2009 Targa Newfoundland Daily Log 
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2009 Back to the Porsche After an interesting year running Andy's 1991 Subaru Legacy we have decided to get back into a Porsche for 2009. (The Subaru will be back, maybe in 2010) Read about our past events here. Our 2006 Targa Winning Porsche 911 has been retired from competition so we built a brand new car for Targa 2009. We have prepared a 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0. This is a ground up restoration/build of a bare chassis. It is a great opportunity to improve on our old Porsche and maximize performance. The Carrera 3.0 is a very interesting car and should make a good Targa competitor. This was Porsche's first production 3 liter vehicle and was sold in Europe in 1976 and 1977. The model was brought to North America as the 911 SC in 1978. More information on the Carrera 3 can be found at: Carrera 3.0 UK |
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Thanks to our 2009 Sponsors:
Special thanks to Bruce Gregory and Jane Blinn at Calabogie Motorsports Park for helping us put together a last minute test schedule. For those who have not visited Calabogie, this is a fantastic track that needs to be on your To-Do List. |
2009 Vehicle Preparation |
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Chassis Our old Porsche was starting to get a bit tired so we decided to build a new car for 2009. Building a new race car from a bare chassis is quite an undertaking.
I purchased an old chassis on ebay a few years ago. It looked pretty good. No rust, solid, it had been crashed but it looked like it had been repaired properly. The chassis had been stored in a barn for 15 yrs before we picked it up.
We borrowed a jig from Blair Killoran to help sort out all the pick up points and ensure that the car was square. The suspenion points were fine but the engine mounts where way out of wack. So we cut the back end out of the car and used a hydraulic jack to push the chassis structure back into place. The jig also helps ensure that the car remains straight when the cage is welded in place.
Andrew Cairns undertook the majority of the chassis construction. In 4 months, Andrew transformed this bare chassis into a contender.
Andrew and Fraser took the time to design and laser cut all of the new sheet metal panels that we are putting into the car. The fit and finish is first rate.
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Roll Cage A lot of effort has been put into the roll cage to ensure a strong, safe and ergonomic installation. The seats were positioned to create a passenger envelope and helmet clearance was considered in the design. The entire cage was constructed and fit to the car before welding. This ensured a proper tubing fit and allowed us to weld major assemblies outside of the car. Welding outside the car helps ensure better weld quality in some of the hard to reach areas such as the roof. We still had to cut holes in the roof to weld the main hoop to the latteral hoops. The cage is constructed with 1.75" diameter 0.95" wall thickness DOM 1020 mild steel. The cage has been prepared to meet CARS, CASC, SCCA and Targa rules. |
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Bodywork The plan was to run 911ST bodywork this year. The 911ST was Porsche's rally car in the early 70's. Unfortunately this didn't work out the way I had planned so we installed 911 Turbo bodywork. This will give us a bit more room in the fenderwells for the tires but it makes the car wider and creates more aero dynamic drag. Also because the car is wider there is less room to fit the car through some of the narrow passage ways on the Targa stages. I did the majority of the bodywork on the car. This was my first major attempt at bodywork and more than one defect can be seen:) More time would have resulted in a better finish for the paint but the event was getting closer and we needed to get the car completed. The plan was to paint the car in a proper paint booth but as time got short we ended up painting the car in my garage. The results were not great but once a few strategic decals are placed on the car, it will look fantastic at 50ft and 50mph. |
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Tires We considered various tires for 2009. The Toyo RA1 tires that were a favourite of the top Targa competitors are no longer manufactured and can be difficult to find. They have been replaced with the Toyo R888, however these tires do not seem to be quite as good in the wet or handle quite as well over the rough Newfoundland pavement. In the end we found some Toyo RA1 stock. We are running 235-45R17 fronts and 275-40R17 rears. These tires are great in the dry but they don't provide confidence in the wet. Hydroplaning can be an issue. |
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Weight Weight is always a huge issue in any competition. Testing has shown that 10lbs of weight is equivalent to 0.1s per km of competitive stage. When you look at the past Targa results you can see that over the 500km of competition stages the margin of victory is measured in seconds. Shaving 10lbs off a cars weight could mean 50 seconds of stage time. A stock 76 Carrera 3 has a curb weight of 1120kg. Targa rules allow us to run at 10% below curb so we can compete at 1008kg (2218lbs). When the car was completed it weighed in at 2165lbs with a weight distribution of 35/65. Pretty heavy in the back end. We will need to add balast to bring the car up to the minimum weight of 2218lbs. |
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Brakes Lee Vuong at Massive Brakes has helped develop the brakes for our new 911. Instead of going the traditional route with the 911 Turbo (Brembo) brakes, we decided to try Wilwoods. Fronts: Wilwood SL-6 (6 piston) Calipers Lee custom designed the rotors for us. The pedal cluster and master cylinders are built by Chris Kirby at K&B Auto. Fraser Wheeler designed the rotor hats and caliper radial mounts. These parts were designed in Solidworks and machined from 6061 aluminum. |
