993inNC

While I agree with the comfort level steps comment, I disagree with "don't do it if you're not comfortable". The entire reason one should be at a DE is to learn what they don't know, which is most likely to take them out of their comfort zone. Proper communication with the instructor is key, and a good instructor will know how to progress someone in baby steps.

NEVER let your instructor drive your car........period. I don't care how many have done it and have been just fine. A) you run the risk that they damage your car (how will the insurance co. deal with that?), B) you shouldn't be trying to mimic what they just did....in your car. When a student needs extra attention to a detail, the instructor should really go out in his/her car. If the sanctioning group has done a good match the car of the student and that of the instructor may be close or at least similar to each other.

I know many think its fine to have the teacher drive the student's car, but as time goes on and society gets more litigious, are we in charge, not learning anything? Its not enough that we strap ourselves into strange cars with strange people and allow them to hurl us around a track at speed, but to drive their car and take that risk......? I don't even like taking students for a ride anymore. Between the recent death at CMP of an instructor and the Ferrari incident a few years ago......
More people are doing these DE's and get signed off quicker than ever before (another entire rant on its own), do we really need the extra risks?

sorry, I'll step down now

JackOlsen

Nope. It's just a 328i. So I had the pedal all the way to the floor for most of each lap. The car handled the sessions just fine -- although it's hard to say that with absolute certainty, since there are so few gauges on the car.

It's a nicely balanced car and the stock runflat tires are better than most street tires. I disabled traction control, but didn't have it breaking loose in any unpredictable ways.

But a 911 feels like it wants to be on a track, to me. The BMW feels like it's just tolerating it -- doing a good job of keeping you safe, but waiting patiently for the end of the session and the return to its normal street duties.

BlueJay73

Whew!!!
Now THAT was something! Hours later, my head is still spinning. I've never done anything like this in a car before! And I found that a Porsche is a pretty formidable machine.
I listened to my instructor, and tried to do what he said...sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn't.
Pushing out of one's comfort zone in baby steps is pretty accurate. I was going lots faster at the end of the day than at the beginning--which I found driving the correct line going slow (morning) is a little different than doing it much faster (afternoon--the increased speed meant different braking, lot less time to set up the turn, lot more unforgiving of making the turn with less than the desired line). Hard for me to imagine, at this time, doing that in traffic!
Funny--for me, flooring it and hard braking and hard turning on the track totally satisfied my "need for speed" for this day. I had no desire to take any of this aggression out on the public roads on the 1 hour drive home. Tracking may be the cure for aggressive street driving.

What's a brake pad that is good on track, but is still good on the street in a DD? Stick with stock OEM?

Thanks for all the advice. My guess is most of you guys are instructors.

Jimmy
#27

RickBetterley

Glad you had a great time, Jimmy - sounds like a rewarding day for you.
Your report on the day and the implications of getting faster shows that you were aware of what was going on, a good sign.
Lots of us that post here are instructors, but not all. We are an inclusive bunch.
Welcome to our shared slippery slope!

e9stibi

Great that you enjoyed it! Did you experience any limitations with your stock brakes? Stock pads should be generally ok at the beginning. However, I would upgrade to better brake fluid.

J richard

Jimmy, congrats, it's all downhill from here...except for the jonesing for track events, constant upgrades, tweaks, tires and mods...

You should be ok for a while with stock brakes but as mentioned they need to be in good shape, plenty of pad and a good fluid and a fresh bleed. As you start out it's common to overuse the brakes.

And yea it really fills your need for speed, once you've really driven hard on the track it makes pushing it on the street pretty silly...

Gary R.

Well done Jimmy, welcome to the addiction. I can remember my ride home from Watkins Glen after my 1st DE.. may as well been driving a Buick, I was spent.

My993C2

+1

Okay I am guilty of speeding on the public roads, but then most people are as well. When I say I speed on public roads I speak of going 5-20 clicks over the limits depending on the road, traffic and weather. But now that I take my Porsche to my local race track, pushing the Porsche on public roads makes no sense at all. Why risk a ticket, being arrested or worse an accident in an uncontrolled environment when I know I can push the car to my limits in a controlled environment like my local race track.

Maybe one day I can do some road trips with my car and visit some iconic North America race tracks like Laguna Seca, Infineon, Sebring, VIR, Millersports Park, Road America, Mosport, Watkins Glen, etc, etc, etc for some track day sessions (these are all tracks I having driven in the virtual world but have yet to set foot on them in real life).

993inNC

+1

Sounds like you had a great day, and an eye opening one too, congrats. As Rick said, the awareness level, of how rapidly things change with speed, is an excellent sign indeed

There are some top notch tracks all up and down the east coast of the US, get some more seat time then come down and run with a few of us