First Autocross In The Porsche 911
How does my old Porsche 911 perform in autocross? Quite well actually!
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On January 21st, 2023, I achieved a long awaited dream of driving my old 911 in a local autocross. It took place at Angel Stadium and was put on by Corner Exit.
The last time I autocrossed was in 2010 in a 2008 MazdaSpeed3. At the time I signed up through SCCA and although the driving was fun, I didn’t like the way the organization and event was set up. I just wanted to show up and drive, but spent most of the time working the course instead of putting in seat time.
Fast forward to today and there are lots of organizations that put on no-work autocross events where you just show up and drive. This one put on by Corner Exit was very close to me and reasonably priced so I had to check it out. I managed to convince my brother Mauricio to bring his 1992 Mazda MX-3 GS out.
All I did to prepare was top up my oil, check my tire pressures, lug nut torques, and that’s it. We both picked up fresh helmets from Amazon. He got the black one and I got the white one.
I have to admit I am very cautious of the tail happy nature of the old school 911 and canyon runs can be a little terrifying sometimes. You cant make mistakes in the canyons and I wanted to test the limits of the 911 in a safe environment where I wont kill anyone, myself, or my car. I wanted to know what it felt like to lose the back end and reel it back in safely.
Well I sure got what I asked for. I was very clumsy my first couple of runs but gradually got better and better as I got more comfortable with the car’s behavior and remembered to look ahead. It then became quite predictable. Even though I was trying to drive as smooth as possible, if I ever did break it loose, I stayed on the throttle and looked where I wanted to go and the car went where I directed it. Turn-in is unbelievably good on this tired nearly 40 year old suspension. Im sure the Toyo R1Rs helped quite a bit, as did my fresh braking system rebuild. The engine never skipped a beat and the tired old gearbox shifted well with its recent switch to Red Line gear oil. It is quite surprising how agricultural the 911 is to drive at low speeds with its clunky gearbox and loud engine fan yet how it completely comes alive when you push it hard. It is such a brilliant drive and I never get tired of it.
Here is a short clip of my first and last runs:
My brother was all smiles in his MX-3 as well.
At the end of the day we swapped keys so we could enjoy each other’s project cars.
Such a great day. I cant wait to dive into the suspension and steering to make the car drive even better.
