rage2 Tuning - Latest News

9/30/2004 - Final Drift Event... Gotta Improve! Season End Notes - You know, I'm great at making excuses. That's basically what I did all night, make excuses, and whine all night. I'm sure my fellow drifters were getting sick of it after an hour lol.

Basically, I couldn't get any good tires. The last set of 235's were gone from last week, and all I got were rock hard 275/40-17's off the front of a Dodge Viper. What's sad is that the Viper's front tires BARELY fit on the back of the 951, rubbing everwhere. But that's not the problem...

When I made my first few runs, I found that the hard tires when cold are completely useless. With track temps around 6C, basically near freezing, I would oversteer wildly for the first 3 turns. After that, the tires would heat up and I would make a good run, as long as I didn't fuck up (oh the pressure!). After 2 runs, the rears have enough heat and grip, that the car plows heavily. Not your ideal drift car. To top off the bitching, I had setup what I called the complex course, with corners decreasing, then increasing, then decreasing again in radius. Something good did come out of it, there was barely any wear on those 275's. If only I had 255's up front to match!

I also tried to work on increasing my drift angles without success. I can go off and blame the tires again, but really, I think it's just me. Every time I work on a larger drift angle, I'm carrying so much speed to maintain that angle, that the next corner is missed, or I spin during the transition. Is it just me? The boys from edmonton held some really large drift angles in their Nissan Silvias. The wheelbase of the S13 Silvias is only slightly longer than the 944's (2475mm vs 2400mm), could that larger drift angle be just an illusion? Or could it be my car's color bluring everything? With those black wheels, I can't even see where it's pointed! Honestly, I think I just suck at this point, and need a lot more practice.

I also noticed that my 951 doesn't look as nice as the Silvias and AE86's around the track. I think it's time I suck it up and lower the car back down. I've always hated rubbing and scraping, so I've always ran my car with stock rideheight. This is because I drive my car everyday, even in the snow, to and from work, to get groceries, etc. I think it's time I realized that it's impossible to have a car that can do everything WELL. Yes, the car can do everything right now, drive to the work, to the track, make my drag runs, hot laps, drift runs, drive home and ready for work next morning, but it does everything poorly, or at best an average performance. It's time to sort the car to do one task well, and sacrafice in other areas.

With the high rideheight, the car has heavy body roll. This makes the car really twitchy, as noted by others that tried my car out at the drift events. Transitions are really unsmooth, when the car shifts it's weight on a transition thanks to body roll. I could always stiffen up the car, but I think the answer first is to lower the center of gravity as much as possible, which means turning the car into a snow plow this winter.

I'll have to talk to Cueman (Quentin), a fellow AutoX'er and drifter who knows a lot about driving and a lot about suspension setups. He's owned the AutoX courses with me last year, but I consider him to be a better, smoother driver than me. It's great having him out at the drift events, I learn a lot from watching him make his runs. And that's what this is all about... learning.

The season's over, so it's time to look for more mods on the car. Maybe a 3L by upgrading to a 968 crank and rods? Who knows, we'll see how it looks with the money situation over the winter. A 3L will definately make the car more suited to drifting. More low end torque is always welcome. I'm also going to TRY and have a proper tire budget for next year. I've learned that you can not go cheap on tires, you'll just end up whining and complaining because of the inconsistencies. Next year, cheap grippy rubber all around, consistent tire warmup front and rear, and properly matched so I can take on this new sport properly.

Here are the videos for the events. Lots of high quality footage. I'll also include footage of the other talents at the track tonight. Make sure you check out sil_eighty's runs. These boys from Edmonton have balls to back up their skills!

