Seth Thomas

I took my 05 GT3 out to Road Atlanta yesterday for an afternoon track day put on by Kinetic Speed Shop and had a blast. There were several GT3 Cup cars, a couple 993 street/track cars and a few 911 racecars out there. It was a lot of fun running with those guys and man those Cup cars have some power. THey would kill me on the straights but with Road Atlanta being my home track I knew a couple little tricks to real them in around the corners.

Taking the car out there really reminded me of why I have this car and why I love it. The car has so much grip for a stock street car (Moton Club Sports and Toyo RA-1s only mods) that it is a blast to drive around. The power is unbelievable when you put it on track and it seems you are always in the right spot with the motor. And then there is the brakes. WOW! 160 MPH heading into T10A and I don't have to hit the brakes until about the 150ft marker. Man I love this car.

mooty

you got pm.

ltc

Out of curiosity, what type of brake fluid are you running?

Seth Thomas

I am running the stock Porsche fluid at this time. I haven't had a chance to switch over to anything else. I do run a set of Pagid Orange pads but I am about to switch over to Performance Frictions for the car.

frayed

Damnit Seth, you are making me want to sell the ltw to buy another gt3. bastid.

ltc

I would recommend changing over to a higher performance fluid at your first opportunity.

Seth Thomas

Thanks I was planning on changing it. Question though. If I am not having problems with a soft brake pedal at all when I run 30minute sessions braking at those speeds with the current fluid then why do you recommend I change it to a higher performance one?

38D

Because figuring out that the fluid can boil as you go into 10A won't be too much fun...

It's cheap insurance. At the speeds that a GT3 can attain, fluid can/will degrade rather quickly. I would need to bleed my brakes nearly every day when I used Super Blue (which is better than normal DOT4 fluid). Now that I switched to SRF, I only need to bleed it every 12+ days.

4 Kurves

Actually the power is about the same (360 to 390 depending upon year) for the 996 Cups.

The difference is the weight - the Cup is 2,550 and the GT3 is what - 3,100?

Makes a big difference doesn't it?

Seth Thomas

Yeah I knew that was the biggest factor with them pulling away from me but I did think they had more power and better gearing than our street GT3s. It is really amazing to see how much of a difference weight really is though. Man those cars can scoot!!

Bob Rouleau

Comparing the Cup and normal GT3 is interesting. When Bruce G and I tried it, his Cup car could not pull away from my GT3 on the straight. His car is lighter but has a mongo big wing which causes drag. In the corners and out of corners he ate me alive, slicks, downforce weight and suspension cannot be discounted.

Regards,

4 Kurves

I would agree with that. I've chased Cup cars in my GT3 and I've had GT3's chasing me while driving my Cup. I would say once up to a high speed the distance doesn't change - not sure exactly what speed that is but if I had to guess it is close to or over 100 mph. Before that point though the Cup pulls away pretty easily.

And of course in the corners it is no contest.

Rolo

Kinetic is a great shop. Russell has put together first class operation.

They suppored me at the DE at R/A in June . Cosgrove does my work for me. He's very detailed.

I started to go last also, but work held me up.

160!! Man these cars are fast. I need some track tires. I've hit 155 going into 10a. You must really be carrying some speed through 7.

Hope to see you at the next one. BTW...Were any of the pro's running. They we working on Andy Lally and some others to do some training at these track days??

cosmos

I have chased down cups. We CAN hang with them speed for speed. We have better lower gearing and up top past 150, we pull away.

Clocky, one more thing GFY FMJ!!!

Seth Thomas

Wish you could have made it out. It was a great afternoon but really hot. The outside temp according the thermostat on the car was 98 degrees. Add that to the baking asphalt and man it was a scorcher. However it was a blast.

When I first got the car I was hitting about 155MPH on the back straight with street tires and stock brakes. I would guess the lap times on the car would be somewhere in the 1:35 range.

Nic was there and was helping some of their customers out with setup on their cars. I talked to Nic about me helping them out with some driver training at those days so we will see if that works out or not.