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@Pdtp#16 - The Ferodos worked out very well. Compared to the stock ones, they definitely maintained the bite during the later laps where the brakes were hotter. When TPC did my tech, the guidance was that I'd be good with one more event but I'll likely need to replace the rotors afterwards. I have 6 DE's left this year (Shenandoah, Pitt Race, VIR, and 2 more on Summit Main) so I may pick up a set of Giro's or AP J-Hooks and pop them in before I head back out.
I desperately need a seat as I drove a majority of the sessions with my left leg jammed against the dead pedal to anchor my rear end into the seat so I can relax my shoulders and arms to steer.
Trying to find something that works with a 3 point belts is where I'm stuck as a proper racing seat would require a harness, hans, cage etc (my car is a road car first and foremost).
The weekend was a great learning experience they paired me with an instructor who knows the 991 platform well (he races a GT3 Cup and has a GT3 road car as well). We walked the track one night over a cigar and some whiskey which was great to understand the traction available and camber around the track. The highlight was the final day's 3rd session where an all-out downpour came - it gave me an opportunity to explore the track and rain lines. I mustered a 1:24.89 as the fastest lap of the weekend but was consistently floating between 1:29-1:32.
Looking good! Keep practicing, review your data and you'll get faster and more consistent. Those are some awesome tracks. Getting jealous, my car still all pulled apart and with this quarantine i keep adding more stuff. Never ends ha.
Glad to hear the pads worked well. The main thing they do as you mentioned, is they will be much more consistent through out the day. This helps a lot in getting comfortable under breaking. One thing i noticed is that you seem to coast when transitioning from acceleration to breaking. You should get onto the brakes right away. There should be no lag. What will happen is that you will realize that you broke to soon. This is OK. It will help you establish the proper breaking point systematically rather than guessing by lifting earlier. If you are consistent this way then you can then move the breaking point closer and closer as you get more comfortable.
BTW i have an extra set of Giro's disc and hats that i'll never use again. The discs have about 2 more track days in them and the hats are almost new (4 track events). I switched to PFC's 6 months after i installed the giro discs.
Regarding seats it makes helps a lot when you are strapped in the right way. Get yourself some bucket seats (just make sure you test them before buying. everyone's body is a little different). If you use the rear seats, TPC sells a rear bar that works well and allows you to keep the rear seats.
Jean,
Thanks for sharing the pictures; it draws a very clear contrast in your point. I had a number of conversations this past weekend with a number of folks who are pretty involved in the Porsche factory racing program and they shared a similar sentiment around the aftermarket tuners in that none of them have done the R&D like Porsche has.
Candidly, it has me questioning some of the existing modifications I've done to my car.
Kong that was not my intention at all, just discussing merits of a thinner intercooler.
Concerning tuning, I think it’s very worthwhile if you’re looking for improved lap times or more fun on road and track, use the right fuel, don’t run too much boost.
I would keep stock brakes and pads for sure if you have steels, or change to another rotor max. Key thing is to bleed your brakes before and after each session, use good oil, and you will have a rock solid pedal.
Bear in mind you will not find more than one handful of tuners worldwide who have access to factory engineers and DME code to tune like the factory does, and you have to dump 50k USD before you say hello, and 750 flywheel HP tune with factory reliability on a 991 turbo would cost you 150,000 USD with any of them.
As Randy said earlier I think, our own driving improvement and coaching gets us more gains than tires, brakes, aero and tuning all combined.
As Randy said earlier I think, our own driving improvement and coaching gets us more gains than tires, brakes, aero and tuning all combined.
The formula is: a lot of coaching and practice, then some decent street tires, then some coaching, then seats/harnesses/HANS, then some coaching, then some brakes and the very best tires, then some more coaching, then some more performance mods, then some coaching.
The formula is: a lot of coaching and practice, then some decent street tires, then some coaching, then seats/harnesses/HANS, then some coaching, then some brakes and the very best tires, then some more coaching, then some more performance mods, then some coaching.
Amen!
Randy's outline is exactly what should be done. You will get faster and more confident much quicker. The reality is that until such time that you are extracting 100% of your base car, other performance upgrades won't help much.
Only thing i would add to his schedule is video / data. It helps immensely specially when you can overlay it with your coach for comparison. I wish i would have added my vbox sooner. I can spend hours looking at data and areas where i could find time or improve my driving. I wish Porsche was able to offer what GM does on the Corvette and ZL1. Allegedly the Porsche's new app works.
Thanks for sharing the links. Looking at that corner speed makes me appreciate a lightweight car (don't the TT's come in around 3800 lbs?). I actually met Skeen at last weekends' DE. Dude can drive, that's for damn sure!
Below is my remaining schedule of DE's for the end of the year (barring any impulsive decisions that I'll likely be making) and it looks like I'll have 8 more days on main.
