JRidge

This past weekend I did a Chin event at Barber Motorsport Park in Birmingham, AL. My first track experience in my new 991.2 GT3, winged version, with manual. My first track experience in any GT3, and first 911 since a 964 I sold around 15 years ago. I say this just to preface that, even though Barber is the closest thing I have to a "home track," with years of experience, club racing, HPDE and instructing, I really didn't know what to expect from the car. When I raced, it was a 944 turbo, and my most recent track car was a GT4. The 951 was probably the closest I came to driving as well and as fast as the car was capable of. As close to 10/10ths as I'll ever get. I got pretty good in the GT4 too. It was more money than I wanted to ball up, and it was my ride home, so I'd say I peaked in that car at maybe 9/10ths of what I as I driver should've been able to get out of the car. Which is maybe as close to the limit as I wanted to get.

Fast forward to my first weekend in the GT3, and I was both amazed and frustrated in equal parts. The car is fantastic. The motor is fantastic. The way the rear end grips on corner exit when you put the power down blew me away. There were parts of the track where I scared myself, other parts where I giggled with joy. But the frustration came in from the fact that I was probably at 6/10ths of what I oughta be able to do in that car. I was getting passed by cars that had no business passing me. Heck, I couldn't even keep up with another comparably spec'd 991.2 GT3. I was thinking, maybe this is too much car for me? Would I rather drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow? (Not that a GT4 is slow by any means, but you know what I mean.) Or do I embrace the challenge and enjoy the process of knowing I have so much room for improvement?

Before I went I had read, perhaps too many times, this article, where Randy Pobst gives his impressions of the car: http://www.motortrend.com/cars/porsc...t-test-review/. Needless to say, it's a glowing review, but certain observations stuck in my head:

"You still have to be a little bit careful not going to power too soon. You still have to remember you’re in a 911 in situations like that.”

“If you drive really aggressively on your turn-in, you can definitely over-rotate it and get it sideways. It would be very easy for the average guy to go to power too early and create understeer. The driver has to be consciously aware of being in a 911, leaving that weight forward. Release the brake, but don’t go to power. Trailing throttle, high entry speed, off throttle or still braking. Put some weight up there, and it likes it.”

Perhaps because of my inexperience with 911s, with rear engine dynamics, and for that matter, with 500 hp engines that rev to 9k, I approached every corner cautiously. Braked to early, stayed on them too long, tried a little too hard "not going to power too soon" and watched way too many cars pass me by.

BUT, then I remembered the rest of the article. Observations not made by RP, but by the author:

"I find the GT3s an intoxicating challenge. That initial looseness on turn-in, that free feeling Randy describes, gives you butterflies at first. You know full well it’s a 911 and the engine would just soon enter the corner first, so you approach it gingerly. You quickly find, though, it’s just a little rotation like the man said. You can carry more speed. You don’t need to brake as much next time, or as early. The car has so much more to give, and you find a little bit more each time by.

It’s aggravating to realize how much time you’ve left on the table, and the need to find it is all consuming, so the GT3 goads you on. With every lap, you push your brake point a little later, carry a little more speed into the corner, and get back on the power a little sooner, feeling out the point when a little rotation becomes a big rotation and a bigger repair bill. You want to spend all day improving your lap time by tenths of a second, consciously aware there could be full seconds on the table but also of the nearly $150,000 starting price. The GT3 wants you to be faster, but it’s going to make you work for it. It’s rewarding work."

That very well described how I felt. Aggravated to have left so much time on the table. And I started pushing my brake points, carrying a little more speed into the corner, getting back on the power a little sooner. And I gradually started to get more comfortable, and have more fun, and drive just a little faster. If I started at 6/10ths, my improvement over the weekend got me, maybe, to 7/10ths, if that. Getting back to 9/10ths will be work. Rewarding work. And I look very forward to it.

As an aside, RP did have some things to say about the manual as well that I can now relate to:

“Way more difficult to do a perfect lap with the manual transmission. I seem to end up halfway between gears a lot, and it was easier to destabilize the car in the brake zone. It’s tricky to do the brake and entry perfectly when there’s a downshift in there. It’s much trickier to throw a downshift at it than not to. It’s reminiscent of what we have to deal with, with manual transmissions, having to decide what gear you need, and it takes more practice to do it perfectly in one lap. I didn’t get into the magic zone like I did with the PDK, maybe because of the extra work.”

