Labor of Love: A Build Thread, Or: honoring my fathers 914-6 Options

[BillJ]

Hi everyone. I have been posting here and there about my recent re-discovery and acquisition of a car that I have known since I was 15 years old. In 1987 my father bought his fourth Porsche. A 914-6 born in 1970. It was a bone stock car in white over black that had been driven a little under 100k miles. It was well taken care of and had no rust. After driving his yellow 73 2.0 on the track and in PCA racing he wanted to retire that largely stock car to the street and get a dedicated racer.

The 6 was immediately sent to a body shop to get a chasis stiffening and flare treatment. An IMSA airdam was installed along with a rear spoiler. He took the BBS 7s and 8s off his 944 Turbo and shod them with cantilever slicks from hoosier. He then found a 2.8 RSR Bosch mechanical FI high butterlfly stack monster engine from PAR porsche in NY to motivate the car. Redline was set somewhere north of 9k rpm. Here is a pic of the original build:



He drove the car in many events for around 20 years. During that time i bought his old yellow car and i turned that into a race car as well. We even drove together (in different groups when i had the yellow car) at some events. We would also share the racing duties with the 6. In 2008 he sold the car and moved on to other cars but this one has always held a special place for me.

Two years ago I ended up meeting up with John who had bought the car from my dad. He was great and generously asked if i would like to join him racing for the year as co-driver. I jumped at the chance and we got (and get) along really well. At the end of the season he offered the car to me and, after selling the silver 75, was able to make the plunge.

The emotional bond and connection to my dad who passed in 2018 that this object evokes is strong and in some ways unexpected.

With this thread i hope to honor that tie to my dad by sharing maintenance, improvements, and continued racing with this special (to me) car. And I hope my dad can see it all. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[BillJ]

Hey Phil. Yes race only. Stock gearsets and ratios for a standard 6 box are A 3.091, GA 1.778, O 1.217, V 0.9259, and ZA 0.7586.

So essentially i am only changing the last gear from ZA to Z 0.7931. Doesnt seem like a lot but that ZA gear is way too long and the rpm drop too great to be effective coming out of a faster corner like last corner at Road Atlanta for example. The gear selection keeps me in the anticiapted power band for every gear.

My former box has M, S, X as final gears and i would run out of rpm on the straight at most tracks i run. Was very frustrating to watch other cars creep away as i had to hold at 125mph basically. No fun.

[gms]

Hey Phil. Yes race only. Stock gearsets and ratios for a standard 6 box are A 3.091, GA 1.778, O 1.217, V 0.9259, and ZA 0.7586.

So essentially i am only changing the last gear from ZA to Z 0.7931. Doesnt seem like a lot but that ZA gear is way too long and the rpm drop too great to be effective coming out of a faster corner like last corner at Road Atlanta for example. The gear selection keeps me in the anticiapted power band for every gear.

My former box has M, S, X as final gears and i would run out of rpm on the straight at most tracks i run. Was very frustrating to watch other cars creep away as i had to hold at 125mph basically. No fun.

I race on low speed tracks and high speed tracks to I have 2 gear boxes
I find that a 4 speed meets my needs for the short box
Short Box gears A-H-Q-X
Long Box gears A-H-P-V-ZA