Garage Build - New Openers

I got to spend a little bit of time in the garage today trying to inch this project forward while I select an appropriate contractor and architect. This is not going to be fancy garage. At best it'll be a nice garage to spend time in. First up was to get rid of the old garage door openers. Having loved the Chamberlain belt drive smart garage openers at the other garage for a few years, I figured I'd do the same here except with their 1.25HP version and bright LED lighting. The extra bit of power will come in handy in the future when the doors get upgraded. With limited space, I wanted make sure things had as much dual purpose as possible. The 4 sets of LED lights between the two garage opener units provide more than enough light to fill the space. Big thanks to Glen at Precision Overhead Garage Door for making quick work out of this. 

Chamberlain B1381T Smart Garage Door Openers

On top of the convenience of being able to remotely open/close the door from anywhere I have Internet and having quiet operation, the most important reason why I like smart openers is I can immediately tell if the garage is open or not rather than second guess if I forgot to close it after leaving. The previous owner installed a pair of hanging light fixtures because the old garage door openers were woefully inadequate for illumination. Moving them back a few feet now gives me more even light distribution. I think I just need to add a pair of lights closer to where the doors are to give me complete coverage when all the doors are down. I have a few ideas but I'll wait until the electrical work is done. 

Much better light coverage now

Of course, you know I wouldn't put my cars in a garage without adequate surveillance. A few strategically placed cameras now give me all the coverage I need. Let's be real though, these are more for me to look at the cars than any real safety concerns I have. 

Wyze V3 camera for this angle

Unfortunately that's all I really had time for. I know this one's going to be another "patience needed" projects so for now I'm just doing what I can to make it minimally functional.

Electric AC - The End of The Build

I remember it distinctly, December 7, 2019. I flew down to South Carolina to pick up the 911 SC that I'd name Scarlett as a very early 40th birthday present for myself. I had a rather ambitious build sheet at the time but as with all restomod projects, scope creep happened, mostly due to my desire to upgrade things that we felt were in a questionable or broken state. Add onto that a global pandemic and here we are about 1.5 years later seeing the conclusion to the build, quite ironically, with the car now parked in my new project, the permanent Steguis Motorsports garage along with its garage build (we'll save that build for later). 

Scarlett in the "new garage" 
Yes, that's the original factory seat turned "shop chair"

For the past two weeks, the car's been with the good folks at Speedsport Tuning getting the Classic Retrofit Electric AC installed. I had always planned for this from the start which is why I had the Classic Retrofit (by WOSP performance) high output alternator and starter installed last year. Over the winter, they only had one kit left before they went away for Christmas Holiday so I had to place the order. The kit consists of an Electric AC compressor that tucks in nicely in the smuggler's box in the frunk that's is controlled by a control unit located in the same assembly.

Classic Retrofit electric AC compressor 
and control unit

Unlike the factory condenser setup which has one sitting under the front bumper and another under the rear decklid, they have you put the AC condenser behind the bumper driver side just in front of the wheel well. This is actually where the factory washer fluid tank sits so I had the body shop delete it when they were working on the car. Let's face it, I wasn't going to use that anyway so it was just taking up space and adding weight. 

New AC condenser and fan

On a lowered car such as mine you can see that it's pretty close tolerance to the tires but clears just fine.

Tire clearance to condenser

Then all the fan and AC ducting gets replaced with a new blower unit that thankfully uses all the vents for AC and not just the small center ones. I even got an Achtungkraft Under Dash Duct that redirects those lower ducts towards the driver and passenger seats rather than just straight down. it's quite effective at ending some cooling to your nether regions. 

