What occurs if you merge two iconic rally marques? Apparently rallycross domination. Meet the Porscharu of Leon Drake, which melds a Porsche 914 chassis with Subaru EJ20 energy. It’s gained the previous two SCCA National RallyCross Championships, with Leon behind the wheel in 2022, and Jason Fuller final 12 months.
“Mid-engine works nicely as a result of you could have extra weight towards your drive wheels–you bought extra traction,” explains Leon. “Most rear-wheel drives don’t have good traction. And the burden may be very low–at about 1850 kilos. More often than not you’re turning, and turning is when weight fights you.”
Leon didn’t arrive on the magic formulation for the Porscharu in a single day. In actual fact, the concept of the automobile wasn’t even his–he simply refined it. Leon purchased the Porsche 914 from a fellow SCCA membership member, Gary Horneck. It got here as a gutted rolling chassis, with a Renegade engine cradle and a Subaru EJ25 drivetrain.
“He had deliberate to do a undertaking,” Leon explains. “Gary received most cancers and he wasn’t going to have the ability to end it–he has since handed away. The automobile on the time was nonetheless type of the way in which he had gotten it. Any individual had constructed it like a road rod–and it was horrible. It had large fender flares. The entrance air dam was completed out of metal, and it wasn’t completed nicely. They figured in the event that they put sufficient Bondo down the place you welded, you didn’t have to grind your welds.”
Proper after Leon purchased it, he went to work changing it over to a rallycross automobile. He lower off the fender flares and changed them with ones he had for a Jeep. Its look, although, wasn’t the one factor inflicting points for Leon. He shortly discovered that out when he did his first rallycross with Porscharu in 2019.
“The Renegade cradle wasn’t robust sufficient for off-road use,” Leon says. “I broke it in half the third or fourth race in, and I needed to reinforce it. The primary two years the automobile didn’t end quite a lot of races. Issues broke. Axles saved coming undone–I needed to engineer my very own axles. I initially had the radiator in again and I packed it so filled with mud I moved [the radiator] up entrance. It had a 2.5–I went by three of them–and now I’ve received a 2.0. These are the type of issues that needed to get reworked.”
Sure, with the smaller 2.0-liter engine the Porscharu makes about 130 horsepower, estimates Leon, however he shortly provides, “How a lot are you able to get right down to the dust?” To make that engine stay, he took two extra measures.
“All Subarus ought to be a dry sump … and maintain the dust out of them,” advises Leon. “With a superb air cleaner and a dry sump system, I can beat the tar out of it a complete lot extra.”
The automobile makes use of a inventory Porsche 914 suspension setup, with coil springs in again and torsion bars up entrance.
“What I’ve discovered is heavy-duty manufacturing facility shocks and comes is the way in which to go,” Leon says. “To maintain the tires in touch with the bottom, you want a reasonably gentle suspension. For those who stiffen the suspension, you’ve ruined it. I run with out sway bars as a result of I need these tires on the floor.”
The automobile retains its inventory five-speed Subaru handbook gearbox, however with Quaife internals, and has a limited-slip differential. It additionally makes use of the inventory Porsche brakes.
“Don’t want fancy brakes on the dust,” he says. “You’ll be able to lock them up with inventory brakes–it doesn’t matter.”
Leon isn’t completed modding the Porscharu. Regardless of being insistent that it’s not all about energy, he believes it could be time for some extra. Leon higher that quantity to 189 horses, courtesy of a 2006 WRX turbo and a Haltech ECU.
“I ran it final weekend for the primary time with turbo enhance and may testify it’s one other two ranges higher on the enjoyable meter, if that’s doable,” says Leon.
He needed to fabricate quite a lot of elements to make the turbo work with a non-turbo engine, however he hopes that it’ll give him what he wants because the Porscharu contends for a 3rd consecutive SCCA RallyCross Nationwide Championship win in October.
“It’s a Frankenstein,” Leon says of the Porscharu. “I like placing issues collectively that haven’t been completed earlier than. It’s a check mattress for concepts. It’s been quite a lot of enjoyable.”
Feedback
What an amazing construct and what a superb wanting 914–they are considerably of an unpleasant duckling, however this one may be very cool and arrayed in a pleasant livery. Props to an amazing construct 🙂
BA5 stated:
“Why the Porscharu succeeds so nicely in rallycross”
As a result of it is superior?
Onerous to argue towards that 😉
Rumor has it there’ll quickly be a brand new entry to ‘Problem’ the Porscharu for the Mod-RWD title…
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