|
 I am the fortunate owner of a 1980 Euro 928S. I found my car in 1989, when seeking a high performance car that could be used for long distance commuting. I searched the various newspapers in the New England area, locating 3 cars that intrigued me enough to visit. The car I selected had been restored by Bill Pfister (at the time with EPE of Natick, MA). While I was very pleased with the "like new" appearance of the car, I was even happier that I had stumbled into a grey market car which meant 25% more horsepower. I drove the car as my primary vehicle for the summer. but was fortunate enough to be able to keep a commuter car for bad weather and all winter use. During my years of ownership, the 928S has evolved into a "just for fun" car. In 1999 I took the Skip Barber Racing School at Lime Rock, as well as two additional lapping days in their Formula Dodges. I had waited until my children were both out of high school before checking to see if I still had "racing fever". There really was never any doubt.... After completing the school, I started investigating my options on what type of racing I could be involved. I considered Skip Barber Racing and Formula Ford initially, but thought there might be value in BMW or Porsche club racing, as I already owned one of each, and the "driving schools" in both clubs was a way to learn and practice. I attended a CT Valley BMW CCA driver's school at Lime Rock in October of 1999 in my '96 M3. As expected, I became almost hopelessly addicted at this point. I quickly becamse aware that I am alloweded drive a Porsche in any BMW club event, but frequently Porsche clubs will not allow non-Porsche's to participate in their events. I decided to see if I could sell the 928 (asking price was $12,500), and if so, I would buy a Porsche better suited for track/race use (such as a 944TS). As I expected, the 928 didn't attract any real interest. In the meantime David Lloyd was "encouraging" me to track and race the 928. David is very enthuseastic about 928s, and I decided to see how much fun I could have with the 928 and the M3 at the track. My intent was to evaluate whether either could be a good track/race car for me. I divested myself of my '99 Yamaha R1, to provide funding for mods to both cars, and on a little shopping spree I went! The 928 has since received the following improvements:
I then accumulated 20 tracks days in my first 18 months of my "awakening", nearly evenly divided between the two cars. While I know it is frowned upon by many 928 owners, I did purchase a used Trailex car trailer, and do tow my 928 to the track. However, in my best defense, my car is still "street legal" and will continue to be used on the street for fun. My goal is to enjoy the car, try and keep it as affordable as possible, and have the car upgraded in such a fashion that I can race in a stock class in PCA Club Racing. On September 5th, I had the 928S dynotuned. I went expecting to be disappointed with the results. I expected that being 20 years old the engine would be "tired". The 1980 928S specifications (from 928gt.com's website) are 300 horsepower and 263 pounds torque. I was very pleasantly surprised to have the first run show 248 horsepower and 258 pounds torque. Mike who was doing the testing, said he shut down earlier than expected because my tach appeared to be off, but he said the motor was still increasing in power and torque when he did so. I expected the air fuel ratio to be lean, and testing did show it to be 16.n:1. Mike decreased it to 14:1 and another dyno run showed this to give some improvement. Since there isn't much to "play' with on this year/model 928, the only other change we could try was to increase timing. I had recently set timing to 30' at 3000 rpm, so Mike set it to 33' and did another run on the dyno. While the change was negligable, Mike suggested that throttle response felt quicker and suggested I leave it at 33'. The dyno first and last run are here. I am now actively preparing the 928 to race, and hope the CVR PCA race will be my first! I also have a 1987 Jeep Wrangler |
