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Competition Setup

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From: jack frost;  jfrost@jackfrost.com; I installed a full flow oil filter, cooler, plus an electric accusump in my 1966 912.  I installed a 22 row, high quality oil cooler under the front left (opposite 911) wheel well.  Originally I chose an EMPI cooler, but they are junk and it fell apart before I completed the installation. Porterfield (Costa Mesa, CA) has high quality oil coolers for about $160, in addition to very good break pads.  A simple home made bracket is all that is needed to mount the cooler.  I used 1.5" aluminum angle stock.   I also covered the cooler with stainless steel mesh (about 10 to the inch) to protect the cooler from tire and road Debra.
I plumbed everything with AN-10 hose.  Not cheap. about $450 to $600.
Since my 912 is a race car I chose to run the hose via the heater ducts to the inside of the front trunk.  I have a fuel cell so I was able to remove the insides of the fuel filler cap and route the hose from the
inside the trunk to the wheel well, without any new holes.
I used a oil temperature thermostat to prevent the oil flow to the cooler until after the engine is warmed up.  A reasonable price is about $80.  I would not recommend the factory one at $400+++ dollars, just
because it isn't necessary.
I used a 2 quart, electric Accusump.  This item is really essential for any spirited driving.  Unlike the manual version you don't have to remember to turn it on and off and you can mount it in the most convenient space.  I chose the wall in back of the motor.  Its readily accessible, visible and does not interfere with anything.   Price about $240 (Racer Wholesale).
I use a Fram HP1 filter and adapter.  About $40 total.
With this system at willow springs on a 110 degree day, tires melting, over 10 laps and the oil never got above "normal" operating temperature.

From: Dick & Flo;  snyderrh@bright.net; Andy:
There a couple of things that could prevent you from getting top performance from your " big bore " 1720cc engine:  1) Have you set the static timing on the 050 at about 5 degrees BTDC?  This is necessary since the manual says set the stock 22 or 3l distributor static at 3 degrees BTDC and that setting will not give you full performance with the 050.  If you have a strobe light timing device you should set the dynamic timing at 35 degrees BTDC at > 3000 rpm.  2) For your application i.e. high speed rally, I recommend removing the Webers and puting original equipment Solexs on.  Solexs give you more high end power than Webers and this is probably what Zasada used on the car originally.  Also install a Permatune CD unit.  It will give a hotter spark and more high end power.  Hope this info helps.  Dick Snyder 1969 912

From: Jim Cole;  jecole@home.com; Andy, Good Luck on the rally!  I'm sure we're all pulling for you!
I can't help on the specs and can't even remember the jet settings in my solexes but some of the easy things you might have a look at:
It is easy to change valve size.  Pop the heads and take em to a local shop and have 40mm Datsun 240 intake valves put in them, then polish and match the ports and intake manifolds (don't hog them out just clean em up).
Then make sure your venturies in the webers are 32mm or 34mm.  The webers might have come with 30 or even 29mm vents and that is where your top end is missing.
Also, use 2"-3" velocity stacks with 4"-6" K&N air cleaners.
Combined, these will bring you up to the 6500rpm range and give you around 120hp.   You will need main jets around 130 and air correctors around 180.
Replace the seats with one light glass or aluminum seat (80lbs)
Remove the back seats and interior (40lbs)
Change from a glass rear and side windows to lexan (50lbs) (do not replace the wind sheild)
That's the easy stuff that you can get done in three weeks.  I've done all this and every step helps considerably.
Good luck again!
Jim Cole
69 912 2.4

From: Andy Daniels; ADanbeech@aol.com; I bought a '66 912 in the US back in the summer and shipped it here to the UK.  I am currently in the process of preparing it to run in the historic winter challenge to Monte Carlo (London - Monte Carlo as done in the '60's).  The car is fantastic and almost done but I thought I'd check to see if you could provide the spec of the 912 used by Zasada, or tell me where I might find it?
How much of the car was standard and what modifications were done to uprate it would be really useful.  Specifically, did he run with Solex or Webers?  Original Boge or Koni shocks etc. etc.
Many thanks for all your help
Andy Daniels

