Originally Posted by Larry Herman

Anders, I don't quite understand what you are talking about. Maybe it's because I have driven 911s for so long, but I find that you have to stop trailbraking when the back of the car tells you to stop. If you are at or close to the limit, it is not a choice, it is a carefully executed technique that ends at the right place, at the right time in a turn.

Originally Posted by forklift

Welcome Steve, thanks for your insights.

I dug up this article from an old thread written in 2001 I think. He doesn't mention what kind of throttle he goes to after braking.....constant like you mention or more to the floor like Larry, but I found it interesting:

"Ready for the rocking chair?
You can drive a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup like it was a Trans-Am racer, but you won't win that way
BY PAUL GENTILOZZI

You can drive a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup like it was a Trans-Am racer, but you won't win that way
Here's the deal. You're flat on the gas down the pit straight at Hockenheim, approaching 150 mph. When you get to the "2"
marker before the Nordkurve, hard on the brakes, you downshift from fifth through second. You feel the front end hunting while the ABS selects the best loading as you turn toward the apex, then you roll off the brake to the throttle and upshift to third just as you cross the outside curbing at the exit. That's how we do it, isn't it? If you're driving a 2001 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup using that technique- a technique I've used for 20 years in sedan racing in the United States-you're going to be near the back of the Porsche Pirelli Supercup field. How do I know this? I've been there. When I went to Indianapolis last year to do the Porsche Pirelli Supercup race during the Formula One weekend, there was no coaching of any kind. Like Al Unser Jr., Mario Andretti and all of the other Porsche neophytes participating, I drove like I knew how. But after five laps around Hockenheim with former World Rally champion Walter Roehrl it became painfully evident that the required technique for Supercup driving is much different from
what I'm accustomed to.
Paul Gentilozzi strapped in to the GT3.
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is a real race car, but it's a race car with the engine behind the transaxle. Its polar moment and weight
bias don't match the 50-50 norm we're accustomed to in Trans-Am; moreover, it changes all intuitive driving techniques for front- or mid-engine race cars. The 911 GT3 Cup requires a special finesse that starts when you pick that brake point at the end of a straightaway. Being the last guy to brake for the corner makes you the first victim. The rear weight bias inherent in all 911-type
Porsches becomes an enemy. I noticed Walter was two car-lengths earlier with his braking than I had been during my reconnaissance lap, but four car-lengths earlier on his throttle application. The key to driving the 911 GT3
quickly is initiating acceleration as early as possible after brake application. Think of it as a rocking chair. If you lean too far
forward, the weight is on the front of the legs and you have very little control or balance if you leaned the chair laterally. If you just
roll a little bit back in the rocking motion, you have the weight centered. Lateral balance and stability are much better.
We can't do anything about the rear weight prejudice in the 911. Early throttle application means longitudinal acceleration to help
propel the car forward without the inertia at the back of the car trying to pass the front in a lateral sweep.
For you Porsche owners who have hustled your cars around the streets or a racetrack, this probably seems basic. Yet to the
uninitiated, it's a 100-watt bulb shedding light on the dark mystery of driving Porsches fast. Once adapted to the style, you can really enjoy the 911 GT3. With Walter's driving lesson, and a little mental discipline, I almost forgot where the engine was. The 911 GT3 Cup became a well-balanced, pleasurable race car. I drove the car hard on the brakes and the gas, using all of the
engine, and it never faltered or complained. Heck, they even let real journalists drive it. If they couldn't break it, it must be
bulletproof."

Originally Posted by TD in DC

I have been watching this discussion with great interest because it reminds me of a criticism of my driving that I received from an instructor who drives a GT3.

I am typically on full throttle from the moment I get off the brakes, which is not all that impressive since I drive a n/a 944. This instructor looked at my data and told me that if I was able to get on full throttle from the moment I got off the brakes, then I was not carrying enough speed into the corners. In other words, full throttle from the moment of transition is evidence of overbraking. She said that the acceleration curves of my data logger shows that she is right. It seems like you and Leh Keen agree with her, while Larry, the writer of the articles and many others around here think that full throttle is better for settling the car and increasing lap times. Am I at least identifying the potential source of slight disagreement correctly, or have I misunderstood some or more of the posts?

I haven't fully formed an opinion yet, although I am not sure how much more speed I could carry into the corners when I am already pulling 1.1 to approx 1.3 gs in these corners.

P.S. The examples are from VIR. The first trace is red (2.26) in April at 40-50 degrees F on RA1s. The second trace is black (2.27) a few weekends ago at 90 degree F on Hoosiers that have too many heat cycles. I think the black trace, although slower, shows that I am not driving a little better overall.

Here are a few data examples of what I mean, including a sketch to illustrate what she said my data should look like.

Originally Posted by Larry Herman

No question that 944s are more tolerant of off-throttle work, and can be trailbraked farther into a turn, and then feel more stable with less throttle application in mid-turn (i.e. more momentum style driving). These rear-engined beasts like to corner with lots of throttle, although not as much now with the 996/997 platform.