PSDS Intro & Masters Report
10-26-2008, 12:13 PM
#16
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Yes it was a great Masters!!
Rain driving was an unexpected bonus on Friday. Yes speeds were down as you tippy toe around the track feeling the car, slip around and not react as clearly as it will in the dry. Towards the end of the day the rain pretty much stopped and the line started to dry out and the feeling of the car started to return, tires were starting to jitter. All a plus!!
If you have never done PSDS, just do it! You will NOT be dissapointed
Great to meet Dave!
Rain driving was an unexpected bonus on Friday. Yes speeds were down as you tippy toe around the track feeling the car, slip around and not react as clearly as it will in the dry. Towards the end of the day the rain pretty much stopped and the line started to dry out and the feeling of the car started to return, tires were starting to jitter. All a plus!!
If you have never done PSDS, just do it! You will NOT be dissapointed
Great to meet Dave!
Driving in the rain was quite the experience!
10-27-2008, 12:20 AM
#17
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all - i have to say this was a great experience and getting to meet brian, colm, pete, dave, etc was a highlight.
i did the intro psds course one year ago and then had about 12 track days last summer. this year i went back to the masters class and enjoyed every minute of it.
a few things i learned:
- brian (mjones) is a maniac. if you ever want to know something, ask him. not sure if that applies to politics or finances btw
- helio castroneves is in big big trouble. apparently some other drivers use the same attorney and did the same stuff. bad things happening there with offshore finances. never f*&^ with the tax man
- coochas really digs cats. he and hurley talked about them a lot. i'm pretty sure he got himself a ride in the rolex series
- colm knows his cars. pretty much just don't mess with him. no, i'm not saying he's always right but if you're thinking of trying something, he's probably done it already
- instructors at PSDS go thru the ringer before they're hired. and, they're fast. it's supposed to be the hardest gig to get hired into relative to skip barber, bmw, etc...
- you really learn a lot about your smoothness and needing to drive without tension in the rain. we had downpours and the car felt like it was on skates. and hey, i live in seattle but we pushed it pretty hard here
- the chief instructor for psds in germany is wicked fast. he passed me in the wet like i was standing still. came out of nowhere
cello - there is a huge gap between DE instruction and PSDS in my humble opinion. you combine the best facilities with the best instructors with great cars at PSDS. my experience with both a local racing school and PCA DE instruction left me wanting to go straight back to PSDS. i advise everybody to take this course and then fine tune what you want for your local facility. the local guys will always be able to get you strong insight into your local venue and that's important of course. but for overall attitude, car control, and the experience, PSDS can't be beat.
lastly, thanks to all the great guys that dave mentions. the program at psds is first class all the way.
brendan
i did the intro psds course one year ago and then had about 12 track days last summer. this year i went back to the masters class and enjoyed every minute of it.
a few things i learned:
- brian (mjones) is a maniac. if you ever want to know something, ask him. not sure if that applies to politics or finances btw
- helio castroneves is in big big trouble. apparently some other drivers use the same attorney and did the same stuff. bad things happening there with offshore finances. never f*&^ with the tax man
- coochas really digs cats. he and hurley talked about them a lot. i'm pretty sure he got himself a ride in the rolex series
- colm knows his cars. pretty much just don't mess with him. no, i'm not saying he's always right but if you're thinking of trying something, he's probably done it already
- instructors at PSDS go thru the ringer before they're hired. and, they're fast. it's supposed to be the hardest gig to get hired into relative to skip barber, bmw, etc...
- you really learn a lot about your smoothness and needing to drive without tension in the rain. we had downpours and the car felt like it was on skates. and hey, i live in seattle but we pushed it pretty hard here
- the chief instructor for psds in germany is wicked fast. he passed me in the wet like i was standing still. came out of nowhere
cello - there is a huge gap between DE instruction and PSDS in my humble opinion. you combine the best facilities with the best instructors with great cars at PSDS. my experience with both a local racing school and PCA DE instruction left me wanting to go straight back to PSDS. i advise everybody to take this course and then fine tune what you want for your local facility. the local guys will always be able to get you strong insight into your local venue and that's important of course. but for overall attitude, car control, and the experience, PSDS can't be beat.
lastly, thanks to all the great guys that dave mentions. the program at psds is first class all the way.
brendan
10-27-2008, 09:58 PM
#18
Three Wheelin'
cello - there is a huge gap between DE instruction and PSDS in my humble opinion. you combine the best facilities with the best instructors with great cars at PSDS. my experience with both a local racing school and PCA DE instruction left me wanting to go straight back to PSDS. i advise everybody to take this course and then fine tune what you want for your local facility. the local guys will always be able to get you strong insight into your local venue and that's important of course. but for overall attitude, car control, and the experience, PSDS can't be beat.
10-30-2008, 12:25 AM
#20
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Great write up Dave. Brian encouraged me to go when I first purchased my car. What a great time I had. It's time for me to go back and take the Masters. One difference that I see with your course as opposed to mine was that in the intro course on the second day they had us drive black C2S's. You could really feel the difference and performance between the two on the track. And I still have my autographed hat from Hurley Haywood. Once again thanks for the pics. It's motivated me to think about this coming year and making a trip down to Birmingham again.
Jay
Jay
10-30-2008, 12:46 AM
#21
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Thread Starter
Everybody won!
but nobody beat my 31.24 autoX run in the Intro course...then again I took out 2 cones on one of my laps. My team lost both days in the AutoX mainly because of pit stop times. I'll lose some weight before my next Masters course and try to improve my part of the team pit stops.
