvette's Vipers and GT-R's on the regular and as far as being in a class is concerned, have had no issues winning and setting records the vast majority of times. But if you saw some of the Corvette's and GT-R's I run with, they are not your average builds. Sequentials, louvered fenders for DF, 600-800 whp (some NA), they are easily faster than pro driven cup cars. And with that being said, not all of them have great drivers in them and are STILL very fast. I'm fairly sure I could hop in many of my competitors cars and beat my own times as many of them are built even more than the one I drove (manual). I'm going to Time Trial that car in December at Road Atlanta, may put on sticker A7's. Pretty sure it's a 1:25 car all day if so. However, it has a 76 inch wing on it and you can stand on the front splitter. It feels like a boat compared to a TT when you sit in it. My wing is 61 inches and not nearly as much DF on front either. So not exactly apples to apples, but it's so easy to buy or build a good Corvette. I just can't stand the motor reliability.


I'm down for a trip to COTA once my car situation is figured out. Hopefully by January.