You can argue track versus autocross until you're blue in the face but the reality is that there's nothing like an autocross to safely explore the limits of your car. With so many direction changes in such a short time and a variety of surface conditions (undulations, bumps, etc), you can really put your car and your driving through its paces. Needless to say, I felt that the best way for me to understand how the 911SC feels at the limit and to make sure everything is good before going in for paint would be to take her to an autocross, and today was the perfect day for it.
NNJR SCCA Autocross - 9-6-2020
My main goal was to find out if I have any clearance issues. I had previously hit the fender pretty badly with my front right tire due to low ride height and I wasn't completely sure if the slight roll we did a few weeks ago would be enough. My second goal was to get a feel for the dynamics of the car under threshold braking and in quick transitions. On my first run, I took it a little easy, trying to pay attention to everything I was hearing and feeling in the car. Although the run was slow I was relieved to find no issues with tire clearance. I was also surprised at how fairly well balanced she was. It wasn't nearly as tail-happy under braking or when lifting throttle as I was expecting and the diff was working well to put the power down with the limiting factor being the tires.
NNJR SCCA Autocross - 9-6-2020
On my next run, I was feeling more confident to really attack the corners and was finding better pace but in the final 180 towards the finish, I suddenly lost all throttle. It didn't seem like an engine issue, just that the pedal wasn't doing anything. I figured a throttle linkage came loose and after getting back in grid, sure enough, the accelerator rod ball end had popped out of the pedal. Seemed like an easy enough fix to just pop it back in. On my next run it happened again after a bump. It seems that the socket on the plastic accelerator pedal had worn to the point of not being snug enough to hold the ball in under more extreme conditions.
Accelerator rod ball end disconnected from the pedal
Socket on the pedal is a bit loose
A quick search of the issue indicated that this is common and the accelerator pedal is considered a wear item on raced 911s and people replace it every other year...yikes! Considering this is the original pedal from 37 years ago, I guess it makes sense that it eventually failed. For street driving, this probably would've just stayed in there forever but when pushed harder, it simply wouldn't hold up. I've since purchased something to fix this correctly rather than just replace it with another pedal with the exact same design Achilles heel. It blows my mind that such an important part of the car just relies on the friction of a metal ball inside a plastic socket to hold it all together.
This issue aside, I was really enjoying driving her. On the upside, this issue is pretty minor and the car otherwise was working really well. I think I'm going to change out the torsion bars to improve rotation a little and reduce the body roll a little. She's certainly not as fast as my other cars but it felt quite rewarding to gain that confidence to push this car in the corners in the few runs I got before I called it quits.
Setup Notes:
Dampers: middle all around
Front pressures: 32psi
Rear pressures: 35psi