From: Ricardo R. Floirendo; rrf@skyinet.net; Dear Sir, Attached is a photo of my 1968 912 which I race during our Vintage Racing meets of the Manila Sports Car Club at Subic raceway Philippines. Modifications are Big Bore Kit, Twin Weber 40's, Weltmiester short shift, Recaro Seats. For the future I will be installing sway bar kits. Regards, Ricardo R. Floirendo

From: Rich Lambert; red912@acmenet.com; While setting up the braking system on my '68 912 vintage racer I stayed, for the most part, with stock components. The only non-stock items I used were stainless steel brake lines, Ate Blue brake fluid, and Repco-Metal Master pads. The solid rotors and iron calipers are plenty strong enough for the 912's weight, even in at racing speeds and I doubt vented and/or cross drilled rotors and alloy calipers are vintage legal.
When I did the brakes I used a new dual circuit master cylinder, new reservoir and rubber lines, rebuilt the calipers (do NOT split the calipers, you'll never find the little rubber washers), rebuilt and honed the brake cylinders, removed the backing plates, had the rotors turned, and cleaned everything. In three years I never noticed any brake fade during races.
Rich Lambert

From: Jim Ralston; KBR264@worldnet.att.net; I purchased the spacers, bolts, pins, seals and venter rotors from Porsche for a '67 911S and set my brakes up that way. Use Porterfield race pads and Motol fluid, have not added any ducting . The brakes have held up this way even running a 2hr endro last year. Jim Ralston 912 (built dec' 67) '68 model

From: Oslund, Greg/SAC; goslund@CH2M.com; Attached [following] is an easy and accurate home method to measure toe-in.

Several months ago I noticed that when cornering, if I hit a bump, the steering wheel would tug to the side. Also, it occasionally sounded like something was loose up front and it was clear that one of the dust boots was torn on the tie-rod ends. I decided that the tie-rod ends must not last much longer than 30 years and it was time to replace them. I had never done this before, but it looked easy enough. My only concern was adjusting the toe-in after I was done. Recently, I found an Internet post by Mike Piera that described a home alignment method developed by Pete Albrecht and it looked promising. Once I understood the method, I was confident that it would work. Before I replaced the tie-rod ends, I used the method to determine the existing toe-in setting as a baseline. Then, I replaced the ends and reset the toe-in to the specified setting. Based on my observations, I made some refinements to the method and took a stab at identifying the likely precision of the method. The method is shown below:

Step 1 Drive the car to settle the suspension and park on a reasonably level surface like the typical garage floor (2% slope is not a problem). Point front wheels straight ahead.

Step 2 Drop a plumb line tangent with the front of the front tire to locate the farthest point forward on the tire. Insert a thumbtack at this point more or less in the center of the tread width. Repeat this for the other tire.

Step 3 Measure the height to the thumbtack from the floor and mark this height on the trailing edge of the tire. Measure and record the outside diameter, d, of the tire between the tack and the mark on the trailing edge.

Step 4 Drop a plumb line from each tack at the point where it exits the tire. Let the bob settle and make an X on the floor.

Step 5 Roll the car straight back until the tacks are at the trailing edge of the tire (1/2 rotation). You can confirm this by measuring up from the floor the same distance as when the tacks were up front. If you’re off a little, it will not significantly affect accuracy.

Step 6 Drop a plumb line from each tack and make an X on the floor.

Step 7 Remove the tacks and roll the car out of the way.

Step 8 Measure and record the width between the first two marks (w₁) and the width between the second marks (w₂). If the measurements are the same, then you have 0° toe. If the rear width is greater than the front, then you have toe in. To calculate the angle of toe, use the following formula:

s = tan^-1 ((w₂-w₁)/2d)

The inverse tangent, or tan^-1, can be calculated using a scientific calculator.

