How do you launch your car at AX? What works best at limiting wheel spin, getting max acceleration and not frying the clutch?

Any advice and experiences appreciated.

 

Since you don't have to leave the moment the flag drops, there is really no rush......that is to say, plenty of time to go thru your start drill. There is a wide variation in the traction quality of asphalt. If prior practice has shown a 3000 rpm launch is good, it may be too much or too little for this particular launch area....even if you run the same asphalt all the time. Concrete is much more consistent.

Some starts are straight ahead, but many at SCCA are a car length to a hard 90. Some foolin' around is in order. I've smoked the hides around a few of these...and
understeered straight off....that'll make ya feel like a chump. I think the rear tires were hot and it hooked up...no one was more surprised than me.
On these, I try to angle the car in the box pointed at the apex of the 90 and always stage as shallow a the flagger will let me get away with.

I want on the bump as quickly as I can get there so, after a 2500-3000 rpm launch
(minimal or no wheel spin) I roll into wide guts. My car has moved maybe 5-6 feet and the clutch is out (that's a guess)and the hammer is going down. My tires break loose around 5K rpms regardless....straight or turned. On a tight 90, that is not a gud plan so I'll feather around it, but still OTG. On many starts, I find I need to short shift out of first at the first opportunity as the ideal shift point is in the middle of another turn.

My car weighs about 1000 lbs less than your 987, but the weight bias should be
about the same.....I hear the 987 suffers from wheel hop if launched too hard.. which may give you a data point...mine doesn't, but I try to aviod real hard launches in deference to my 901 trans.....the red mist does get me every so often, tho. I've seen a lot of hard launched Boxsters go off with their tail pipes waving up & down.

All & all, gud fun.

 

I rev it to 3500 to 4000 (depending on conditions), and let go of the clutch fast (but not too fast), while simultaneously adding gas to stay in the given rpm until there is no slip on the clutch. In my car this lets me launch with no or minimal wheel spin, which I believe is the fastest way. You might want to experiment a bit.

 

I try to avoid too much of a clutch drop, because the traction control will kick in regardless of whether PSM is off. Once the car is rolling a little bit (2 feet?), I put my foot into the gas and launch from there. This avoids the electronics taking over.

 

Since Porsche clutches and transmissions aren't cheap, I don't worry about a "great" launch. Only one that doesn't stall the car, gets a tiny bit of wheel slip and off I go. Plus, with timing lights a few feet away from the "start" line, I don't feel the pressure to drop the clucth from 3500rpm . Even with this "conservative" start, I've had a share of FTD's and class wins, combined with clutches that have lasted for years (8-10yrs!)

 

Brown Car, '72 911, likes to walk up to 4k then it let's me know to drop the clutch the wheels spin for a car length or two once they hook-up we shift into 2nd.

eric salem
'00 & '01 MiDiv FP champion