September 12-15, 2019

Open Road Rally
Ely, Nevada

Bill and I had a good day at the 2019 Silverstate Classic Challenge Open Road Race Sunday. The car was running great so I had entered the 180 class. I was hoping to get closer then the 176.1729 mph average from last years race. I was also hoped to go faster then 213 mph. Bill drove his 928 up from Arizona on Thursday and met me at the hotel. On Friday we did some last minute Sharktuning. The car had trouble starting and was idling rough, so Bill took some fuel out at idle and lower rpms. On the road he also adjusted the fuel setting for higher RPM/load ranges. I notice that the car got up to 6,200 RPM a lot faster then last year. I guess the supercharger upgrade helped (from the Vortech V1 T-trim to the Vortech V1 Ti). There was another 928 there, a 83 S with a small block chevy motor and 6 speed transmission. Thomas Hall and Eric Adolphi (navigated for Matt before) ran in the 150 class and finished a very respectable 3rd with an average speed of 149.9880 mph. The workmanship on the car was amazing, looked like a true labor of love. At the driver's meeting on Saturday night I found out I was going to be the first car on the grid. The other guys with the Unlimited and 180 cars didn't have their cars ready. They were going to try and start the race at 7:45 AM so ask the Super Sport cars (160-180 classes) to be there and ready to run by then. Being first was a new experience for Bill and I, we usually had extra time to get ready when the first car left the line. It added a lot of extra excitement/drama... Luckily they dropped the flag at 7:59 AM (Unauthorized pickup on the road, and the Sheriff at the finish area hadn't shown up) which gave us extra time to get ready. As it was not all the video cameras were started as well as the LM-1 logging. The car ran very well, I was able to get up to 200 mph before the second turn (~2-2.5 miles in) and had a 185+ mph average speed at the end of the timing straight. There was a unfortunate fatality at 7 minutes into the run as a bird bounced off the hood and impacted the windshield at 200 mph right in front of one of the two running video cameras. In the timing straight I was going to build up speed slowly until the speed trap, but the car just wanted to go faster. I reached 215 mph too early and had back off to 212 until I saw the 3 sign 1.5 miles out. I sped up again and hit 217 on the GPS as I saw the Speed Trap sign. I was averaging 183 mph when I got to the Narrows, a 3 mile slow section through the canyons about 70 miles out and 179 mph after exiting the Narrows. I had 17 miles to get the average back to 180, but that should have been easy as there were only 3 turns I had to take below 160 mph. As it was while crossing an intersection on the highway the exhaust pipes scraped on the road at 26:20 minutes in. The sound of the exhausted got really loud, so I slowed down to see if everything was still running okay. I didn't hear any more scraping, just loud exhaust sounds, so I assumed that the pipes had hole or partially separated, and not come apart. I continued on, but kept the speeds down a little until the finish. As I exited the last turn before the finish, about 5 miles out, the average had dropped from 180 back to 179 mph. I decided to try and get the average back up to 180, but not go for the 220 mph run that I had originally planned (I usually can go 3 - 5 mph faster at the finish then the timing straight). As it was I crossed the line at 202 mph and 1.8 seconds too slow. The final average was 179.8144 mph. When I reached the officials at the finish area I mentioned I'd hit the exhaust pipes and asked them to check to see if anything was hanging down. They gave a quick look and didn't see anything. So I drove on and parked on the side of the road. When I backed up, there was some bad sounds coming from under the car. When I went to check it out I found the cat replacement pipe laying in the road in front of the car. Bill and I had to tie wrap the exhaust pipes together after raising the remaining intake pipe to load the car onto the trailer. The GPS after I parked the car showed a max speed of 218 mph. Cars in the Finish pit area. Oh and here is a photo of the new hardware: Videos The Start The Speed Trap After the Narrows, 73 miles into the 90 mile course, where I damaged the exhaust pipes. This one was taken with the Samsung Gear 360 (what I used for the cabin shots). This is of the other 10 mile straight on this course (other than the timing straight). It's after turn 5 about 15.7 miles in. I was averaging 171 mph at the start and was going to get the average up to 180+. This straight has a cross street a little passed 1/2 way that unsettles the car, so wouldn't be good for a timing straight. The speed overlay is from the Garmin Dashcam that was used in the previous videos. You can see the difference in vibration. The Samsung is mounted to the roll cage and the Garmin is hanging from the windshield. Record Run When they posted the official results from the 2019 SSCC. I was pleasantly surprised. 219.0 MPH! It seems that this is the fastest 928 top speed ever recorded at a sanctioned event, and the fastest 928 average in an Open Road Race (or any other Porsche top speed and average speed as far back as I can find). Thanks to Bill Ball for all his help at the event and getting the car ready. And also to all the others that have contributed to my efforts.

928 Results

Class Driver/Nav Avg Speed Place Trap Speed 180 George 179.8144 1st 219.0 mph 150 Tom/Eric 149.9880 3rd 163.9 mph

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Copyright 2019, George A Suennen