Example: You measure the width between the front marks (w₁) at 55 1/16", width between rear marks (w₂) is 55 3/8", and the tire diameter (d) is 24 ½". This indicates that the wheels are toe-in and the angle is:

s = tan^-1 ((55 3/8"-55 1/16")/(2*24 ½")

   = tan^-1 (0.3125"/49")

   = 0.37° or 22 minutes

Finally, let’s discuss the required precision of your measurements; first the measurement of tire diameter. You’ll take this across the tire, which has rounded edges, so you’ll be projecting the true diameter to the measuring tape by sight. This is an opportunity for error, but luckily an error here won’t significantly affect the final result. For example, if I was a whopping ½" off on the diameter say I mis-measured it at 24", substituting in the above example only changes the result by about 0.008° (0.5 minutes). So, don’t stress the diameter measurement. In fact, since we have so much room for error here we can develop another formula that drops the need for the tan^-1:
s = tan^-1 ((w₂-w₁)/2d)
   = (w₂-w₁) tan^-1 (1/2d)

Since tan^-1 (1/2d) is approximately linear over a limited range of d, then we can substitute the following: s  = (w₂-w₁) x (2.338-0.048d)

Again, plugging in the measurements from the example we get:
s = (0.3125") x (2.338-0.048(24.5"))
   = 0.3125" x 1.1620"
   = 0.36° or 22 minutes

From: Joe Russo; jarusso@CCGATE.HAC.COM; Rick, When I took ownership of my 912 it already had a 1720 kit, reground cam and Weber carbs, so it was already "hotter than stock." Since then, I have concentrated on trying to make it breathe easier and burn better. I added K&N filters, a Crane CD ignition and a Bursche exhaust.
The CD ignition made a huge difference in all aspects of the engine's performance. It starts easier, idles smoother, revs better, and makes more power all around. Also, this type of ignition seems to compensate for a lot of carburetor adjustment problems. I use the Crane version rather than the MSD-6 (the Crane is a little less expensive and comes with a built-in adjustable rev limiter,) but tests in Grassroots Motorsports magazine showed them both to produce similar performance gains. Whichever you prefer, I would definitely recommend this upgrade to all owners.
Also, having the carb linkages rebuilt so that they worked correctly made a HUGE   difference. Balancing the carbs is a wasted effort if the ball joints in the linkages are so worn and sloppy that the throttles don't open evenly.
Finally, just this past weekend I replaced the old Bursche 1 1/2" exhaust system (with heat exchangers) with a brand new Bursche 1 5/8" to 1 3/4" "stepped" system (with all elements of the heater system tossed in the trash). Although I haven't been on the track with the new system yet, I did blast up and down my block (much to the neighbors' dismay) and it revs noticeably more freely. Of course, I don't ever run a muffler, which also greatly helps the engine's breathing. If anyone's interested, this exhaust was purchased from Vic Skirmants' 356 Enterprises and is made by Bursche just for him.
Someday I'll have the money to have the heads done, etc...   Regards, Joe Russo

From: red912@acmenet.com; Hi Rick, Without a doubt, the most significant improvement [engine] was to have the heads rebuilt and modified using a flow bench. The intake manifolds were also matched to the heads. The last time I tore down the engine the only things I did were to replace the rings and have the heads done. This netted me four seconds a lap in my '68 912 vintage race car. Rich

From: Joe Russo c/o Ashley L Raiteri; ashley@vision-forge.com; Regarding the discussion of increasing tire width on 912s, I'm coming into the middle of this discussion, but hope that my experience with wider-than-stock wheel/tire combos will be helpful to someone out there.  Like Rich Lambert I run 205-60-15s and have never had a problem with rubbing. On the street, although the car is not being street driven at the moment, I was using the aforementioned size on 5.5"x15" steel wheels. I then purchased a set of 6" and 7" x15" cookie cutters to be used as my race wheels. With 205-60-15 R1s on all four wheels I still have no problems with rubbing, even in the rear, and the extra inch of wheel width in the rear should be of benefit to me on the track.  Joe Russo (from my freind's computer, so this isn't my real email address) Ashley Raiteri

