I had already floated this idea of allowing aftermarket wheels to all 15 or so racers in my region with positive feedback and have been working on this proposal since July. The few responses which were concerns were addressed to the satisfaction of those that were doubtful. The open wheel rule is used very successfully in every other Spec series in NASA with basically no controversy and for good reason. Everyone in the Southeast region has said to me on multiple occasions outside of talking about an aftermarket wheel that Cookie Cutters are getting increasingly hard to find in our areas. Several of these racers have also been doing this a few years longer than me to be an accurate judge. There is a supply problem in the Southeast region for cookie cutters. We are continuing to grow in both the Southeast and Mid-South regions and I want to ensure we set ourselves up for success in the future. What has always worked in the past may not be the best for the future.

1. Aesthetics: Phone dials are hideous. Unlucky for us, they are great supply and all late offset uses them. They look hideous and make our race cars look hideous in a paddock full of sporty cars which also use 15” wheels (SM/SE30). Looks are a big deal to new racers. Nobody wants to race a hideous car. Cookies are passable for 80s styling, and some think look good. Which is any the VW and 911 guys are buying them up for retro rigs. My main concern is the approved appearance which will yield more attention from new racers.

2. Safety: Many in more aggressive racing series consider wheels a consumable item. Lucky for us, our cars are fairly easy on consumables, which is why stock 30 year old wheels stand up to the test of racing as well as they do. But again, just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it’s a likely to happen in the future and to a growing percentage as the years pass. Again, used wheels we all source from junkyards and ebay are of unknown origin and are likely less than true to begin with.

3. Weight: Again, read my actual rule proposal. No wheels less than 15.0 pounds. Stock wheel weights are hard to determine now after 30 years of mounting, balancing, road grime, painting, etc. What is important is that when you talk in terms of three wheels we could use (Jongbloed Racing Wheels at 15 pounds 2 ounces, Cookies at 15 pounds 4 ounces, and Phonies at 15 pounds 6 ounces), 2 to 4 ounces are absolutely negligible in the race lengths we compete in. Your 100 mile bike ride is more like a 12 hour enduro (I ride bikes too) in the race car. There are 7,257 grams in a 16 pound road bike and 41,600 ounces in our 2600 pound race cars. This translates into 1 gram being 5.8 times heavier in the overall weight than an ounce on our car. I believe the benefit of this wheel change outweighs the negligible difference we already have in our available wheels.

4. Cost: My cost quote is absolutely accurate as I got it through Phil’s Tire Service and directly from a rep at Jongbloed Racing. I have the email traffic to prove it. Shipping from Phil’s is $10 per wheel, which is less than I’ve paid to purchase wheels off ebay. I have yet to find any cookies available locally, which means I have shipped all wheels I’ve purchased to use for racing. Phonies will continue to be cheaper because of supply. Cookies bought by themselves will not as supply continues to dwindle. Not everyone has the ability to buy $500 junker cars just for the wheels. As the vintage market continues to value cookie cutters, we grow our numbers demanding more wheels, and other used vendors scrap cookies, we will see them harder to find and price go up. What’s good about the way I worded my rules is that the stock wheels continue to be just as competitive as before meaning you don’t have to buy new wheels. Others of your fellow racers may want these new wheels and then resell their old cookies to you for cheap. Sounds like a win win to me.


One last word about wheels being a consumable: they are just that. After a hard wreck you don’t reuse your belts and seat do you? You replace it to ensure you have the best safety equipment protecting you. Given how much stress we put through the part that actually translates forces to the pavement, the last thing you want is a repaired wheel to fail in a high G corner with other cars around you sending you and whoever else into a concrete barrier. I for one would never repair a wheel, straighten a wheel, weld a crack up on a wheel, or run a wheel that’s been questionable and will throw them away as a consumable as they get damaged. I have already done so twice in two seasons.


That shifter maintenance method is already referenced in the current rules with a link to a vendor which sells the parts complete at a very reasonable price. I have the kit and it does help, but is only a band aid fix and needs to be tightened every so often.

http://only944.com/partscatalog/only/shifter/

Cheap, reliable, and specifically allowed in the rules. The rear short shifter part for the rear is not allowed, but most of the issue is up front.

Love seeing everyone's input. Lets get it all out there! Rules will be determined and set at the end of this month!

1 Definition and Claim
The Porsche 944™-924S™ spec class is a class for those individuals that wish to race a Porsche
in a competitive series with limited expense and low cost of operation. These rules are intended
to control costs and reduce any performance advantage from the cars so that driving ability and
race setup are the greatest factors in determining winners. The following are approved and
disapproved items for the class. The spirit of the class is for all cars to be equal in weight and
horsepower and be competitive with one another. The focus will be on driver ability and not dollar
ability. This class is not intended to be an engine builder or innovator’s class.