New blower and ducting installed

Finally, a switch needs to be added to turn the AC on as the factory AC controls no longer work. It's a bit weird to think that this unit is just on or off and can't be adjusted (without reprogramming the control unit) but as anyone with an aircooled Porsche can attest, if it's hot enough to want to turn the AC on, you want it at full blast anyway. These cars have poor insulation and the glass predates any factory UV protection coating so you're driving around in a mobile glasshouse if it's sunny out. There's a really sweet, unused button slot right next to the steering column that's perfect for it. So you simply turn the AC on and then slide the fan control to the desired fan speed on the blower and you're done. 

Power button for AC

It was fairly warm today, around 85F and even after baking in the sun for a bit, the AC at full blast was able to get the cabin to a comfortable temperature. I wouldn't call it ice cold but definitely comfortable enough to drive in clothes you'd wear during summer anyway. With the compressor and blower up front, you definitely hear a bit of an electrical whine when it's on but it's really no big deal if the alternative is to not drive it at all simply because it's too hot out and you don't want swamp ass all over your custom seats. 

Factory AC removed and Achtungkraft cosmetic goodies added

One of the best things about converting to electric AC is finally ditching that big heavy compressor that sat way rear of the engine and also losing the AC condenser on the decklid blocking some of the much needed engine cooling. I had a custom fan strap made by Achtungkraft along with their CIS intake cover with brass grill to dress up the engine a bit now that you can see it in all its glory. In case you've forgotten here's some photos of the full stock and pre-eletric AC install with dressup to see how far it's come.

Bone stock with AC, factory heating and CIS

Switch to SSI exhaust, backdated heating, cruise control
removal, EFI conversion, factory AC and intake cover

You can see how much less cluttered it is now and as you can probably guess, the car's lost some weight and shifted some of the rear mass forward now that the AC compressor and the rear bumperettes are gone.

Weight with 20 gallons of fuel, roll bar, no driver - 2685lbs

With all this electrical load on the car, I wanted to keep a closer eye on the voltage and the alternator health so I purchased a VDO voltmeter to match the rest of the VDO gauges in the car and had it installed in the center console cubby under the now just decorative AC controls.

Voltmeter installed showing a healthy alternator voltage

Really loving this interior, makes driving so enjoyable...
and functional!

Finally, for my own satisfaction, while still in my 40th year just a few weeks shy of my 41st birthday I can finally say the build sheet is all green. There are no items left planned, purchased, but not installed. 

All green build sheet - We're Done!
May 27, 2021

This doesn't mean I'll never touch this car again and maybe make minor improvements over time but really the full scope of what I envisioned for this car when I first bought it has now been realized. I really want to thank everyone that's helped me make my vision reality; Speedsport Tuning, K2 Auto Body, GTS Classic, SJF Performance, even forum members on Pelican that helped provide some much needed info when I was in a bind. Thank you!

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 168,407

- 11 quarts of Driven DT-50 oil

- New oil filter

Kay - Autocross with MSNE

As fun as it's been codriving with Rad the past few events, I was itching to take one of my own cars out. An autocross with MSNE is a perfect event for that since I don't really care about classing so I took Kay out for her first event this year. 

MSNE Autocross - Meadowlands, NJ - 5-16-2021

I have to say it was slightly weird getting back in it. I forgot what tire pressures to run, I forgot to turn off PSM and turn on PASM my first run. I even forgot what rpm I typically start the car from haha. It was a fun, fast course and as much as PASM with the Bilstein Damptronics is very nice, they're just not really setup to handle the kinds of bumps and undulations in Lot J. Some early aggressive runs were not rewarded as I found myself mostly sideways as the bumps unsettled the car. If I got hard on the brakes at the wrong bumpy spot, I'd find myself almost instantly triggering ABS and blowing past the gate. 

MSNE - 5-16-2021

I think for me, the most noticeable difference getting back in the Cayman from the FRS besides the obvious torque advantage of the Cayman was the weight. The FRS is much more nimble in an autocross setting simply because it has less weight to throw around. Aside from hurting agility, that extra weight has seriously repercussions when you autocross on a non-flat surface where those sudden dips and bumps can really get the car unsettled. That being said, I really did miss and enjoy the mid-engine feel. Nothing quite like that feeling of the car rotating around you. I got plenty sideways and it was just so easy to catch, stay in it and recover. I'm sure it looked cool on the outside but that's rarely the fastest way around the course.

