As some of you already know, I bought a 944 Spec racer and this weekend is my first track day / school with the new car. I’ve spent the last few weeks looking for enclosed trailers to replace my (too small) rig that I use to get my race bikes to the track…but I haven’t had much luck. So I went with Plan B and reserved a U Haul car trailer. I was somewhat surprised when I arrived not to find the shiny, aluminum beauty on the website, but a battered and rusty, blaze orange steel version. Oh well not to worry, it should get the job done.

So after hooking up the F-250 and towing it home, I was eager to get the car loaded. I started by raising the front of the trailer using the jack (while still attached to the truck), raised the ramps with some strategically placed 2x6’s and went for it. I was amazed that the front splitter cleared and upon getting about halfway up the ramps, I thought I had it made! However the racing gods were not yet finished with me as I heard a scraping sound coming from beneath my seat….the rocker panels were hitting the apex of the trailer.

Now, it IS a race car so it IS low, so I did expect there to be some adjusting involved. First I tried raising the front wheels by adding some more 2x6’s up front. That got us close, but not close enough. Then I tried raising the ramps further, but that resulted in the front splitter not making the initial climb….(some ramps might have come in handy here). So, off to Home depot for some more wood.

After about 3 hours of loading attempts, it did seem we were getting very close but still the scraping issue was the problem- the seat rails are bolted through the floor pan and the bolts were sticking through just enough to interfere. On or about the 50th attempt, some combination of Machiavellian forces caused the wood holding up the driver’s side ramp at the bottom to shoot out. Now with the front wheels on the trailer proper and the rear wheels halfway up the ramp (but not yet to the point were the chassis scrapes, we were stuck. We could not go forward for fear of scraping the chassis, and we could not go backwards because the front splitter would be ripped off at the bottom.

So there I sat, ensconced in my beautiful Sparco seat, sweating in utter dejection, and admiring the look on my new wife’s rust smeared hands and face (I can’t count how many times she reset those ramps to save me from crawling out the window of the car for the millionth time), and contemplating my next move. I suddenly came to the conclusion…..the Jack! Yes! So I proceeded to jack up the ramps one at a time, place even MORE wood beneath them, and voila! The magical combination of wood chunks, old shelves pulled from our garage cabinets, and plywood and we were able to get the car flat on the trailer! Well, flat is a relative term considering these U-hauls are quite canted forward with the weight of the car mostly on the front axle….but to hell with that- we are LOADED baby!

I then set about happily disassembling my tool box so I could stuff it into the passenger compartment of the truck. Needless to say I have decided the U-haul open trailering business is not for me. I will be resuming my search for an enclosed starting Monday.

After the ordeal of getting the car loaded, I felt so victorious that I nearly forgot that I will be unloading alone….so I have decided to get there early and find the loneliest part of the paddock where I can carry out my shenanigans out of sight of the rest of the experienced racers and DE drivers.

Hopefully I can get this done without too much damage so I can get on to the business of the weekend…learning to drive this thing!

To Be continued…….

LOL. Just back it off really fast.
Good luck!

Hey, did you plagiarize my story? I went through almost the exact same thing. I bought my own open trailer and went through many different home built ramp solutions until I found a place that sells aluminum ramps for a good price. Now I have an enclosed trailer that doubles as a camper and is the way to go if you have the room to park it.

What I'm sure you've learned this weekend is that at most tracks thee will be tons of helpful people that will help get the car on and off the trailer and most will have a version of their own trailer loading story.

Part II. The track!

The trip to the track was surprisingly drama free, and I was very excited to drive the car for the first time. FARA started me out in Novice Solo, which turned out to be just fine for me. I was alone pretty much the whole session, and was really able to concentrate on learning how to drive the 944. I was impressed with the car- it feels tight and with the manual steering rack, Koni’s and turbo sway bars, has a great feel. It feels like what I always imagined a race car would feel like. It’s also got a great sound (cat delete and Magnaflow muffler) which combined for a very visceral experience. I noticed pretty early while braking hard, the steering wheel had better be straight ahead or the rear is going to come around. Any trail braking to speak of and it wants to swap ends….so instead I focused on turning in with the maximum corner speed that the front tires would allow, and getting back on the gas ASAP for maximum exit drive, which I thought would be the best strategy to get the most out of a “momentum” car. I even had a few slides (oversteer) which brought some laughs and big smiles.

The second session was more of the same, but ended with a bang- I was coming through high speed turn 10 when I heard a loud bang, some popping and grinding noises, and some other extremely loud and disconcerting sounds. Convinced I had suffered some type of mechanical failure, I pulled off the side of the track and waited in the car like I had been instructed. I was really heartbroken here, since I’d only done two sessions and broken the car, in what seemed like a bad way. So there I was, once again, ensconced in my beautiful cockpit and sweating in utter dejection at my fate. At this moment I looked up in my rear view to see a Mustang sliding sideways towards me at about 80 MPH. Holy Crap! If this thing will start and move, I don’t care if it’s on fire, I’m getting the hell out of this impact zone. The car did start, and very loudly moved, so I made it back carefully to pit in. The grid marshal told me some parts were hanging down, which turned out to be a broken exhaust…..much better than the complete destruction that I had envisioned. Turns out the collector broke just below the header. Surprisingly, the exhaust was not supported anywhere underneath the car except for the rubber hanger behind the muffler.

With not many repair options available at the track, and two days pre-paid for, I consulted with a few mechanics and came to the conclusion that running the car without the exhaust *probably* wouldn’t hurt anything, so off it came. For my last session of the day, the instructor came along and despite the insane amount of noise and vibration, I had a good session.

On Sunday, the instructor took the wheel and for a few laps, really got my blood pressure up! It was great to see what the car would do, which was 2 full seconds faster than my best time from the day before. After this session, the instructor commented that I have a brake bias issue- as the rears heat up they are giving progressively more braking than the fronts which is why the car wants to swap ends when trailing it in. Not sure but I think the reason is pads- not sure what they are, previous owner can’t remember, but they are definitely different. Anyway the car is spec legal so there is no brake bias adjustment.

Also based on my instructors advice, I started driving the corner entries much differently. Making a much quicker turn in while the weight is still on the front wheels (i.e. before letting off the brakes completely) and allowing the car to rotate before picking up the gas. This, combined with the later turn in point that all of the normal car drivers use (i.e.NOT the motorcycle line) allowed me to move my brake markers in quite a bit. Before, I was finishing the braking and turning in as quickly as possible without scrubbing the front tires. Now, I would pitch it in more quickly while the front was still loaded somewhat, and catch the rotation by picking up the throttle. This was fun and I got down to within a second of the instructor’s time, so it was nice to know I was in the ball park, even if I did sound like a squadron of low flying WWII bombers My last session was a bust, at some point the car threw the alternator belt so there was no juice to keep the car running. Thank god people were available to push the car onto the trailer!

All in all, it was a great experience. Car control is a real art, making the car do what you want and finding the fastest way around the track requires some different actions than what I’m used to racing bikes. The dynamics of the car are very interesting and although I’ve read about the different techniques, putting them into use was a real challenge. Needless to say I’ll be back, as soon as I find some brake pads, belts, a floor jack, and some exhaust parts……

So you discovered the infamous rear brake problems with the 944! Different compounds front and rear help, along with slotting the rear pads. That's what I do.

Thanks. I'm trying to figure out what brand / type of pads are on the rear so I can get something more aggressive for the front.

I also need to find an exhaust collector. The part between the header and the cat.

Here's a video of my fast lap from Sunday.....LOUD!