Drift Night 4 Video - 640x360 (37.3MB)
rage2's 951 Drifts - 640x360 (5.4MB)
rage2's 951 Drifts - 1280x720 fast PCs only (17.9MB)
Cueman's AE86 Drifts - 640x360 (3.1MB)
Cueman's AE86 Drifts - 1280x720 fast PCs only (10.8MB)
sil_eighty's Silvia Drifts - 640x360 (8.6MB)
sil_eighty's Silvia Drifts - 1280x720 fast PCs only (26.3MB)

9/23/2004 - Back from "vacation", ready to drift - I missed the 2nd night of drift school. I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic, and got owned by Hurricane Jeanne. It was cool at first, until they ran out of food and water. Glad to be home!

At the track, I laid down a nice smooth flowing course, and easily managed with the 951. I'm using free rubber from my sponsor Tirecraft, basically used rubber. Up front I'm running 235/40-18's and on the back, 235/45-17's. Different size, different brand, different tire. It was mostly trouble free, until the tread separated from the tire. This is the 2nd time that it's happened, I better get used to it from drifting.

The 951's balance with these tires was excellent. Easily tossed from corner to corner with great control. After about twice around the course, the rear tires do overheat, and traction is non existant. As long as I have ample cooldown between runs, I can manage an above average run without any errors or spins.

Watching the other drivers, everyone is getting good. Some impressive drifting by the AE86's. It seems like everyone is getting better, and I'm just struggling at the same level. Oh well, we'll see how it goes next event. Here are some videos of the 951 and others in action.

951 Drifts - 640x360 (4.2MB)
951 Drifts - 1280x720 fast PCs only (13.4MB)
Drift Night 3 Video - 640x360 (24.8MB)

9/9/2004 - And the drifting addiction begins - After some discussions with the local race track, they let me put together 4 nights of drifting school/events. On the first school night, after laying down a few G circles, the 951 kept blowing off the charge piping. Turns out that it was about an inch too long, and from the engine movements when going on/off throttle, the pipe comes off, resulting in no boost. Marc showed up, sawed a few inches off, slapped the thing back together and went out for a few runs with only 45 mins left of the event. He plowed everywhere. I went out to see whats up, and I was able to hold a slide twice around each G circle. So now, we're even... he can drag, I can drift. He has crowned himself the plow king.

8/11/2004 - More drag racing madness - Dammit, I can not beat Marc's time. After tweaking the timing up top a bit, I got another mph trap speed, up to 112mph now on pump gas. But my launch is sucking some serious ass... I blame the track surface. Way too prepped and grippy, either I bogged the launch, or there was massive wheelhop. Wheelspin just didn't exist, and once again, the pussy factor kicked in, and I kept bogging instead of risking breaking my drivetrain. After about 6 back to back runs, the car started misfiring too. A call to Marc revealed that we didn't put in the good plugs, still running the stock plugs, which probably got a nice hot spot and starting acting up. After a 30 minute cooldown, the car ran fine once again.

I wanna hit 114mph on pump gas, guess it's time to work on more mods. I also think I misheard detonation during dyno tuning, it was probably misfire from back to back runs with the same plugs. Maybe I can run more boost? Alright, gonna make myself a todo list here to make that 114mph pump gas run. Exhaust, spark plugs, more boost + dyno time. That should do it. You're going down Marc!!!

7/17/2004 - Broke into the 12's easy - Well sorta... Marc drove the car and did it... 12.9@111mph. I didn't get to do many runs, bogged my last launch, and ran a 13.2@111mph. He's gonna make fun of me for a fucking LONG time. I wish I had 1 more run... oh well. It was really hot, 3 cars blew up. The 951 ran without a hitch, drove to the track, made it's runs, and drove home. I'm a happy man... test #1 complete! Here's the link to the video of my 13.2@108mph run. As a bonus, I've included a HDTV version, shot with my pimpin' JVC HD1 HDTV Camcorder. Don't bother downloading the HDTV clip unless you have a fast PC.

951 1/4 mile - 640x360 (2.5MB)
951 1/4 mile - 1280x720 fast PCs only (21.7MB)

I was racing my wife in her 420hp Renntech SLK 32 AMG... someone mentioned that I'm a wife beater, caught on film. Oh yea, I did some drifting in her car too... I'm getting better but still not that great. Here's the video for the drifting. I was in the black AMG.

