Carrera GT

I think what "doesn't add up" is PDK and the AWD from the 997 Turbo -- both of which are like KERS as an advantage to amateur drovers.

Carrera GT

Hi Ken. That was my new Cabrio. Still unmodified from the showroom, but I did put some old RA-1's on, but a cold track (wet fog all day on the Sunday) made it a guessing game for pressures.

The car really needs a balance and alignment as well as correct ride height and at least a rear sway. It takes some practice to get it to keep the weight on the rear -- if you let it get on the fronts, it slows to a crawl. But PDK to the rescue when the engine needs to get all that weight out of the turns (it's a C4S Cabrio, so 3500+lbs factory spec, meaning probably closer to 3600lb with fuel, plus at least 220 with driver.)

I was mightily impressed with the new 997.2 911 and PDK -- much more fun and engaging and challenging than I expected. And you really couldn't convince me that an incremental model update from 997.1 to 997.2 could yield such an improvement in the car. The week I got it, I had a day at Laguna and, hand-timed, short-shifting at 5000 rpm, it was already quicker than anyone would reasonably believe, so I'm glad I had a chance to let the engine run in and get a transponder time at Sears as a sanity check.

Whatever the factory did the front end, especially rebound damping and steering, the car is easier to understand and seems to give more information back through the suspension and steering. I have to imagine the lighter car for the track (C2S with light seats, cage, suspension) would be a lot of fun and the coming RS will surely live up to the name and the heritage. Porsche might be drowning in politics and profit objectives, but somehow, they still turn out a 911 that just plain has no equal in the market for new cars.

Compared to the 997.2 911, the "legs" of the 997.1 and 997.2 GT3's were evident uphill out of the carousel and along the straights, but nobody was using their brakes, so I was making up time just with deep braking, then trailing into the apex (by necessity, otherwise the AWD keeps the car planted with plow-on understeer.)

I haven't been to Sears in several years, so I was relying upon some very good PCA GGR time trial drivers to help me with the line and I'm looking forward to more fun there soon. With some minor tweaks, I think the "school bus" is capable of better handling, but it's forte is the road, not the track, so it will remain stock, but it's next challenge will be snow tires and weekends at Squaw Valley, hopefully in deep snow.

Carrera GT

For me in the AWD "family car" Cabrio, with $100K+ and no real insurance for the car, as well as a sense of self-preservation, I was taking a pretty conservative line at critical points. I didn't take any "big off" risks -- the main risk would be a driver error or traction problem at low speeds and into the concrete (or another driver involving my car in their calamity.) I was leaving plenty of time on the table between T1 and 2, into 4, and through 9 and 10 (plus, it was a cold day and an unfamiliar track, so I wasn't letting myself be too cavalier.)

quickxotica

CarreraGT/Adam;

Thanks for posting such detailed thoughts on your new car. I enjoyed chatting with you in the paddock. I am still totally in shock at how fast your 997.2 has turned out to be. I also didn't realize it was PDK... makes for a very interesting data-point on what these new car can do, even in showroom-stock condition (tires aside, of course).

Hopefull we'll see you again next TT season! Cheers,

tdf360

I think you are being quite modest, Adam. I've seen a lot lap times at SP and this is one of the more impressive data points on my mental graph. The car can only account for so much, given the limitations of the lb/hp constraint. One of the most talented Bay Area drivers (IMO) did a 51.4 last year in his very well set up '04 GT3, and that was a time that turned heads. Nicely done, I'm suitably impressed!

Gary

dp35

I agree with the above, and am also very impressed. Both the car and driver had to be performing quite well. Good job!

Porsche should send owners such as this a gift, because this is the best endorsement a car can get IMO. I realize they can't, because other less talented drovers would kill themselves chasing the gift...

race911

How so? Go look at the club race records for stock class cars when we ran in '02 and '03 and you'll see that would put that car about even with my RS America. Not on Hoosiers. And factory stock except for a shock/spring replacement, RS bars and Pagid pads. One of the guys I used to pit with ran a 3.3 930, 4 speed variant, that I think only had Hoosiers, larger t-bars and a pad replacement and he was in the 1:48-9 range.

(I'd suggest PRC data for more recent years, but no one runs anything in the way of a stock or prepared class car anymore.)

tdf360

Another data point...checking the PCA results page shows the Infineon lap record for Adam's class was 1:56, and 2nd place in that class was 1:57.6 (on that particular day), so yeah I think the 1:50.4 was outstanding.

Gary

mooty

if you were referring to JR, he did 1:47 in his GT3.
hoosiers
4.0 R&P

tdf360

Yeah, I was more interested in his MPSC times, for comparison purposes.

Gary

mark kibort

nice laps for a heavy car!

Way too narrow into turn 1, and it messes you up for 2. the rest looks pretty good. later braking and more of a trail brake into 7 works for me, but that could be a style thing.

Tom W

Mark: After over 60 race laps at SP yesterday and trying it both ways, I'm convinced that the tighter line is faster, despite the compromise on T2 entry and attack. The tighter line was also used by the TRG '09 cups in the sprint and enduro races driven by Craig Stanton, Andre Richard and John Potter (if I've got the names right). Their faster laps were 1:39's.

mark kibort

I've tried both as well. what i do think with the 1:39 cars, is that its a way to bleed off speed and get the car suspension loaded earlier to get more control up to the approach to 2. I think with the slower cars, driving a little wider and more traditional, provides a greater benefit. In my time range 1:47-8ish, when I run against narrow line competitors in this section, i seem to run up on them there and no where else.

Getting back to the video and car we are looking at here, it seems to hurt his speed in this area. Just an observation.

By the way, your car looks great. Just saw it at Jerry's last week when I dropped off my header to be fixed .

mk

Tom W

Ha! I saw a header on the floor on Thursday night when I picked up my car and thought "That looks like the header Kibort wanted to get fixed". Thanks for the compliment on the Turtle. We were happy with how it ran. If we ran 1:45-1:47 this weekend, does that me we're slow?

In the Sunday morning race and practice, Gary Walton and I were running within a tenth of a second of each other lap after lap. I made up most my time on him in T1&T2 by taking the inside line when he was going more outside. He was consistently better than me in T4, which he carried to T10, where I was also a tad faster than him. Great racing all weekend.