Wanted to give you some feedback after my VIR weekend. Ran with NASA in Open Track Friday and HPDE 4 Sat/Sun. I spent last 3 years in an E30 M3 with a swap motor...now 2006 997S.

Overall I was very happy with the car. Temps and fluid levels stayed flat every session (I put 315 track miles on the car).

I was pleasantly surprised at the stopping power and consistency of the OE pads…I didn’t change them b/c the weather outlook was for rain and I really wanted to start from scratch. Friday and Saturday was overcast and 45-50 degrees. Stock pads held up very well throughout the event. The Michelin PS2’s were ok and if anything I would say tires were my biggest constraint. On the front and back straights the tires were slipping under heavy braking. They were great for 3-4 laps but then got very greasy after they heated up. The PSM certainly helped a few times.

The biggest challenge for me was courage frankly. The front end felt so light and loose compared to my M3 which caused me to be somewhat hesitant (not to mention the car still has temp tags). The difference in power/weight balance is very significant from what I was used to. Overall the car was great and if anything I think my first change would be tires….I am trying to take baby steps.

Love the feel of the car overall and was very impressed with how planted the car felt with the PASM engaged. I recorded some 2:20’s with the Chrono timer (my best in the E30 my was 2:15’s). Looking forward to figuring this thing out. Hoping to post some video tonight....

Cheers, Webb

 

Awesome! Would love to see some video. I hope to build up enough courage one day to do something like that in my car......too scared of damage to do it in my own!

 

how did you find p-car pedals for heel&toe after E30? I was consistently hitting floor mat in my 997 car after miata.

 

Seemed easier actually.

 

thats for sharing your experiences....very nice read

 

Congrats on the successful event!

I did my first at NJMP two weeks ago with the PCA. Stock pads as well since Carbotech sent me the wrong size pads a day prior. With fresh Motul fluid the stock pads worked great and even the PS2's felt good. I did have the pressures slightly lower than factory when hot though. Did you have yours on the higher side perhaps?

I was worried about the heel/toe and contemplated getting pedal extensions to help out but once you're out on track they worked fine. I never press the brakes NEARLY hard enough on the street to get the pedal low enough to match up with the gas properly. When you're pressing down hard though the gas pedal is decently spaced to blip easy enough.

Couldn't complain about thing really. I was extremely pleased.

 

Have had the same experience with my 19" PS2's. Not the greatest tire on the track, especially when the hot tire pressures increase over 40lbs.

Were you taking your tire pressure before/after each run?

Keeping the hot tire pressure under 40lbs required cold temps in the high 20's/low 30's...try it next time and see if it helps.

 

First of all, your car thanks you for letting it do what it was meant for.

Second, I know exactly what you are talking about in the courage department... I also did my first DE at VIR in 2002 and can remember very well how counter intuitive it was to "give more gas" to keep the car planted... All I wanted was lift my foot!

Once you get the hang of it though... It only gets better. Oak Tree is magical once you understand how you can throttle steer the rear of car around it. I am not in NC anymore but I still long for those fall DE days at VIR.

Thanks for sharing, it sure brought back great memories.

Regards,

T.

 

Congrats, the car is really great on track, even stock!

Yeah it's hard to have enough courage to drive a Porsche to its limits. I still struggle with braking as late as the car can handle, the brakes are just so good.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

I was fearless in the E30 M3 and would bounce the front tires off the curbs and go flat out up the S-turns at VIR. For reference i would enter the S's at 110mph and exit at 110 or greater....last weekend I was exiting slower than I entered...

This car doesnt like the curbs...

I did a flush with Castrol SRF....tires started at 33/35 and stayed at 39psi after some bleeding for the rest of the day.

One thing that caused me to hesitate was when exiting the turns the front felt light and the rear felt like it might break off at any time (twice the psm shut it down).....I think i just need to get used to that.

 

That is an interesting comment... I also had that feeling when I first drove my 997.2 last year. I was coming out of a 996 which felt different.

Things to try:

- 39 PSI seems a tad high, I normally run around 34F 36R and that works for me. If you do a lot of tracking, track wheels/tires may be better and cheaper in the long run since PS2's are crazy expensive. You might want to look into that.
- The factory alignment specs are really not that good for the track, you might want to try to max out the negative camber on the front wheels and/or maybe get some adjustable LCA's; I run about -2.3F and -1.9R on RSS LCA's but YMMV, do a search here in the forums, there is a lot of info about this.

After I did these two things, all was goodl in the world again...

T.

 

What happened to your M3? I'm actually looking for another one.

 

Max Fischer bought it...Races an E46 M3 in Nasa MA GTS 4.....Pretty well know around the track. Lives in Richmond.

 

Yep, I know Max. Glad it went to a good home.

Cheers, Patrick

 

Have to love those M3's. Not surprised your times were better, even once you've had a lot more experience in the rear engine car.