7/16/2004 - 15psi 951 Dyno - Boost is turned up, all I could do was 16psi before I heard some knock with the super duper knock detector (hehe). So I turned it down to 15psi and called it a night. Only had 30 minutes on the dyno, back to back runs keeping the engine really hot. Gotta do this again another day, for now, must sleep... tomorrow I'm drag racing the car hoping to break into the 12's on pump gas. Gonna be tough, looks to be a hot day. 3700ft elevation doesn't really help either, not to mention a fragile drivetrain. Porsche's aren't drag cars, so they say. Here's the HP and TQ chart, and here's one with Air/Fuel ratio plotted with HP and TQ. 349whp and 338wtq for 15psi on a Mustang Dyno, can't complain. A little concerned about the bumpiness up top...

6/16/2004 - Uhh... power testing? - Yea, testing my car on a "private" road. Still running 12psi, it goes pretty damn good. Check out the video to see what I'm talking about.

5/5/2004 - 951 dyno tuning - Still only got 400 miles on the motor, so time to turn the boost up a notch and get some dyno time. Spent about an hour on the dyno, and laid down some pretty impressive numbers for the boost levels that I'm running. Only gonna push it to 12psi for now, will turn it up once I get more miles on the motor. Results?

6psi - 257whp (~290whp dynojet)
10psi - 302whp/284wtq (~341whp dynojet)
12psi - 322whp/299wtq (~363whp dynojet)

Kicking some serious ass now... I think I'll see that 400whp on pump gas figure with this motor. That should be plenty for getting me to work in the mornings! Here's the HP and TQ chart, and here's one with Air/Fuel ratio plotted with HP and TQ. Just a rough tune to get an idea how the motor's running. And yes, that huge flat torque curve feels pretty fucking good on the street!

4/29/2004 - Ignore the last update - I guess Marc and I are just pussies. We drove the fuck out of the car, next thing you know, no more smoke out the tailpipe. It's all about the hard break-in! Car's feeling great, running at 7psi, street tuned pretty good, just have to beat on her some more! Remember kids, you gotta drive her hard to break in those rings!

4/26/2004 - Rings aren't seating... - I dunno what the fuck is wrong, the rings won't seat, and the exhaust is still smoking like crazy. Maybe it's time to beat on it a bit more. This is driving me nuts. Driving it for 5 days and it's still not seating. WTF???

4/25/2004 - buh_buh's Turbo Prelude - So here's the Prelude that I tuned last year. Completely stock block, 8 or 9psi, and completely reliable. It made something like 250whp or something on the Mustang dyno, more than any other stock h22a4 motor out there (without blowing up). Guys are already saying it's secretly built. Bullshit, it's all about proper tuning with proper tools. I mean, if you use an FMU, the air fuel ratio will never be perfect, and you'll break something eventually. Well, buh_buh slaps on a new exhaust, and pumps out 292fwhp on a Mustang dyno. That's like 330fwhp on a Dynojet. Surprised at how much the exhaust freed up!

Can't wait to hear from the conspiracy theorists... Once again, check out the dyno chart. Ignore the bumps in the torque curve, buh_buh needs to learn how to use his Greddy E-01 boost controller properly.

4/20/2004 - The 2.8L beast is alive! - Started it up today, sounding mighty good. The exhaust note is a lot deeper now, doesn't sound like a 944 anymore. Tons of smoke burning off from under the hood, nice and clean 20 minutes later. Lots of oil smoke out the exhaust, need to break in those rings!

3/3/2004 - 951 build update #2 - Everything's going in the way in came out... crazy. Strapping the drivetrain onto the body took about 10 minutes. Actually, it was the other way around, the body was dropped onto the drivetrain, and 10 minutes later, lifted back up with everything connected. Looked real cool for the Calgary Porsche Tech night visitors that witnessed it. Almost done...