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Suspension We are running the traditional 911 suspension. The front is Mac Strut and the rear is a semi trailing arm. We plan to use 930 trailing arms on the rear. We received some support from Peter Reily at Hot Bits. Peter put together a Hot Bits shock package for this years car. Unfortunately we could not comlete the engineering on the parts in time for sufficient testing before the event. So we are going to continue with our Leda shocks that we used in 2006. The Hot Bits will be held in reserve for the next event. |
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Engine Chris Kirby, K&B Auto, has just finished the long block build of the engine. This is a fresh engine for 2009. In the past we have used JE Pistons and aftermarket 98mm cylinders. We have had some problems with piston ring failures so we have decided to run Mahle pistons and cylinders this year. Compression has been set at 10.5:1 and we plan to run 94 octane fuel. New heads were requried to eliminate the fire rings that we had run in the past. We use the Porsche 3.2 heads as these seem to provide the best performance for the older 3 liter engines. We maintain the factory port geometry but try to clean up any flashing or casting marks. The inlets are prepared with 80 grit sandpaper while we use 120 grit on the exhaust ports to help promote flow. Chris has built a new exhaust system for the car this year. We are using a different type of header that we hope will help the engine breathe better. The engine was run on the dyno for a break in period but we decided not to do any performance runs until after the engine had run for more time in the car. We are expecting similar performance to our 2006 engine. |
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Support Systems 6 year olds can make good mechanics. My son Owen put quite a bit of work into this car. He was quite good at bolted assemblies such as the rear windows and fuel cell enclosure. In this picture, Owen is bolting the fuel cell back together after a bladder change. (We had a bladder leak in our ATL cell) |
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Testing We managed to fit 3 days of testing into the schedule. Day 1: Calabogie Motorsports Park (Thursday August 27th) We also had a pressure regulator failure. This stopped us from completeing any engine mapping. A new pressure regulator was flown in from California for the next test. Day 2: Calabogie Motorsports Park (Wednesday September 2nd) We had an engine miss the entire day. We checked everything from sensors to ground wires. We could not solve the problem at the track so we decided to forego the afternoon sessions and returned to the shop. Once in the shop the problem was diagnosed as a signal conflict between the motec synch and ref sensors. Once we reindexed the synch sensor, the problem went a way and the engine pulled clean. Day 3: Shannonville - Fabi Track (Thursday September 3rd) We completed 35 laps of the Fabi track while testing different shock and sway bar settings. We found an optimum set up for dry conditions. The car had a bit of mid corner oversteer and a bit of power on understeer that we could not tune out. I was surprised at how easy it was to control the oversteer. Mid corner slides could be controlled without too much drama. The wider rear track seems to make the car more stable. |
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Trip to Newfoundland We departed for Newfoundland on Friday Sept 4th. Jason Byrne, who was driving the Turks and Caicos transporter, travelled with us. Jason had a trailer tire blow out entering Montreal and we spent an hour changing the tire. Unfortunately this put us into Montreal rush hour and we spent 3 hours trying to get across the city. Not fun when you are pulling a heavy race trailer. We made it to Edmunston the first day and then continued on to Sydney NS on Saturday. We met up with Roy and Adrienne in Truro while stopping for lunch with Stan Hartling (TCI Motoring Club). We took Marine Atlantic's newest ferry to Port Aux Basque. This is a nice ship. The trip to Gander was uneventful. On Monday we started 3 days of "blue berry picking. We visited prime blueberry spots such as Appleton, Fortune, Marystown, Brigus and the latest edition Harbour Grace. It was interesting that we came across other participants that were "blue berry" picking. Keith and Marc (Subaru Canada) were staying in Hotel Marystown at the same as us so we were able to compare notes on which corners had the best potential. In 3 spots we came across Steve Millen who was looking for turnips. |
Bell Island School Sept 10-11 Bell Island
The Bell Island Targa school went very well. We had 11 school teams and 5 teams joining us for the test day. On Friday we held an open test day for Targa teams. This gave us the opportunity to run the 911 for the first time on a real stage. The car ran well, good grip and a great engine. We found that a bit of engine mapping was required. As part of the school, we simulated a broken down car to see how other competitors responded. When the test was done, we went to start the car up and promptly blew an oil line. It was a bit comical, sitting in the cockpit with oil dripping from everywhere. We cleaned the car up and called Catharine for parts. She flew the parts in from Ottawa and we were able to get back on the road Saturday morning. The fault turned out to be a failed oil filter. The element collapsed and blocked an oil line. The pressure was high enough to blow a line out of its fittings. Better this than cracking the oil pump. Click here for more information on the School/Test Day and Bell Island. |
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Prologue went well. We put in two conservative runs on the Flat Rock stage to qualify 6th. Subaru Canada had an off and did some significant damage to their STi. Stewart Hoo performed his usual heroics and rebuilt the car overnight.