From: Rich Lambert; red912@acmenet.com; (Repost w/ RL OK); Subject: Re: 912 Wheels and Tires; If you want to go to a wider tire, get some of the wheel spacers that the '68's came with.  Porsche added the spacers in 1968 to accommodate the 15"x 5.5" wheels, compared to the 15"x 4.5"   wheels of previous years. With the spacers you should be able to run 195-60 tires. On my lowered  '68 912 I have 205-60 R1's on 15"x 6" Fuchs and no clearance problems. Not all 912's are created equally though and some SWB cars can't fit 205's without rubbing........Rich Lambert

From: Rich Lambert; red912@acmenet.com; Over the past two years I've tried a couple of different suspension set-ups on my '68 912 vintage race car. The first was new Boge shocks, a stock front sway bar, no rear sway bar, poly-graphite bushings, and slightly larger front and rear torsion bars (which should be included in any 912 suspension discussion). I was also running 195/60 Yokohama A008R's on 15x5.5 steel rims. This was a vast improvement over the stock set-up, however, I was experiencing the inside front tire lifting in corners. To try to counter this condition I installed this really trick adjustable front sway bar, it's a 19mm Weltweister bar with adjustable H & H levers and adjustable down links, and a shock tower brace. I also took the 15x6 Fuchs off my '73 911, shod them with new 205/60 BFG Comp TA R1's, and put them on the 912. This took about three seconds off my lap times, but I was still getting the tire lift. I queried the Porschefans e-mail list for advice and was told I needed a big rear sway bar. Bruce Anderson was one of the people who answered and was the only one who said that for some reason rear sway bars don't work well on SWB cars and I should go with bigger (26mm) rear torsion bars instead. I weighed the alternatives: one hour to bolt on the sway bar or days of dismantling my entire rear suspension and plunging into 'leveling the car' hell again with non-adjustable spring plates, and then another $140 race alignment. Needless to say I ignored the advice of one of the worlds most eminent Porsche experts and bought a 22mm Weltmeister rear sway bar...it didn't do any good at all, it sure looked cool though. This is where I am at present. This spring I'm going to rebuild the whole suspension, adding 26mm "Turbo" rear torsion bars (the 22mm sway bar is going on the LWB 911) and some adjustable spring plates. I'll keep you posted as to the results. Rich Lambert

From: Eric Nichols; Eric_Nichols@email.msn.com; I have successfully autocrossed and time trialed my 1967 912 for ten years, and feel that most performance gains have been due to suspension/handling improvements. My setup includes:
24.1 mm rear torsion bars (from later model 911)
21 mm front torsion bars (Weltmeister)
18 mm rear sway bar (from later model 911)
16 (17?) mm front sway bar (Weltmeister)
Weltmeister (non-competition) plastic spring plate bushings
New factory suspension bushings everywhere else
Koni hydraulic adjustable shocks
Weltmeister shock tower brace (trimmed to clear hood)
Turbo tie rods (custom length)
Steering rack spacers (for bump steer correction)
Suspension lowered and corner-balanced
Suspension realigned to -1 deg front camber, ~0 toe, maximum caster, -2.5 deg
rear camber.
911 front transmission mount (less bounce and flex + much lighter)
Race tires and wheels are 6" Fuchs with 205/50-15 BFG R1's
This torsion bar combination preserves the same front-to-rear roll stiffness balance as the stock setup, only with much greater overall roll stiffness (and a very firm ride).

For street use, I substitute 185/70 VR 15 Yoko A321vr tires on 4.5" (yep, 4.5") Fuchs alloys. This gives a much more pleasant ride, taller gearing and higher ground clearance for street use. I've also been known to disconnect both swaybars for a more supple ride on long trips. Eric Nichols, Crockett, CA

The other measurement, the width between the tacks, is taken between two distinct marks accurately transferred to the floor using the plumb bob. If you are careful with this measurement, you shouldn’t be off by more than 1/8". Substituting this error into the above example changes the final result by 0.14° (8.5 minutes), which in my judgement is still acceptable. To minimize error you should hang the plumb bob over each of the tacks the same way when transferring the marks to the floor. Let the plumb bob settle down before making the mark on the floor. Take duplicate readings to assure repeatability. Use the same tape measure for all measurements. Start the measurement at the 2" mark, so you don’t rely on the tape-end, which has play in it. If you do the very best you can, you should be able to achieve acceptable accuracy.

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