7/31-8/2 Summit Point Main - PCA Porsche-Fest
8/8-8/9 Summit Point Main - HOD
8/21-8/22 Pitt Race - HOD
8/28-8-30 VIR - PCA Potomac
9/3 Summit Point Main - CCC
9/26-9/27 NJMP - Hooked On Driving
10/24-10/25 Summit Point Main - PCA Potomac last DE of year
Thanks for sharing the links. Looking at that corner speed makes me appreciate a lightweight car (don't the TT's come in around 3800 lbs?). I actually met Skeen at last weekends' DE. Dude can drive, that's for damn sure!
Below is my remaining schedule of DE's for the end of the year (barring any impulsive decisions that I'll likely be making) and it looks like I'll have 8 more days on main.
7/31-8/2 Summit Point Main - PCA Porsche-Fest
8/8-8/9 Summit Point Main - HOD
8/21-8/22 Pitt Race - HOD
8/28-8-30 VIR - PCA Potomac
9/3 Summit Point Main - CCC
9/26-9/27 NJMP - Hooked On Driving
10/24-10/25 Summit Point Main - PCA Potomac last DE of year
I hope we'll both be able to do that Potomac PCA event at VIR on 8/28-8/30. First Settlers PCA just cancelled their Fall event for some reason.
I hope we'll both be able to do that Potomac PCA event at VIR on 8/28-8/30. First Settlers PCA just cancelled their Fall event for some reason.
Oh Man.. I sure hope so too. I wonder if the recent spike in COVID cases might be coming into play.. Potomac's Pitt Race DE went Solo-only and I thought the Mid-Summer DE last weekend actually went well with some of the guidance from WV Department of Health. There were some discussions around putting a COVID plan in place so that PCA Potomac would be able to get insurance for the event given that there was in-car instruction. I've seen some debate around an instructors' willingness to instruct and their reluctance to doing a Lead-Follow format (which I completely understand). I've not driven VIR yet but it's one that's definitely on the radar. It would be a good opportunity to meet you in person while down there.
Fingers crossed that the event is still on but your news is prompting me to not keep my hopes too high.
I'm not seeing that much discussion on alignment here... On my 996 Turbo, upgrading the suspension, tire widths and perhaps most importantly putting an aggressive alignment on the car was really transformational.
And while my 'stock' 991 TTS can still lap faster than my modified 996 Turbo, it doesn't have that immediacy of feel on turn in that I love on my 996 Turbo. I've just added a DSC sport controller and plan on Cup 2's soon and an alignment if it will help, but I'm not sure if the lack of turn in feel is just part of the platform, electric steering,etc. or if it's a setup issue that with the additional setup effort (tires, alignment) will also be really noticeable. I'm sure the half worn p-zero's aren't doing me any favors either, but my complaint with them is more that they just start to noticeably give up when they get hot rather than a lack of feel.
Any thoughts? I'm still new to the 991 platform and most of my local setup guru's are far more familiar with the 996 and 997 platform than the 991.
On the brakes, the PCCB's are really awesome. I don't do that many track days a year, and would love to keep them instead of converting to steel, especially since I absolutely love not having to constantly clean brake dust from my wheels when street driving. I realize I might $$$ regret that decision down the road, but I guess I'd rather burn up my PCCB's myself than take them off, put them on a shelf, and "save" them for the next owner!
It's pretty simple, pfbz. About all the camber you can find is around -2.5 front, -2.2 rear, and you need all of it. (That was all I could get, and that's with the help of Techart lowering springs). I like a bit of front toe, neutral in the rear.
After camber, you will benefit a hell of a lot more from Cup2 or other good track tires than about anything else. The TTS is considerably heavier than the 996 TT, and requires a bit more trail braking to really get a set on turn in, and I am sure the electronic steering and rear steer do play a part in why that car feels less immediate - but start with tires!! It's not really a fair comparison until you do that. Once you get tires sorted - it's slow in, fast out!!
PCCB are fantastic on track, and those of us that change out probably do more days than you. I've had the pleasure of taking a pad down to metal and ruining a ceramic rotor...it sucks. In my case, the top of the pad showed 5mm left, but I didn't measure the bottom nor did I realize the pad was wearing so unevenly and was about gone. Then on my "last run of the weekend" the bottom of that pad melted away quickly due to being so thin, and I ruined a rotor on a car with only 3000 miles on it. It's just a risk that's avoidable if you want to have piece of mind about that. 4 new Girodisc rotors were $3700 (Call Clarke at Apex Performance) vs $6500 for that one replacement PCCB. You do have to use a different size pad with Girodiscs, but it's offered in a lot of racing pad compounds that make up for any loss of surface area. This works for some people, others don't need it. The dust without PCCB is prodigious!!
Destroying a PCCB rotor at 3K miles would definitely suck! Good tip to keep an eye out for uneven pad wear. I have heard that replacing the PCCB pads at anything less than 50% of pad thickness is good practice if you do plan on tracking with them.
Just saw this from Mike. This is a smoking lap specially taking into consideration that it was done with 200 tread tires and prior to his new power upgrades. Really quick!
Just saw this from Mike. This is a smoking lap specially taking into consideration that it was done with 200 tread tires and prior to his new power upgrades. Really quick!
07-15-2020 | 11:55 AM
