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Well, after 5 1/2 months of dealing with PCA Club Racing about my alleged over boosting the battle is at least over until they choose to check me again. Peter Dikeman and I sent countless emails to Lance Weeks and Donna Amico trying to find out exactly what the boost test procedure is. For months all we could get was that the test was different than Porsche but that it has been used for many years and what was performed on my car was the correct test. As it turns out it was not exactly the correct test. While I was at the track at Carolina the head scrutineer told Cal Calamari to watch the boost gauge and see where the boost peaks and where it settles down. They don't bother with the peak they just are curious as to what it is. To me at the time these directions seemed very reasonable. I did not know much about boost. All I knew was that boost was made from forcing exhaust flow through the turbo to spin the turbine which in turn forced the cool air into the intake. I knew nothing about a boost curve or anything. Now I know! The above test is not only vague but NOT the exact test that Chief National Scrutineer, Donna Amico endorses. The fact that Cal was instructed to record where the boost settles down makes no sense now because after the peak (which in my case is about 3700 rpm) the boost continues to trail off. It gets lower and lower the higher the rpms go. So at what point do you take the reading. The final test (as final as we were able to get) is that you drive the car to third gear at 3000 rpm and then accelerate (in third gear) to 6000 rpm. That is where the reading is taken. But there also seems to be a slight variation to this test according to Donna. The scrutineer can take a reading at 2 different intervals that apparently produce the same end result. For a stock 944 turbo (not Turbo S) at 5800 rpm the boost can be no more than .65 bar. Then at 6000 rpm the boost can be no more than .60 bar. The fact that the tester has his choice of where to take the reading is still confusing. Why they can not just set a number and stick to it is beyond me. But all that aside we put my car on the chassis dyno at EPE in Natick so that PCA Club Racing scrutineer, Dave Maynard (works next door to EPE) could come over and witness the boost test and verify that I have a legal car. My car produced the allowable .55 bar at 6000 rpm. Club Racing actually allows a +/- 10% which is where they come up with the .60 bar at 6000. So, I am a tad under-boosting which will be a good buffer in case I get tested again out in the cooler air of the track. But considering Porsche does their testing on a chassis dyno I feel pretty dang good. Dave Maynard signed off in my logbook that I do in fact have a legal car so that for the Mid-Ohio race in May I won't have to make the ride still wondering if I will pass. Right now it is like it never happened. I am good to go and the car should be the best it has ever been. The question has to be asked though. If the test was read at 6000 rpms at Carolina would I have passed? After what I know now I say yes, it was legal. The problem is that the correct boost test is not known by all the scrutineers. I questioned a few and most of them sited the Porsche test as the correct test. So I now carry a copy of the email from Donna that describes the correct test just in case. Tire choice this years is still a sore subject. The new Hoosiers are awesome for a short time. The Michelins are good for a long time. So our plan this year is to run them both. Michelins for practice and long enduros while the Hoosier are the choice for Sprint Races and possibly for qualifying. This set-up will hopefully limit our tire spendings for the season. Normally I wouldn't worry to much about buying a couple sets of Hoosier because I am not very good at saving money when it comes to making my racing better but my work flow has slowed a tad. I happen to do a majority of my work for a company in Providence that does tons of different products and I do most of the packaging and product development. The owner is a guy named Jeff Jacober that I became very friendly with. In fact he kept begging me to bring the racecar to the airport where he kept his plane as well as his pristine 1965 Corvette. He wanted to race me on the runways at night. Unfortunately I will never get to race Jeff. The Saturday before Easter Sunday I was working when I got a phone call from the woman I work with there telling me that Jeff had crashed his plane. At first I wasn't to worried since I knew Jeff had been flying a long time and even though he had a big plane they usually glide pretty good. Apparently he never needed to glide. Jeff and his family had been vacationing in Florida kind of celebrating Jeff’s reception of his second clean bill of health from prostate cancer. They were flying up to Pennsylvania to watch one of his 3 sons play lacrosse at Penn State when I guess conditions became overcast with a possibility of some icing on the wings. Jeff was attempting an instrument landing when they crashed into a prison construction site killing all on board. Unfortunately Jeff had his very cool wife Karen and his 15 year old son along with another partner in the ownership of the plane and his wife and 10 year old son. Two families gone. The company was set up to continue but they are on a reduced spendings trend for a while. So I have to try to manage my tires better this year than in the past years. So I end my column this month with a quick, “I will miss you Jeff, sorry we never got the chance to race.” |
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