It was 6:45am, and I had just pulled out of my favorite drive through espresso place with coffee hand. I turned my shark onto the freeway and started heading toward Pro/Max Performance, site of the Pac NW Dyno Day. I happen to look at my odometer as I was accelerating down the onramp and noticed that I was showing over 104K. What the hell am I doing? Its before the crack of dawn, and I'm scheduled to ream my car up to 6K rpms in an hour. What kind of idiot dynotests a car with over 100K on it? If I was driving anything out of Detroit, there's no way I'd get near a dyno after 50K. I started stressin' a little. What happen's if I blow the motor, grenade a CV joint, or chunk the tranny. Worse yet, what if one of the other shark owner's does some mechanical damage while doing their dyno run, I'd totally feel like crap. "Come on down, dyno your car, it'll be fun! Oops, sorry that you threw a rod!" I kept hearing Tom Middleton's voice in the back of my head, "well, you needed an excuse to drop in that stroker crank anyway, didn't you?"
When I pulled up, Tom Middleton and Terry Redinger were already there. Other's soon joined. It was great to see everyone again, it was as if the 928 Owner's Showdown (Oct. '99) had just happened yesterday. A lot of excitement and anticipation was in the air. People got reaquainted, and we were introduced to many new faces as well. My car, which was first up, made its runs without even breaking a sweat. It took a few runs to figure what to do to get a good reading with the A/T's that had their kickdown linkages tweaked, but we finally found a method that worked. Shark after shark spun the barrels, and by the time the day was done, twelve 928's had their outputs reduced to paper.
One of the highlights for me was Oscar Munoz's 81 A/T. What an awesome car. Chiffon White, no spoilers or side trim, mint clothe interior, phone dials, and some wicked looking cross drilled rotors. Oscar drove up from Eugene, region, which I believe is about 5 hours each way. Thanks Oscar for making the trip, showing off your killer ride, and going for broke on the dyno.
We had just about every engine type tested save for a GTS and an '85-86 Euro, but who needs either with Louie Ott's mighty GT. More on that later. Andy Pope brought his '81 Euro, Tom Middleton brought an '84S, Rob Fosset an '85S, we had a whole bunch of S4's, and Lloyd Johnson brought his mint '91 GT.
Louie Ott's '90 GT dominated the event, making nearly 40hp more than his closest contender, Lloyd Johnson's '91 GT. Top Torque honors also went to Louie, but by a smaller margin with Louie out gunning Mark Rosenfields '89 S4 5sp by 16 ft. lbs.
Louie did some product testing, which
I'm hoping we will be able to document at Chris Ford's website (928s4.com)
with Louie's permission. Louie tested using consistent diameter
smooth airbox intake tubes vs. stock, K&N air filter vs.
stock, and an airbox mod which he is designing. I don't recall
that switching the intake tubes yielded a difference in
performance. The stock filter provided better performance than
the K&N. The airbox mod ( I won't describe it because I don't
know if Louie is going to patent and market it but which I will
refer to as "steroid airbox treatment") was interesting.
It gave him about a 2hp peak increase over stock, but he lost
about 4 ft/lbs of peak torque. The awesome thing about the mod is
that the engine created peak torque about a thousand rpm earlier
than without it. If
I recall, peak torque without the mod was about 4500, and with
the mod about 3500. This would be an awesome street application
mod if it provides consistent results. Louie if you need anyone
to long term test the mod for street applications, please send a
prototype my way, I'd be happy to test it for you.
Jim Viglietta and Terry Redinger came Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR to spectate. Jim brought pictures of his work in progress, an '80 A/T which is about to receive an '83 Euro engine and be converted to a 5 speed. Chris Ford once again braved the weather of the mountain passes and made the awesome five hour trek from Spokane. Thanks to all of you for making the journey to join in the event.
Curt Nichols and his '87 S4 A/T won the Dyno Day Poker, guessing 240hp/240ft lbs and clocking in at 243/246.4. Techincally, Louie Ott was closest guessing 315/305 and clocking in at 312/306 (his best torque for the day was 310 ft.lbs), but we had to give Louie 6hp/6 ft. lb. handicap due to his past dyno experience.
If any of you listers get a chance to dyno your car, Go For It! It's a rush for sure, the sound is awesome, and these cars are tough. About half our cars had near or well over 100K miles on them, and not one did as much a hiccup throughout the process. To be honest, I think my car runs a little better now that its been cleared out.
The group consensus was that the 928 Owner's Showdown set for this fall is too far out to be our next gathering. So, this summer I will see about organizing a day of Bracket Drag racing out at Seattle International Raceway.
I can hear my half shafts groaning already! I will post to the list when the details are ironed out.
See Ya Then,
Adam Birnbaum
'88 S4 A/T