Driver Marc Lachapelle, who still had some blueberry on his face, sprained his thumb and navigator Kieth Townsend was pretty bruised up but otherwise everyone was fine. Keith was a bit too sore to continue and Stewart Hoo stepped up to take his place.
Steve Millen, in the Nissan GTR, set the fastest prologue times.
The morning of day 1 was a bit ominous as we were being pounded by a huge storm. Rain and high winds made the transit to Argentia very treacherous. I wore my Subaur T-shirt hoping that the Porsche would get the idea. Apparently it worked as the car was surprisingly stable in the wet, much better than my 79SC. It was a good confidence boost to start the week.
The Wickline Audi had an off in Placentia that has ended their week. Navigator Grant cracked a couple bones in his hand but intends to continue in touring. Luckily his driver, Andrew Wickline is an orthopedic surgeon.
We had two very strong runs through Eastport to end the day. The car pulls strong and handles the bumps well.
At the end of day 1, 12 cars were tied for the lead with zero penalty points.
We had a perfect day on Tuesday, clearing all stages. We were the only team to clear all the stages and we now have a 1 second lead over second place Jud Buchanan.
| Team | Car | Penalties | |
| 1st | Clarke/Proudfoot | Porsche 911 | 00:00:00 |
| 2nd | Buchanan/Adams | Acadian Canso | 00:00:01 |
| 3rd | Stoschek/Spaeth | Porsche 911 | 00:00:03 |
| 4th | Millen/Montiello | Nissan GTR | 00:00:06 |
| 5th | Hopkins/Hughes | BMW 2002 | 00:00:08 |
Leg 4: Rogers Yahoo - Heritage
Leg 4: Rogers Yahoo - Heritage
We woke up Friday to light rain and winds. Initially I thought this would be fine and would work to our advantage. Stages would be downgraded and it would be easier for us to protect our lead.
The first stage into Boat Harbour was difficult but manageable. We crossed a wooden bridge on the way in. I coasted across the bridge but still lost control and slid sideways for about 100ft. A sign of things to come. We made our time on the way in and maintained our lead.
After a quick breakfast in Boat Harbour, we waited to start the 2nd stage. With about half the field already into the stage, the rain started to intensify and soon the roads were turning into rivers. (Supposedly 45mm of rain fell on Friday) My strategy for the stage was to take it easy in the corners then hammer it down the straights. Unfortunately when I tried to accelerate on the straights, the car would hydroplane at 90kph. I lost control of the car 3 times in the first 5km. There was no way that we could make our time on this relatively easy stage. It was an unbelievable situation. Unfortunately I could blame no one but myself. The tires I had chosen were completely wrong for these conditions. (to put things into perspective, you could have easily made your time in a pick up truck with decent tires - that's how ugly it was in the Porsche)
I knew that we had lost our overall lead and would probably drop down the order pretty quickly. We had to make a decision: Try to minimize our penalty time and risk a big incident or back off and preserve the car for another day. My goal for the week was to win. If you are not first, you are last. Maybe a bad attitude but that is the way I feel about Targa. Since we would no longer be able to win I decided to back off and preserve the car. We took 56 seconds in penalties on this stage and dropped down the order. Our hope for a win was now washed away.
The third stage of the day was Osprey trail. This is a high speed bumpy stage that is nasty even in the dry. The crew pumped the tires up to 50psig to see if it would help reduce the hydroplaning. It helped cut the water a bit but the tires were now so hard that the car was bouncing all over the stage. We took it easy and finished the stage taking further time.
The transit up to Harbour Grace was probably the most dangerous thing I have ever done in a car. There was so much water on the pavement that I struggled to keep the car on the road. Our top speed was around 90kph and we could not even keep up with our support vehicles. At one point I decided to park the car and put it on the trailer. This transit was just not worth the risk. However, Andy was up for a gold plate this year so we kept going to ensure that he would receive this great acheivement (and "highly" valuable award)
When we arrived in Harbour Grace, the stage had been cancelled due to flooding. Many places on the stage were under water. We transitted through the stage and this gave me a chance to check the grip levels at low speed. It was fine. So long as I stayed below 100kph the car accelerated, cornered and braked as well as it had on Monday. This gave me some confidence for Brigus.
The first Brigus stage was also cancelled but the second run through Brigus was a go. We had a great run, I kept it conservative to ensure we finished but the car performed flawlessly. We even got to lightly jump the Brigus Bridge. (without damaging the car)
Marysvale and CBS were also ugly stages. These were higher speed runs that would cause the car to hydroplane and we just cruised to the finish.
| To finish off our ugly Friday, we had a very close encounter with a moose in the final corner of the final stage, Marine Drive. Coming around the second last corner I could see the faces of some of the spectators. I knew from the look on their face that something was wrong but I couldn't see any crashed cars. That is when I saw the moose coming across the road. When he heard the car he started moving quicker and luckily lost his footing and fell down. I missed him by less than a foot. If the moose hadn't fallen, we would have hit him. Luckily the moose had less traction in the wet than the Porsche. |
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More to come.
Final Results
| Overall | Team | Car | Class | Country | |
