LVDell

When: 19-21 November 2010
Where: VIR
Weather: Sunny to Partly Cloudy 60's-70s
Car: 2003 Turbo

For those of y'all following my "non mods" thread you know what I have done to the car. Those that haven't I'll give the short version.

For the most part the car is completely stock with most "non mods" being cosmetic and aesthetic. Really don't want to do much to the car since it is still under warranty.

The "performance" mods I have on the car are sport pads, GT3 6 pot calipers, factory sport suspension, John's crossover exhaust (nice sounds and not too loud at all) and a set of Nitto NT01's on factory wheels. That's it in the performance category. GT3 factory euro GT3 seats with 3 point belts. No rollbar or harnesses.

Aligment was the stock alignment with 0.9-1.0 degrees of negative camber.

Tires had 7 days (almost 30 heat cycles) to start the event and now they are corded and toast.

Well, first thing I can state is this car is one heavy @ss pig! The only way to go fast in this car is to turn PSM off and trailbrake the crap out of the car to get some rotation.

This event was our annual 3 day blowout to end the DE season for us here in Carolina. There are a few more events running through mid December but it's a crap shoot on the weather so I don't do those.

Comparing this car with my GT3 makes me laugh as I would use the analogy that this car is a butter knife and my GT3 a scalpel. The 6 pots really didn't give me a significant braking avantage but what they did allow me to do is go and entire session without overheating the brakes. With the 4 pots and my braking style I would be done in 5-6 laps and that is with proper cooling and SRF fluid.

So.....to the data.

Used a Traqmate system to capture the data for the weekend and here is some of the highlights.

Max speed front stretch 146 and max lateral load of 1.3g in T1

Min apex speed at T3 (NASCAR) of 65

Max entry speed into T7 (climbing esses) of 132

Min exit speed at T9 (exit of the esses) of 105

Max apex speed at T10 (southbend) of 96

Min apex speed at T12 (Oak Tree) of 42

Max speed on back straight of 154 with max braking of 1.1g

**listed max speed on accelerating apexes and min speed on decel holding speed apexes**

Fast laps? whipped off a few 208's with most laps of 209's

Impressions? For a car that is nearly 3500 pounds with NOTHING stripped out (even had all the crap in the front boot) and a driver that is 210 pounds I am very impressed how much fun this car can be without touching the important suspension components (i.e, adjustable dampers, springs, upper and lower control arms, toe arms, camber plates, and removing all the rubber in the suspension).

Do I miss the precision of the GT3? Absolutely. But this car comes home and gets 2 baby seats put back in after the event and I get to cruise around town with my little boys. PRICELESS!!!

Hoosier_Daddy

Excellent post.

Concur 100% with your thoughts.

LVDell

Thanks

.......by the way, what is "EPL"?

ps. nice list of past flames.

Land Jet

Changing the suspension really does make a difference. The extra 500lbs is still a problem though.

fdorn

Great post - thanks for sharing

SoloRacer

For comparison purposes, what were the times/speeds for your GT3? I would be curious to see how it compares to the Turbo from a non subjective basis.

PS: I believe EPL stands for European Performance Labs who are tuners for 996 Turbos. I have their tune on my car and should be in the 700 hp range shortly (Billet K16's, larger injectors, water/meth injection, etc.)

LVDell

For comparison I was running 203s in the GT3. 5 seconds is eternity once you drop below 210. I can't imagine doing much more than 207s with fresh rubber and a little more risk

Mikelly

This is a very good thread, worthy of a reasonable discussion here. I have some video of Dell passing me two+ years ago in his car, when I was still learning mine. I was running 2:10s and he was running off and hiding from me in his GT3 right before he sold it.

Dell do you have adjustable sway bars? That would help some in tightening things up in the rear and keeping the "push" at bay up front.

I'll have to dig up some of my old data (Haven't had luck with my traqmate the last few times at the track) and see where my car currently competes... For a car with no REAL camber in it, that's flying... Damned good job Dell!

Mike

LVDell

I agree Mike, I really need the adjustable ARBs if I want to be able to take care of some of that understeer. I just haven't really done anything to the car other than what I posted in post 1.

You ain't kidding about no camber.....0.9 is pathetic and really all I could get dialed in.

ARBs will probably be next. I did try messing with tire pressures to find the sweet spot and it seems that 36F 38R was the money spot. Once I got above 40 I was sliding all over the place. I almost went off at 5a and 9 a few times in a never ending 4 wheel drift. I also had a 3 way say going down the roller coaster that Randy was behind me and couldn't believe the car didn't loop around. My heart was racing a bit

Hope you feel better soon! Would have been great to run together at the event. Next one

ltc

I think it is obvious that the lower center of gravity provided by the center console non smoker kit "mod" made a clear improvement in lap time and handling

LVDell

worth at least a tenth or two no?

ltc

Absolutely

Mikelly

Oh Damnit LEWIS... You did it again... Dominion Octoberfest thru the nostrils.

Mike

ltc

Sense of humor ... My only real talent.

Besides, I thought you might enjoy a good laugh after your motorcycle accident.

Happy Thanksgiving

hets72

Hi Dell,

great post and sounds that you guy's had a great weekend....was doing some investigations for my car - thinking about putting the Manthey suspension (K&W setup) on next year (in preparation for Nuerburgring/Spa) - read on some of the German forum's - seem's like a good track/street compromise. (still trying to figure out if Bilstein, Manthey or K&W is the way to go...)

PS: will be in Raleigh in about 2 weeks time - hope to see you and the SCR crowd again soon.