mdr911

My first day tracking the car I left PSM on the entire time I only felt it engage a few times when the car def, was starting to lose control (mostly due to tires getting greasy towards the end of the day). I feel like it is well balanced and rarely engages unless needed - how many of you track on vs off?

iliveoncaffiene

I pushed it as hard as I could before I got scared and only got it to engage once (first track day) - I had it "On" the whole time (and it was semi-wet out).

I would argue that it depends on experience: full "Off" if you are going 10/10 and know what to do, "Sport" if you want to try it out, and "On" if you're not pushing to the absolute limit on the track.

CaymanSinAR

For autocross I disable PSM completely. Makes a significant difference.

For the track I leave PSM on the whole time. It is extraordinarily seamless. As hard as I've pushed my car I've only noticed it once, and that was when my tires were still too cold and I came in WAY too hot on a vicious corner (#2 at Hallett). Though I've never felt it intervene otherwise my rear brake pads tell me PSM is doing its job in the background.

EDIT: Oops. Forgot the 718 has PSM Sport. Listen to liveoncaffiene.

worf928

For track driving, determine what PSM modes you have based up options on your 718. Then use the least intrusive mode. But, leave it on until you’ve done a couple hundred track days.

For autocross turn it off, you’ll only kill cones and you’ll accelerate the process of learning the limits.

X2Board

Fully on. I like driving my car home after the event.

mdr911

I didn’t even know the 718 had a “sport mode” for PSM. How do you engage that vs just off? (Targa is just on / off).

iliveoncaffiene

It might be a feature with Sport Chrono (?) but: pressing PSM button for ~0.5s or 1s (normal press) engages "Sport" mode, and 3 seconds (long press) will tell you it's fully off.

Edit: Yeap, it's a feature with Sport Chrono: http://www.porscheownersmanuals.com/...Management-PSM

Gamecock718

I have a 718 CS with PTV and PASM, but NOT Sport Chrono. I have a ton of high-level autocrossing and competitive karting under my belt, with just a handful of track days. So, while my driving craft is pretty good and I trust myself, I leave PSM on for track days.

I agree with most above. It really does a great job to stay out of your way until you need it. It gives you a long leash to have plenty of fun up to and beyond the limit. If you stay smooth with your inputs, you should be pretty safe pushing the car. Obviously, it can't do everything for you, so you could still stuff it into a tire barrier, wall, etc. if you really drive like a not-so-smart person.

Basically, I'd recommend that if you are asking this question, you need to leave it on. If you have tons of track experience and can "afford" to replace the car in the worst-case-scenario, then by all means, go all in and turn it off!

Als991?

I have PSM Sport, and use it most sessions on most tracks. But: fully on for first 1-2 sessions, fully on once the tires are greasy for the day, fully on if I have a student in the car.

Just be sure to monitor rear brake pad wear closely - the system in conjunction with PTV can consume pads at a considerable rate. That’s a small price to pay for what is an excellent system of German equations and electrons keeping you on the track.

mdr911

Love all the feedback and advice! I do have Sports Chrono so I should be able to engage "Sport" mode on PSM. Also anecdotally based on my one track day and experience all advice above makes sense. First session (full PSM all day) it engaged maybe once as I drove in "warm-up" mode. 2nd / 3rd sessions it almost never engaged and the last two it was engaging frequently as the tires started to lose grip. I can see using full PSM on runs 1, 4, 5 and going to sport on 2, 3 (unless tires hold-up). Compared to some of my friends who track in Audis and M2 / M3 they have to turn off in order to get proper turn-in (although the M2 Comp doesn't have this issue with their stability management). They are def fighting the car during the later sessions. It's great to experience how Porsche has designed their PSM to be compatible with aggressive driving (I've already noticed this with my Targa 4 on canyon runs and track runs - with AWD and Torque Vectoring it would rarely engaging even when there was some tire squeal). Having SM engage at the wrong time can also be a disaster if you are in tight turns and expecting some give.