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Last month I mentioned that I was doing some maintenance work on the racecar. It seems that I picked a very opportune time to fix things before they caused me trouble at the track. Three years ago while my engine was being built by Circle Performance in Brockton, I decided to have the transmission checked out. The limited slip was starting to slip unlimitedly. I got a Turbo limited slip transmission back in 1999 for my S2. I know the gearing is different from the S2 to the Turbo but have any of you ever tried to locate an S2 limited slip? They are very hard to find and very expensive if you do. My used Turbo LSD cost $850. An S2 LSD will run you somewhere in the area of $3500 if you can find someone that would part with it. I actually grew to like the Turbo tranny in the S2 because it allowed me to stay in the gears longer. The regular S2 gears seemed too tight. I always wanted a 6th gear on the long straights. Anyway back to the tranny check up. I found out that we have one of the best 944 tranny guys right here in the Northeast Region. Kevin Gross is a wild haired transmission genius. So I took my tranny to his home and let him work his magic. I told him the car was only going to be raced so he could build it accordingly. I don’t know if that requires tighter or looser fit I just wanted him to be aware it was going to be abused in royal fashion. After replacing every bit of internal metal including the ring and pinion he assured me the tranny was ready to race. After 3 years I can testify that he was right. Other than a first gear syncro problem that developed early on the tranny was a rock. This winter I decided to have Kevin check how his work held up. After careful examination I got a lecture about changing transmission fluid more often. I had chosen Castrol Syntec gear oil after the first rebuild. Apparently that is not the hot stuff, as it probably contributed to the wear seen on some of the pieces. So now with Jon Milledge’s recommendation I have chose Swepco 201. Another good choice would have been Royal Purple gear oil but Jon tends to build cars that put out 200 hp per liter. So if his trannies can hold up to that I think it will handle my 200 plus hp. Oh yeah but I must remember to change it next year. Three years of racing did its share of wear on the parts. Some of the wear surprised Kevin. First my first gear syncro was fractured which he had never seen before. Since the other syncros indicated my ability to make clean shifts he suspects the syncro had a manufacturing flaw. The other major wear was with the limited slip friction disks which I guess you can’t get from Porsche anymore and if you found some they are hugely expensive. Kevin gets his from Guard Transmission and after seeing my wear he called Jim Guard and Jim's response was, “Well those earlier friction disks were pretty aggressive”. So Kevin got some of the newer more metal friendly friction disks. So fortunately having Kevin check the tranny more than likely saved me a lot of problems at the track. If you are interested in having Kevin work on your transmission you can reach him at kevin@connact.com. The other bit of maintenance was to have my brake calipers rebuilt. The calipers in my car are 19 years old, raced and DE’d for the past 6 years and never rebuilt. A couple of my friends have rebuilt their own calipers by getting the rebuild kits from Porsche, some sent them to a company called ProSpeed on the internet that did very nice work but decided not to do it anymore. Upon researching this I found out the best way to rebuild calipers is to clean them down to bare metal. That way you are assured that you got all the dirt. If you just clean up the surface there is still a chance of contaminants in some areas. Again since these are for race only I decided to do the best I could. I found a company on the web called Goldline Brakes in Seattle that does its fair share of Porsche brakes. They strip them down to bare metal and re-paint them in a very nice red polymer paint (they have other colors too). I got mine back this morning and they look brand new. I had one small problem with one of my calipers. One side of a return tube at the end had been put in too tight and stripped upon removal. John called me and explained that this happens from time to time and that he could fix it. The fix required flipping the return tubes to the other side of the caliper and putting the bleeder screws where the return tube was. Apparently they do not make a return tube fix kit but they do make a bleeder screw fix kit. They drill the hole a tad larger and re-tap the hole for the new bleeder. All this means is that the brake pad locking spring flips to the other side and you disregard the directional arrow on the side of the caliper. Since my car uses the same calipers front and rear I decided to put those in the rear. After the money spent this winter on other things it seemed a logical fix instead of buying a new caliper. Goldline Brakes charges a tad less than $200 per caliper for rebuild and paint. They can be reached at www.goldlinebrakes.com. On another note, there is a new karting place in town. Karting America is practically next door to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Mike Noonan of Mike’s Autobody (and great karter) called me shortly after they opened and suggested I check the place out. Find them at www.racingamerica.com I contacted the owner RJ Mancini (yes another RJ) and told him I was interested in coming down and checking the place out for the club. I got the flash the Club President thing at him. He wasn’t impressed. He could tell I was a goof no matter what my title was. Anyway the place is nice. They have two indoor tracks, but as no outdoor track. Like F1 Boston they have 2 tracks that can be combined for a larger, single track. Unlike F1 the tracks are all flat with no elevation changes. But I have to tell you I liked the tracks. The karts seemed a bit faster than F1’s indoor karts and the track felt a bit wider with more area for passing. They are located adjacent to a trucking facility so maybe they will get a wild hair to set up an outdoor track on some given Sundays. Even work a deal with the stadium. They have a lot of asphalt. I have to say I like the idea of 2 karting facilities in the area. F1 Boston is a bit more upscale but you don’t see the fancy restaurant or function rooms while you are racing. I would have to say I prefer the Racing America indoor track over F1 but for all out racing fun the F1 Boston outdoor track is the best. So, if you get the need for speed and the snowblower is broke head out to Foxboro and have a blast. Also be forwarned, even though they just opened in the beginning of January there are already a number of regular hot shoes hanging around to teach you a thing or two. Keep on shoveling. Eventually you’ll see the track again. |
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