If it starts to spin, mash the gas! You'll start saving it 5 out of 6 times.
...Really

Seems really unnatural in a hairy situation - but if you train yourself to gas it, you'll save your bacon more times than not.

 

I guess I've not gone past that threshold yet. Even on the track I find the 996 very stable and thought it would take a pretty abrupt maneuver to get it to spin. I know it can happen but I've not had it do anything more than just "wag its tail" on me.

Granted it did take a little while for me to become confident in the car just because its reputation leads you to believe it will spin on any corner. But once I learned to not do what my instincts tell me to do and instead what the car needs me to do then it's been a different story.

 

I haven't pushed an older 911 far enough to find out (fear of it's reputation and not being mine if I wreck it), but I gather that is the key difference.

In the old 911s that wag was the sign that things were about to get real hairy so you better hang on. In the 996 its more of a "you may not want to continue doing that" warning. Even the C4 will spin if you keep pushing it, but all the 996s are much more forgiving than the older cars.

This is also something that I gather is much different in the water cooled cars. They actually tell you that they are going to kill you rather than surprising you with it

 

I'll start mentally practicing that and hopefully can make it an instinct. I have the confidence to hold throttle even if I feel like I'm carrying too much speed through the corner. The last couple of spins have been random mental lapses in braking situations through multi turn sections. Well, and gassing across a finish line when they used the apex cone for the finish. But I got a time, Lol.

 

The most difficult instinct to overcome with a 911 is the urge to lift as you start to feel the back end breaking away partway through a corner. Maintaining throttle - or feeding it more throttle - does not feel natural in a car that is threatening to give up in the rear end.

I find that my car does not respond well to large throttle inputs - mash the gas too hard and the front will lift a little; when you get back off the gas, the fronts can catch and toss you even more violently into a spin. Trying to write out how to drive someone else's car at the limit of grip is a fool's errand, though - practice is the only thing that works. It is awfully nice to have someone who can explain the stuff that just doesn't seem to make sense when you first start driving a 911, like lift-off oversteer.

The strangeness is even more evident when you're used to driving an American sports car...the weight distribution in my ancient '96 Corvette is 51/49, and typically the ONLY reason the rear end lets go is because you're overpowering the tires. Let up on the gas, and it will pop back on track. If I do the same thing in the same corner in the 996, the track ahead will suddenly appear in the side window...then the rear-view mirror...then the other side window...and again through the windshield.

Whenever I drive the 911, I'm ruining my 'Vette driving skills; same thing when I'm driving the Corvette for my 911 skills.

This is a good problem to have.

 

you just have poor driving skill anyway

 

Yep, those momentary mental lapses can be killer. Once, I came around an apex and fed in the gas heavy for a straight. Suddenly I remembered that there was a small jog in the track ahead, so I needed to be further left to set up for it. Whilst pondering this, the mental lapse cause me to lift. A very lovely pirouette resulted.

 

 

You Have poor driving skills as well

 

At least have good grammar skills.

 

FIFY

 

I don't get it.

 

Frunkenstein!

 

Frunken hilarious man!

 

Disclaimer: Very little experience with the Boxster/Cayman platform. Only a few laps and a few Boxster S/Cayman S/Cayman Rs I see pretty often at the track (all with similar amount of work as my 996 with suspension, brakes, and R Comps).

Where most believe they would be gaining time in the technical sections is where I've passed many. The straights are not as 911 biased as you would think - (exit speed/weight/hp)

In a vacuum, if all things were equal (from the factory) and the cars were bone stock with the same driver behind the wheel; The line is the line and I don't think you'd see much variation in times - Both cars will handle admirably however the 911 would still be faster even on shorter tracks.

I do believe you can learn a lot more quickly from the 98X platform than the 911.

Think of it like skiing or snowboarding. To me:
Skiing = 911
Snowboarding = Boxster/Cayman

You can pick up snowboarding after a day or two and be competent enough to get down most hills. You might not be the fastest but you've got the basics managed. The basics of skiing take much longer to be able to manage on any hill, even to just get going and years more to get the most out of it.

Maybe its just me but its taken me 14 track events this year with lots of professional instruction to finally feel like I'm doing anything significant in my 911.