Thanks for pointing that out. I forgot to add that on our 2nd day they had us run a little bit in the black C2S PCCB cars. They opted NOT to break out the C2S cars on the 2nd day of the Masters because the course was so wet: they feel that the S cars are just that much more risky in the rain. Personally I think it;s because black is such a pain to keep clean....j/k of course.
but nobody beat my 31.24 autoX run in the Intro course...then again I took out 2 cones on one of my laps. My team lost both days in the AutoX mainly because of pit stop times. I'll lose some weight before my next Masters course and try to improve my part of the team pit stops.
Great write up Dave. Brian encouraged me to go when I first purchased my car. What a great time I had. It's time for me to go back and take the Masters. One difference that I see with your course as opposed to mine was that in the intro course on the second day they had us drive black C2S's. You could really feel the difference and performance between the two on the track. And I still have my autographed hat from Hurley Haywood. Once again thanks for the pics. It's motivated me to think about this coming year and making a trip down to Birmingham again.
Jay
Jay
10-31-2008, 07:14 AM
#23
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10-31-2008, 12:31 PM
#24
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let's be clear. I won 
seriously though, it was nice to see the higher level of performance overall in the masters class that the intro - it's basically driven by familiarity and attitude. people are more familiar with teh cars & the track so performance increases.
and, in teh masters, the students are self selected to a degree so there's more enthusiasm.
regarding Carerra S driving: we didn't take them out because of the rain.
brendan.
ps. sorry about no spell check. this isn't the fricking shakespeare forum !!
seriously though, it was nice to see the higher level of performance overall in the masters class that the intro - it's basically driven by familiarity and attitude. people are more familiar with teh cars & the track so performance increases.
and, in teh masters, the students are self selected to a degree so there's more enthusiasm.
regarding Carerra S driving: we didn't take them out because of the rain.
brendan.
ps. sorry about no spell check. this isn't the fricking shakespeare forum !!
10-31-2008, 09:29 PM
#25
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Thread Starter
let's be clear. I won
seriously though, it was nice to see the higher level of performance overall in the masters class that the intro - it's basically driven by familiarity and attitude. people are more familiar with teh cars & the track so performance increases.
and, in teh masters, the students are self selected to a degree so there's more enthusiasm.
regarding Carerra S driving: we didn't take them out because of the rain.
brendan.
ps. sorry about no spell check. this isn't the fricking shakespeare forum !!
seriously though, it was nice to see the higher level of performance overall in the masters class that the intro - it's basically driven by familiarity and attitude. people are more familiar with teh cars & the track so performance increases.
and, in teh masters, the students are self selected to a degree so there's more enthusiasm.
regarding Carerra S driving: we didn't take them out because of the rain.
brendan.
ps. sorry about no spell check. this isn't the fricking shakespeare forum !!
Honestly Brendan, I have to say that I think there were people in the Masters that should have been doing the Intro course over. And the 'GT3 guy' shouldn't be driving at all. I do overall agree that most of the attendees were appropriate in the Masters.
11-01-2008, 01:37 AM
#26
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It's spelled friggin'.
Honestly Brendan, I have to say that I think there were people in the Masters that should have been doing the Intro course over. And the 'GT3 guy' shouldn't be driving at all. I do overall agree that most of the attendees were appropriate in the Masters.
Honestly Brendan, I have to say that I think there were people in the Masters that should have been doing the Intro course over. And the 'GT3 guy' shouldn't be driving at all. I do overall agree that most of the attendees were appropriate in the Masters.
quote of the day from the track: "GT3 guy is going on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CONE going into the esses!"
fair enough.
11-01-2008, 10:41 AM
#27
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Thread Starter
ok, so a couple people should not have been allowed to drive out there, especially in the rain. when we listened in on the radios, the instructors were quick with the black flags, so that really enhanced my appreciation for their keeping it fun for everybody.
quote of the day from the track: "GT3 guy is going on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CONE going into the esses!"
fair enough.
quote of the day from the track: "GT3 guy is going on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CONE going into the esses!"
fair enough.
Brian just sent me the 09 Masters schedule!
3/12-13
4/23-24
5/27-28
9/17-18
10/16-17
We should orchestrate a get together as 09 unwinds...assuming we all still have jobs and that the DJIA is at least 5000.
11-01-2008, 12:57 PM
#28
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ok, so a couple people should not have been allowed to drive out there, especially in the rain. when we listened in on the radios, the instructors were quick with the black flags, so that really enhanced my appreciation for their keeping it fun for everybody.
quote of the day from the track: "GT3 guy is going on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CONE going into the esses!"
fair enough.
quote of the day from the track: "GT3 guy is going on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CONE going into the esses!"
fair enough.
The GT3 guy passed on the wrong side of that cone more than once as I watched from high above the track, in the rain no less.
I will be returning on Nov 11-13 for the 3 day (Race License) Competition Course, which should be interesting as well as fun, limited to 20 participants.
The T5 exercise should be interesting...PSM will be OFF. (pic below) Should be interesting to watch!
The have an acronym for this as well: CLA
Controlled Lateral Acceleration.
I'm not doing it for the Race License either, but for the enhanced driving experience.
I will say it again:
If you have never attended PSDS, make the time to do so, you will not be disappointed! By the time you, do the MY'09 cars will be in the fleet.
If you have attended the PSDS Performance class...
do yourself a favor, sign-up and attend the Masters course....you will not regret doing so! You will learn a whole lot more about the capabilities of your Porsche, and yourself. If it rains consider that to be a bonus!
Last edited by MJones; 08-03-2010 at 12:31 PM.
