911pcars

I concur with John @ Redline. A G-50 gearbox and a racing budget is one thing. A 915 with a normal budget is another. Double clutch for the sake of your synchros.

FWIW, sequential downshifting requires less thinking about revs, gear position and vehicle speed. There's enough to think about (racing) w/o keeping track of more input data.

Sherwood

ColorChange

OK Guys, pretty sure I have the straight scoop here but if not, Leh can set me straight. Thanks to Sol at Perfect Power for the discussion.

Here is what I think he is doing.

1. Let off the throttle and pull the car out of gear when the load is reduced.
2. If you do it right, the car slides out of gear without any "pop", grinding, or a big tug required.
3. As the car is now in neutral with the clutch out, blip the throttle. (We have skipped one cycle in the usual double clutch downshift.)
4. When you rev match, depress the clutch and slide the car into gear.
5. Release the clutch.
All quickly of course.

pedsurg

Leh: Thanks for sharing.

Does anyone on the know of a better one lap video at Sebring or should this video now be considered our "gold standard"

Thanks again Leh
Jack

Rolo

What do you know, you can't drive for crap anyway....You're brother is much faster!!!


note: just ribbing a former instructor. He's really better than his brother

Stuttgart

Hi john,
I wouldn't say I'm better than anybody, but sometimes i'm just a tad quicker, so how's that new GT3 treating you?

Rolo

Its great, as you probabley know. Way past my skill level. I'll have it at Road Atlanta in June. How did ya'll do last year?

Mark in Baltimore

I think it's a "pretty good" time. Leh qualified over a second faster than some guy named Wolf Henzler who got pole in a little race called the Daytona 24 Hours.

Mike A.

Not to take away from Leh, but his car is classed in GTA. Henzler's in GTC3.

Mark in Baltimore

I know. Impressive, nonetheless.

RedlineMan

Shift smoothly and carefully. What's the rush?

As for being fast, Henzler's times did not drop dramatically throughtout the weekend as I recall. He was running in the 2:09s-10s right out of the box, and was quickest until qualifying, if I remember right. His first time there, too.

THAT, my friends, is fast.

MJR911

right on John. I thought it was halarious when Henzler was called up for his "rookie" license!

Benton

I'd love to see an in-car video of Henzler. It seems like he can hit the perfect slip angle all the way around the track. Incredible.

With the same driver, about how many seconds will a GT3 RS have to a GT3 cup?

Larry Herman

Gee John, for the owner of a race/repair shop I would think that you'd be telling them to row up and down the gears as hard and fast as possible. Great for lap times. Nothing like a little job security!

Greg Fishman

Not really the answer to your question but I would compare the pole times I list below to Henzlers at 2:09 and change. 4-5 seconds would be my guess. Maybe closer with the same tires.

In 2003 the qualifying times for GT, also realize this was on the Michelin tires which are not possible to buy. Not sure what Leh was using but anything else is at least a second slower, everything else being equal. Leh's time is very quick by these standards.

Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen, winner of the GT class at Sebring the past two years, set the fastest time of the day in that class with a lap of 2:06.559 in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Marc Lieb was second in class with a lap of 2:06.865 in the Orbit Porsche that he will share with Leo Hindery and Peter Baron, just ahead of the second Job machine of Jorg Bergmeister and Timo Bernhard at 2:07.235.

For 2004 they had the GT3RSR with many upgrades including the sequential gear box. Quote with qualifying times:

Alex Job Racing driver Timo Bernhard (Jorg Bergmeister/Sascha Maassen) earned pole position aboard his Porsche — breaking his own track record to stop the clocks at 2:04.804 — 1.219 seconds under the record.


Basically Leh is right at the top pros times with similar equipment in qualifying format. Now what the top pros do best is turn lap after lap within tenths of a second even with traffic and a car with tires that are decreasing in grip.

Greg Fishman

One more thing. I have had several pro drivers in my car and they both shifted gears just like Leh. Damn fast and very smoothly. Very little margin of error when you are shifting that fast.