2/28/2004 - 951 build update - Engine buildup is complete! Gotta love those big ass 106mm forged pistons. 2.8L of displacement, this should be fun. Got all the exhaust components wrapped too, and because of the long exhaust plumbing, it should definately help boost threshold drop a few hundred rpms. Need that low end torque.... got really tired of the 2.5L being so damn peaky.

2/11/2004 - My new turbo is here! - 60 trim wheel, 0.70 A/R compressor housing, good for 500-550whp. But will it beat that damn Supercharged Viper???

12/30/2003 - 951 goes under the knife - Yes boys and girls, it's the end of an era. My 2.5L Porsche stock block is coming out. Time to move on to bigger and better things. This block, with 270,000km on the clock, a bit of blowby, is still mighty strong, posting what was most likely the biggest power made on a stock 2.5L block. 460rwhp, 117mph trap speeds, indestructable. Kudos for Porsche for overengineering the hell out of their motors. Gotta love forged internals from the factory!

So tonight, Marc dropped the entire drivetrain out of the car for major upgrades. It's been a while since I did anything major, and this time I'm going all out, replacing pretty much every drivetrain and engine component. After 2 years of collecting parts, it's all going in at once, what better way to do it than to drop the entire drivetrain! Only Marc is crazy enough to pull something like this off, pretty cool if you ask me.

11/21/2003 - Viper ACR S/C Dyno - So I get a call, ScCab's uncle decided to guarantee a win against me by installing a supercharger in his Viper ACR. God damn will I ever get owned. 598whp, 568wtq. I'm screwed. I hope he doesn't find a standalone for this beast, it's making all this power using a frickin' FMU. Better get my 2.8L project going... even then I doubt I'll have a chance. Fuck.

Check out the Dyno chart along with the video. Shit. I think he got his guarantee.

10/26/2003 - Trackday... the moment of truth for the M3 S/C - So ScCab won't drive the car on the track. He makes me do it. I'm kinda scared, the motor was just assembled and tuned, and I'm not even 100% sure if all the bugs have been worked out yet. After a bunch of bitching back and forth, I take 'er out for a rip. OK, I'll just drive 5/10ths to get a feel for the car. Damn, it's fast, and it sounds wicked. Next thing you know, I'm going 9/10ths in someone else's car. I thought I told myself never to beat on other people's cars... it'd suck if I broke it. Bring it back in, everything looks good, coolant tank isn't pressurized, no oil/coolant mixing, everything working good! *phew*

Oh fuck it, I'll take 'er out for another rip. Driving hard, zero problems. Only a bit of black smoke when I hit the rev limiter accidently, nothing spectacular. Feels damn good. The video clip says it all. Oh yea, that's me in my 944 Turbo trying to drift. I suck, haven't done it since my street racing days, hope I get better at it!

10/24/2003 - M3 S/C Dynojet glory run - Temps were a bit warm, and the car was slightly heat soaked. Torque dropped off up top a bit from reduced timing. Still very impressive numbers, 337.4rwhp and 271.7rwtq. Only a 6% increase in hp, 8% increase in tq. I usually see a 13% increase when going from Mustang Dyno to a Dynojet on the same day. Maybe we'll try it on a cooler day...

Here's the dyno sheet for anyone that cares.

10/22/2003 - E36 M3 S/C finally tuned! - After struggling with a bunch of ERT chips, the TEC3 arrived from Electromotive after a reflash and the tuning has begun! Marc @ Alpine Autowerks spent yesterday installing the TEC3 plug and play, took about 2 hours to do. I can't believe how easy it was for plug and play stuff, I remember the wiring horrors Marc had to deal with on my 944 Turbo and SDS... wires everywhere!

After the install, it took less than 30 minutes to drive out a nice basemap, and onto a dyno nearby. Another hour later, the car was completely tuned. Result was 317.7rwhp and 252.7rwtq on a Mustang dyno.