As good as the shifter is and as much as I enjoyed the manual on track I had similar observations. On one corner in particular I was hitting the rev limiter because the shift point was mid-corner and I couldn't quite get it right. Might need to shift earlier or just never go down to 2nd in the first place. PDK would sure eliminate some of those headaches but I'm still glad I got the manual. Just adds to the fun, and the ability to improve.

Conclusion: I'm as excited about getting back to the track as I've been in a decade.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post. If you stayed with me this long, I hope you enjoyed it.

goin2drt

Enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing. How about a pic of two ;-)

TRAKCAR

Like

PorscheFrank

thanks for sharing your on-track impressions! I too am excited and scared about getting my car onto the track eventually. If I were driving mostly on track I'd probably get the PDK for no other reason than allowing me to focus on braking and line. But since I'll be on the street 80% of the time, I'm hoping that the joy of rowing my own will outweight the frustrations of not being the quickest around the track.

Wild Weasel

Awesome read!! Thanks for sharing!

Incidentally... I'm hoping to get huge gobs of enjoyment driving the car at 7/10th and still keeping up with everyone else. I mean... it's DE. We're not professionals so I rather expect most people to be in this range. One of the very few issues I had with my Boxster, and a huge motivation to move up to the GT3, was my aching desire to keep up and catch other cars that I probably had no business aiming for. While my skill level might be capable of pushing the car 7/10ths, I'd find myself trying to get 8 or 9 out of it just to keep up to a faster car.

I don't really care about lap times. I'm just out there having fun. But fun for me is keeping up with other cars. Now there's always going to be faster cars out there, but at least now my car will be in the upper tiers rather than the constant under-dog. I'm actually hoping this makes me safer over time.

signes

Refreshing post! Lots of reward awaits as you get more and more comfortable. Sorts cars should remain a challenge and not a video game, no to read how your working your way through it.

DRPM

Sounds like you are enjoying the process!!

next month we have our first track event at Tremblant - can't wait ;-)

WernerE

In the article, I think they have the PDK and Manual reversed here: "Put them on a skidpad, and the 23-pound-lighter dual-clutch automatic car will pull 1.07 g while the nominally heavier manual strains the eyeballs with 1.11 g."

JRidge

Apologies to all that I failed to mention ADM, PTS, PPF, my next allocation or the value diminution I suffered over the weekend in this post.

Sorry too for no pics. I've got none from on-track, and I'm having a helluva time figuring out how to upload one or two of the few I do have on this computer.

Palting

Great read! Thanks for posting. And don't worry, as you put more laps under your belt with the GT3 and get more comfortable with the 911 dynamics, you'll find the need for patience as you wait for passing signals! My previous track toy was a 996 C4S, and I was passing cars I had no business passing just because I was so comfortable driving it at 10/10ths or close to it. However, I expect this GT3 to still be so different I've warned my fellow track rats that I will be like a moving pylon they'll have to drive around until I get comfortable with it. LOL

brownan

Can't expect to get everything out of the car the first time out in it, even with your depth of experience. Sounds like it will be a fun challenge to eek out more performance over time. Nice post, thanks.

JRidge

Possibly. However, if you look at the test cars, the PDK equipped car had buckets and PCCBs. The manual equipped car had sofas and steel brakes. So it's likely the PDK car was lighter. Woulda been nice if they'd been comparably equipped other than the tranny. Wasn't precisely apples-to-apples.

R.Deacon

OP great post , although reading your intelligent approach and analysis , making me feel well a bit well lets just say unintelligent approach ,
PBOC a fews years back assigned me the number 95 ss group,
I had to have fun with ,( as not my prefered #27 ) kind of my reaching goal .

R.Deacon

I am not trying to be to critical here , but I think what's holding back to reach to 8/10's is that fear of getting the red thread dirty on the steering wheel , don't get distracted by that and you should be good and before you know it you'll be driving 10/10's

manitou202

Thanks for sharing!!!

I've got my first track day with my GT3 this weekend. I'm going to be in a similar situation. Plenty of experience with other cars on the track (STI, M Coupe, Audi TT, 930 Turbo, 981 Cayman S, 991.1 C4S), but this will be my first in a GT3.

It's pretty intimidating to say the least.