SCCA NJ Championship Tour 2021

The SCCA NJ Championship Tour came and went. While day 1 turned out to be a wash out that frankly took a lot of excitement away, day 2 turned out to be one of the best autocrosses I've had in recent memory frankly because it was such a fun course and the weather really cooperated.

Driving in a downpour - Day 1 - 5/8/2021
Photo by: Jacob Ronald

Day 1 was particularly stressful. Although there was rain in the forecast, I don't think most of us expected it to truly pour...which it did! We started our runs on steady but light rain. There was just enough water on the ground to lift up some of the surface oils make it extremely slick. I got in a decent time but coned away my first run. In run 2, I was expecting the same so I backed off a little to get a clean run which I did but it was significantly slower. However, I did feel there was more grip since the stronger rain had washed off a lot of the surface crud. For my final, I pushed as hard as I could but by that point, it was raining so hard there was standing water and little rivers everywhere and I ended the day a whopping 6 seconds out of the lead with really no hope for much improvement on day 2. At best day 1 was a great way to practice car control in slick conditions. 

Day 1 slick conditions

Day 2 on the other hand was bone dry. Temps were in the mid-50s and climbing quickly. This was particularly great because the course was awesome, starting off with a really nice fast section and just tightened up a little towards the finish. It tested everyone's ability to really be brave, stay in it and carry as much speed as possible. Despite coning away every single run, I found myself ending the event quite satisfied. We tried running even pressures all around this time when we typically run 1 psi lower in the rear and that really helped the car's balance. It was dancing much better now while still be very predictable and controllable at the limit. 

Day 2 was so much better - 5/9/2021
Photo by: Jacob Ronald

I really enjoyed this event despite the crazy day 1 situation. It was the most relaxed I've been to any national level event I've entered in a decade because I had no expectations going in. I had a ton of fun hooning it out there and seeing some folks I hadn't seen in over a year. For a brief moment, things felt...well, normal, and that was cool. Big thanks again to Rad for the codrive. I've really been enjoying driving the twin a recently and I totally understand why STX is such a popular class. 

Our fastest runs - SCCA NJ Champ Tour 2021

Not Slow, Not Fast Either

We're now only one week away until the SCCA NJ Championship Tour and we got blessed with some really nice weather (albeit a bit on the chilly side with the stiff winds). To try and inspire me to drive a little harder, I drove Bumblestook there, hoping maybe some of her aura would give me a little extra speed...It didn't :(

NNJR SCCA Autocross - 5-2-2021

One major change we made at this event was to stop spraying the tires. There seems to be mixed feelings about whether these tires need cooling or not but as Kenny Roller has been showing, they don't seem to drop off pace even after hot lapping so it made sense for us to give it a try. Sure enough, we got faster and the grip stayed quite good even as they heated up.

Fun times with the Tatis Motorspots FRS again

While I wasn't necessarily slow, I wasn't particular fast either. We finished 2nd and 3rd again just like last weekend and 9th and 15th in PAX respectively. At a NNJR event that's actually pretty good but it might not be enough to podium next weekend (for me at least). I'm definitely still a bit timid on my launches. I think I have a hard time accepting beating on a car that isn't mine. That's leaving a few tenths right off the line. There were also sections of the faster sweepers where the car could've taken a bit more throttle despite the tires starting to scream a little. I partly blame allergies from all the pollen flying around and dealing with the subtle effects of my 2nd vaccine shot yesterday but no excuses here, I left time on the table that I can't afford to do next week. We'll need to really have good plan in place to find that fast line early, drive with maximum aggression and make no mistakes. 

Our fastest runs - NNJR SCCA

STX Results