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Nor'easter News
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Porsche
Club of America
By
Win Perry,
wperry@winbro.com
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As I write this, the Winter Olympics are in full swing. Despite what seems like more advertising than athletics, it is hard not to get sucked into watching the games. Although the differentiation between amateur and professional athlete has (necessarily) changed over the last ten or so years, there still seems to be a marked difference between many of these Olympians and the typical NFL/NBA/NHA player. Especially for the more obscure sports. I’m headed north next week for skiing during the February school vacation. However, watching the Olympic skiers and boarders tearing down the racecourses is, at the least, humbling. Closer to home, our own Pete Donohoe is already in Torino. Pete is competing for Ireland on the two-man bobsled. Although the races will have been long since run by the time this March Nor’Easter is in print, check out the results. Then, attend our May meeting at Focus Fitness, and congratulate Pete for his achievement. Win or lose, he was there! The weather in February has been volatile: hot, cold, dry, rain, and snow. Typical New England I suppose. However the “Porsche Season” now seems just around the corner. I’ve driven the Boxster on a couple of the nicer days, and that, plus those Nor’easter articles, has me thinking about the upcoming DE and Autocross seasons. The two biggest consumables (except for gas!) seem to be tires and brakes. I “only” have one set of racing wheels, 18 inch BBS LM forged wheels. It would be nice to get a tire that would work well on the track and for autocrossing. My first track tires were Kumho Ecsta V700’s, which were pretty good autocross tires, but wore quickly on the track. I next tried Pirelli P Zero Corsa’s. When new, they were fantastic in the wet. When they wore out, Tire Rack had a close out special on Dunlop Super Sport Race tires. $139 per tire (front or rear). I couldn’t turn that down and went through two sets before Tire Rack ran out. They weren’t bad tires, but they didn’t really heat up enough at an autocross. For the upcoming season, I haven’t found any deals, and since the Dunlop’s are corded, I need something. I suppose it’s time for Pilot Sport Cups. I know they are really popular for DE, but the hard-core autocross junkies don’t like them. I have partially upgraded the brakes on my car. Substituting 996 Carrera front brakes and Boxster S cross-drilled rotors is a really easy change on a standard Boxster. I tried moving my front calipers to the rear and using Boxster S rear rotors, but have reverted to the original rear calipers plus Zimmermann cross-drilled rotors. They match the look of the front rotors; I’m not really sure whether cross drilling does much to improve the braking. They certainly reduce rotor life. After the rotors wear below the radius cast on the surface of each hole, stress cracks start to appear at the edges of the holes. However, you gotta have the look! For the last two years, I’ve used hybrid street/track brake pads. The Hawk HP+ pads do fade less on the track than the OEM pads, but they do fade. Also, in street driving, they glaze over after a few days and then really squeal until quieted by some hot laps on the track. So I am thinking of using Pagid Orange pads on the track and OEM pads for street driving. The Pagid’s have a great reputation, and some drivers leave them mounted for the street. However, I don’t want ultra squealing brakes that don’t stop too well cold and have corrosive dust. Since I drive the Boxster to events (towing a tire trailer), I’m either going to have to get up earlier or get faster in changing pads and wheels. Drop me a line (wperry@winbro.com) if you have any suggestions or know of any great deals on tires. |
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