How does a set of wheels other than factory fit that? I personally think the wheels are not good looking but I like Kinesys, at $5,000 a set custom made. They can hit any weight point you want and you can have a spacer made of steel welded to any wheel that would make weight. You are trying to open a can of worms for no reason. I don't believe any body is worried about their wheels being dangerous, so much more breaks on these cars and not one wheel without crash damage. Just because it hasn't happened yet is a GREAT thing, and an indicator that it is not likely to happen. A good example would be the late a arms with the pressed in ball joint. They have been a well known weak point in these cars and when they break it can be disastrous! The fix is also well known, a set of "Charlie arms" or equivalent at about $1,500 a set. We don't allow those and yet the sky hasn't fallen. No fatalities, no major incidences that I'm aware of. The reason is that we just aren't stressing these cars that much with the tire we are running.

If I think something is unsafe I wouldn't run until I did something about it. A few years ago I saw a car hit a K wall at Thunderhill that I didn't even know was there! A rotor came apart and cut the brake line so he hit the wall at triple digit speed(a ls powered trans am) and walked away. The car was destroyed but his pedal box survived because he extended the cage forward to cover his feet. When I saw that I immediately took my car to a cage builder to do that to mine. Didn't need to but I feel much safer. I also run a full halo/containment seat and firmly believe anything less should be outlawed and your crazy to run without one(I don't propose this rule because of the cost but can say I paid less for my seat than those wheels cost!). I also made custom steel mounts and threw the aluminum ones away. I run a fire system with a nozzle pointed right at me along with an extinguisher. I personally wouldn't run an early car because the floor is weaker. I replace my belts every year because it's cheap insurance.

If I ever were to crash I would replace the seat and belts but the wheels? Why? I also do not think of wheels as consumables. I have the same wheels since the first year(7 years now) and I don't plan on changing them because I'm not worried. If we allow any other wheels set in, if the winning car has them, everybody will have to have them. That's how it always is.

This past May I was in Knoxville TN, and was asked by a friend to go look at a 944 he was buying for $800. It was a perfect runner that he's using as a daily driver and get this, it came with a non running parts car both with cookie cutters! The only thing wrong with it was a DME relay. The cars and wheels are still out there if you're looking. A quick check of Craigslist show a guy in Nashville selling 2 cars, one an automatic and the other looks like it has cookies. He wants under a grand for the one with the cookie cutters. Buy it, swap the wheels with phone dials and resell it.

So it seems to me the wheel suggestion is for looks mainly and that is a terrible reason to add significant cost to us. Plus I don't think they are that good looking. I personally like the phone dials and if they were closer in weight I'd run them(of course I still like the Miami Vice look with the pastel suits and loafers without socks!)! The fact that nobody runs them should be a good indicator of what a difference people think the weight difference makes. I know that when I weighed them side by side they were only 1.5lbs different but I have to run the cookie cutters so I can have every advantage.

Might as well get my $.02 in. I also have three new suggestions.

1 Wheels: Prefer no new changes. Cookies out west are still plentiful and cheap. For our friends back east we need to find good ones for them at cheap prices. Going rate is $50 -$75 per wheel. Shipping will make them more, but not the price of new wheels. I do understand the late offset cars are restricted to Phones ( ), but they are still cheap, just less common. Prefer to work out a help system than to change rules. Keep OFF Fleabay!
2 Bumper shocks: Yes! Keeps it cheap!
3 Dyno Test: Local has ruled wherever I have been. I think that IS the rule.
I do have an issue - at the end of this reply.
4 Crank Scraper: No. Not needed. Would create big differences in cars and add expense.
5 Short Shift: No. Only944 one works fantastic and is cheaper than stock. (early ones did not work as well but can be fixed with a slightly longer bolt and nylock nut and lock tight).
6 Spare Tire Well: Prefer no change. Rules currently allow eliminating it. Others use it for Cool suit, etc. Rule changes of this type cause problems.

Proposals:

7 Allow 3 piece cross member. Reason: Many of us have to pay for alignments. Every time we change an oil pan gasket or rod bearing (all too often!) it requires a new alignment, which is expensive. Allowing these would NOT have any performance advantages (slight extra weight would be a disadvantage) and would lower long term cost of racing these cars.

8 Revisit the Dyno Rule: We have seen too many DQ's for over the limit on stock and sometimes very worn motors. I think we are experiencing "Dyno Creep". The operators have learned that they can make more money if everybody has to have a dyno pull at almost every event. Calibration is somewhat arbitrary on dynos. Even if you not believe the dyno operators are the fault, we can attribute it potentially to the near 100% dyno tuning of our cars. If a 100% stock rebuild (with a good dyno tune) can exceed our cap, we need to address that. I agree with the concept, but not want to have to constantly pay to see if I will DQ at every event once I rebuild my motor. (I do have evidence of the problem, but do not want to put it in writing. I will gladly talk with directors in person or on phone). I want to keep this cheap, but this process has resulted in a huge cost increase for many.

9 Transmission cooler: This was shot down last year, but transmissions are the weak point of our cars. I have broken too many. I want to add reliability and a cooler seems to be the way to go. I can't with the current rules.

Thanks,
Chuck

Chuck I'm interested in your dyno experience. Please contact me directly.