north east scca car raby, any info or pics of this car? Options

[randyt914]

bought this east coast racer. Built up on the east coast by tangerine racing and engine by Rat. 2300+. Picked it up this week and was looking for any info re racing history. thanks thanks in advance!

[GregAmy]

Yes, northeast autocross car.

Chris Foley and I partnered in buying it from the owner in NH, Jan Hansen. It was owned by a couple and extensively autocrossed up here, it's well-known among the older autocrossers in New England.

Chris built the chassis/rollcage in 2001, Raby built the engine (2.4L?) and it has one of Chris' original exhaust systems on it. Dual big-bore Webers, as I recall.

One partner passed away and in June 2020 Jan contacted Chris to see if he was interested in buying it. We agreed to buy it and Chris and I drove up there and grabbed the car and cleaned out the garage - they had a TON of 914 stuff all over.

On the way home from NH I called my racing buddy Ed Werry in NJ because I knew he was looking for a historics car (we race SCCA Club). Ed bought it sight unseen.

I've attached photos he got on it then, plus one when we picked it up (Jan is the in green shirt) and one in my buddy Ed's driveway.

Ed had it at his house for a while and was planning to turn it into a vintage/historics racer to run with me in my historics racer. We have very few regs limitations up here with the various sanctioning bodies (they just toss us in a speed-appropriate group) and we don't run PCA, SCCA is our "srs bzns" racing. Unfortunately, other priorities on building/maintaining our HProd Toyota MR2 and EProd Civic Si had Ed deciding to sell it.

Before it went away, Ed got the car basically running on an external fuel tank but never progressed past that. The Raby book that came with it is quite extensive on the details and was the major buying and selling point.

The car was sold to a guy in California and I think he had it up for sale here so you might search around for the listing. It was also listed on Facebook in one or both of the popular 914 groups, which I can find if you like.

As I recall the cage was SCCA-compliant but it went away before I could issue it a logbook. There's a few safety things I would change but I do recall it "had good bones". And with that engine it'll be a hoot to drive.

That's pretty much all I can recall on it.

I've copied a few notes below from the original email that Chris got. I don't know if Jan is still around, but I can inquire if you're interested. I can also ask around New England Region as to who remembers the car and can offer some insight.

Let's see if someone can finally get this project going! - Greg


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It's a 1971 Porsche 914 that had just over 50K miles on it when we bought it in late 1987. It had just been brought up from Virginia by a young guy he met in night school and hadn't seen winter weather in New England. I have a Virginia title for the car and the VIN plates are still present. We registered it for the road for one year when he [John Hansen] autocrossed it in a stock class, driving to a couple SCCA events. It had always been trailered after that since we bought it to be used as a racer.
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The car has a Jake Raby 2316cc Type IV engine rated at 207 hp with 191 lb/ft of torque (dyno sheet and full build documentation is available) that was built from a two liter core. The car has AIR fiberglass body panels and weighs 1608 pounds. The glass has been removed and substituted with Lexan and Polycarbonate...An eight gallon fuel cell is in the front trunk with stainless steel lines to the engine. It does require 110 octane racing fuel (Cam2 or Sunoco). There is a Quaife ATB Helical LSD differential (installed by Gary Fairbanks) in the transmission with stock gearing connected to a lightened and balanced flywheel and clutch assembly. It sits on 8x 15 Keyser Aluminum wheels with Carrera brand springs and shocks optimized for this chassis (by Bill Gendron/Small Fortune Racing). The steering wheel has a quick disconnect to facilitate getting in and out easily.

Reading the notes I have it appears there are 10 to 15 hours of run time on the engine, with about half being idling or motoring in the pits. The car was set up for autocross, running in either PCA Modified or SCCA E Mod in its current iteration.

The brake and fuel systems would need to be flushed as the car had not been run a couple years. As expected the engine would need to be looked at as well since a few years have passed since its been run. He just never got back to the sport.

[randyt914]

I am so thankful for your detailed reply. I would love to include the history of the hanson family in the binder. The car is running and will undergo a shakedown on the 11th in Tuscon Az. The engine case is a "W" 1.7 and is the best and only case jake will use as a big case build. I have the binder and would love to start another binder re the history and owners. Thanks again you have made my year already. Christmas came a bit late for me but i could not be happier. I bought it from a guy named taylor and he just had another project to attend to. I feel lucky to be part of this cars journey. Did the car have a nick name?