Joining the Porsche family, track rat style.

[WizardSmokey]

Story time, kids!

Now that it's all back together, took the car up to JBA, a local very well regarded hotrod shop, to get it corner scaled. Car is at 2,530 lbs. 45.3% front, 54.7% rear. So weight went up since before the engine swap from ~2,460, and we shifted the balance by about 3%. But the left/right balance is still on point. 50.5 to 49.4. I don't think there is much we can do for weight reduction short of ludicrous cutting measures. But one thing to consider would be striving to mount further additions such as the fuel cell as far forward as possible to improve the weight distribution.

The fun part was that the Porsche did its thing, even at JBA. Mind you, they were loading up cars to go 1/2 mile racing the next day, so they had some pretty serious machinery sitting in their lot. But as soon as Ol' Squonky showed up, she was the star of the show. All the techs walking over to take a look and get pictures. Typical questions about what engine, what it's from, what it put out, how did I not get pulled over, what the **** is my malfunction. They asked me to start it and rev it. Lost their minds at how quickly it gains RPM. Were even more impressed by the dyno graph. Funny how guys that build performance cars were super hyped about an engine that could put power down so consistently. Then we had a good laugh when the guy who was weighing it had to take it to the garage. I told him the clutch was aggressive as hell. People have made fun of me for the way my shifts sound in the videos. I stopped counting after this guy stalled it for the 10th time.

Anyways, car gets weighed. I'm standing outside talking with a guy who was a VW Jetta that he's wanting to throw the Audi 4.2 V8 into, and he was all about that track racing. So good fun to talk to. Mind you, he's wiping down one of their 1000hp Super Snakes that's going racing during this. After the weighing was done, the guy brought it out again. Heard it stall a few times in their shop. Gives me the key and we stand there talking a bit. He, more than anyone else was in love with the car. Kept saying how much he loved the gnarly, no-f*cks attitude. The little bit of moving he did in the car told how aggressive the thing was. Clutch aside, he said the way the engine just wants to go makes the car feel scary even at idle. Naturally, he mentioned that he'd love to go for a ride in it, which I happily agreed to. But he said he was on the clock and couldn't, but then went to ask the bossman anyways. And come on, what bossman is gonna say no to that? Car like this doesn't show up every day. So we jump in, go on to the road just outside of JBA, and I did a rolling 1-2 to redline pull. This guy, Patrick, I think. Maybe Peter. Something with a P. Dude was losing his mind. He said he's probably been in faster cars, but never anything that felt nearly as aggressive, or that pulled so consistently throughout the revs. That's high praise coming from a guy at JBA. They were drag racing yesterday and disappointed that one of their Mustangs was barely getting into the 9s. So for him to be shouting "FU*K YEAH!" at maximum hype felt damn good.

[JayG]

I just Pm'd you with then name of a great race prep shop that specializes in Porsche in San Diego

[Qingdao]

You make me wanna weigh mine.

My top is heavy (I believe they are about 50#s or so heavier than the rag top??), but I don't have the rear deck lid cause the Z-top has that included.

I haven't done any weight reduction, but the good ole boy iron 4.3 engine weighs about 150#s less than the M96 engine.

I do know that all the "scaffolding" I had to make to get the 4.3 to bolt to the car weighs 45#s and I've added a few things since.


I'd like to see a dead stock weight on my car. That would be a win for me.

Dyno at the wheels I'd like to see 250 to 300 torques. That was my goal from the get go.



Don't let those dyno numbers get you down. HP sells cars TORQUE wins races. And you're right that is a strong steady low end powerband you've got.