dantzig

Went to a DE at Mid-Ohio with OVR-PCA this past weekend. Friday was a great day, with temps in the 50's and sun. I burned 37 gallons of fuel on Friday. I feel so guilty about my carbon footprint... Saturday it rained all day. Sunday was clear, cold and windy.

Got hooked up with another instructor in a 997 GT3 and caught some good video, see below. He's better than I am in some corners, I'm better than he is in others. I'm faster in all of the straights.

I had made some suspension mods over the winter, and this was my second session. The car was pretty loose here (watch the hands at 2:15). I got it dialed in later with sway bar and camber adjustments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXxgTW2Rg04

jpflip

Nice video John . Thanks for sharing, you are a very good driver Mr. le Professeur. I am impress, but these hands at the wheel look very young. Are you sure it is you at the wheel not your youngest son? Or you are using Palmolive liquid soap

Oak

lol^ nice driving and vid! what kind of tires were you running? noticed the tires were crying for mercy.

Land Jet

Yea I wondered about the tires too, they sound like street tires. I wanted to see you crush him on the straight.

Remind me what suspension mods you did Jon. How are you liking them?

dantzig

Thanks, guys.

Both of us were on Michelin Pilot Sport Cups. I wish I could claim to have been on street tires. Mid-Ohio put down a special sealant in the corners - you see the darker black patches in the video - and that stuff makes the tires scream like that. On other tracks, the tires are relatively quiet. You notice it especially in the carousel and keyhole where you use some trailing throttle oversteer to rotate the car in the middle of the corner. I was searching for a better line through the carousel, because the ideal line has a nasty bump right where you'd like to apex that really upset my car - you can see it in the video. My student had a 996TT with a softer suspension and it wasn't nearly as upsetting. I eventually found something where I started out wider and rotated the car around the bump.

I was crushing him in the straights. We come out of the keyhole at about 75 mph, where 5 carlengths = about 1 second. I'm closing that distance to only 1-2 carlengths down the straight, and 5 carlengths at 150 mph = 0.5 seconds. So I am picking up nearly a second on him there. On all of the other long straights, we either maintain or close the gap, so same deal there.

I changed the springs from 225/450 to 450/670 and had the PSS9's revalved to match the new spring rates. The car is much more responsive now, and also somewhat easier to drive, although the hands have to be smoother. I really noticed this on unwinding the steering between linked turns.

I started with my previous setup, swaybars full soft in front and full stiff in the rear. That's how it was in this video. The car was pretty loose. I went two holes (of five) stiffer on the front bar, and I also reduced the rear camber from -3.1 to -2.7 degrees, and the car felt much better. The camber was affecting the high speed braking, which was a bit squirrely at the end of the back straight where you go from 150+ to maybe 60 or 70. I should check the Traqmate to see those speeds - haven't gotten around to it yet. Unfortunately, I don't have Traqmate data to go with that video clip.

Jon

dantzig

Hey, I can't share all of my beauty secrets with you J-P!

Dock

I think "crushing" might be a little too strong a word.

dantzig

Call it what you like, Dock. I'd estimate that I am picking up at least 2 and maybe 3 seconds per lap on the straights.

LVDell

2-3 seconds is huge! I'd call that crushing it

Nice vid, thanks for sharing

dantzig

Thank you for your support!

Too bad I had to give a lot of it back in the twisties...

Dock

You drive very well, and I know your Turbo has big power with the mods you have. But I personally reserve words like "crush" for passes like the one in the video below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuvE3m7h1kY

Your video may not do your acceleration performance justice, but it looks to me like there is no substantial visual closure on the GT3 in the straights until he begins braking (which is when visual closure on him would naturally be more apparent anyway).

My personal takeaway from your video though is how well you do in the corners against the GT3 (and I know there could be driver proficiency differences in some of the corners that might account for this).

dantzig

Well, OK, that's a crush...

Well, that's kind of the point. If the distance between the vehicles stays the same while the speed doubles, the trailing car is reducing the time separation substantially. Then, when you reduce speeds again that becomes more obvious. Anyway, I think we're saying the same thing.

Jon

LVDell

That's what happens when you give up almost 500 pounds!

dantzig

Amen to that!

Kevin

Jon, nice job! Do you have a vid with the final suspension tweaks in place. The reborn PSS9!!