I took the 991 to Road America for a PCA HPDE on Friday. It is the first street Porsche I have every driven on a track.

The event:
Chicago PCA put on a great day. I was surprised at how few people came out to drive. It was great to see a lots of novice drivers. A little disappointing was that they made it mandatory to have a roll cage for the advanced group. So I ran in the intermediate group. They were a good group. Courtious and quick. The issue is that I never did get a clean lap. A 4+ mile track with only 12 cars and I never got a clean lap. This will give you some insight on how quick this car is around a track.

The car:
This is my daily driver and I was just looking to have some fun. So I left PSM on (Sport Plus activated) and drove about 8/10. OK, 9/10 sometimes J I could tell that PSM with SS was interviening sometimes but it was not intrusive. If I was really looking to set a quick lap time I might have turned it off. But leaving it on allowed me some comfort.

The car is completely stock (edit: I do have 5mm spacers). I did have Porsche do a brake flush. It is such a well balanced car. The power out of the corners is terrific. I didn’t even notice or even think about the electric steering. I did have a couple of small issues. The tires were OK just not great. They seemed predictable but did not provide me with a huge amount of confidence in really high speed corners. This car has enough power that it really needs a better tire. At Road America there is a slight left bend before you line up for turn 12 (Canada). That bend should be a no brainer. But at the speeds this car was carrying and the lack of confidence I had in the tire I just could not keep my foot flat before the turn to the start of the brake zone. Which leads right into the other issue. The brakes are very effective. I cannot say that I really saw a lot of fade. But the pedal travel did become longer though out and it never really provided me with a solid feel. In really heavy braking, I felt like I was just pushing and pushing. The pedal went further and further. The car stopped but I lost some confidence that it was going to continue to keep working. Although its performance never let me down, it just made me nervous. There was some undulations in the track just in the braking some for turn one. This caused a lot of wiggling under heavy braking.

PDK:
The PDK is amazing. OK Ok, it may not be pure but you stick to manually shifting and I will wait for you at the finish. PDK in auto with Sport + on works fantastic. The only time that it was a problem was when I got stuck behind slower cars. I would switch to manual and then switch back when the track cleared.

Two other things that were annoying but not an issue. There is a huge amount of wind buffeting with one or both of the windows down. And the car is effected quite a bit by cross winds at very high speeds.

Covering the front of the car is a must if you track it. I have Xpel and it did a great job. It took some bug and tar remover with some elbow grease and the car is back to normal.

Attached is a picture of the front of the car after the day. It looks like it survived a war. Another of the g-load max. Seems kind of high for street tires but I could see that there may be times where it can spike up that high.

Here are some crappy YouTube videos. I ran a GoPro suctioned to the passenger window. Hitting a couple of the curbs caused it to go crooked. I have neither the time nor the talent to edit these so they are raw footage.

Using the Sport chrono feature was fun. It drew a map of the track. No idea what to do with this data no that I have downloaded it. Anyone know what program opens it?




I normally do not do a lot of HPDE. Between work, family and other racing there is no time. But I love this car on the track. I will head back in September. If you get the opportunity to go, take it.

 

Great videos, we love Road America, one of our favorite tracks

 

lol! Awesome review!

(Love the PDK description...)

What tires do you have?

 

Thanks for posting.

Same question as jaspergtr.... which tires are you running?

 

P Zeros from factory. It is not that the tires are bad just inadequate for a car with these capabilities. I think you would have to move to a Sport Cup.

 

Thanks!

 

Great post and congratulations for taking the new car out and enjoying it!

 

This is what the front of the car looks like after a day at the track. All those black marks are rubber. Thank God for Xpel.

 

Thanks for writeup. Good read.

Are the rubber marks hard to get off regular paint? I guess I am about to find out this fall...

 

Where are headed this fall?

Not really hard to remove. Bug and tar remover. Washed then I used a cleaner wax. I really recommend Xpel to cover the front. At 130 mph, every little stone will cause a nick.

Enjoy. It is a fabioulous car on and off the track. 6500 miles and counting.

 

Summit Point. I am excited for my first track day. (Other than the Ring at Euro delivery).

 

Thanks for the thoughtful writeup. My 991 track experience (3 days so far):

I like the tires. Not as good as MPSS I had on my 997 but I'm happy with their performance as long as you take care to keep the hot temps under 43 (ideally 40). At 45+ they start to lose traction very quickly. Wear characteristics are quite good too IMO.

Brakes: Pleasantly surprised. You do get some fade towards the end of the lap but not much in my experience and none of the pedal softness you describe. Could be that your fluid has been exposed to air and you need a flush. Again, I am happy with how the pads look after 3 track days. Don't get me wrong -- these are street pads and it's not fair to compare them to Pagid Yellows, but I'm happy enough that my plan for the foreseeable future is to stick to OEM pads.

Buffeting: This drives me nuts! I have to say it is without doubt my least favorite thing about the 991. At first I was in denial ("oh, it must be scag in the wheel wells" or "maybe the wheels are off balance") but now I know it's just something I have to put up with. I'm disappointed that Porsche overlooked this in the design given how incredibly engineeered the package is overall but at least it's not a safety issue. But the car really does vibrate a lot at +75mph with 1 or 2 windows down.

Sport Chrono draws a map of the track??? That is news to me but if it's true that is great!

 

Don’t get me wrong. The tire are good. They are predictable and they took a pounding with less wear than I thought. It is just that they are street tires. This car needs r-compound. It begs for more grip. Corners that are not a big deal in a race car became downright scary in a car this fast with street tires. This is true with all fast cars. Was not a complaint just an observation. Although I think Porsche does not recommend r-compounds. Even if they put them on the GT3. Not sure if that is just a cover our butt comment.

A true comment. The brakes are good keeping in mind the street pads. I just thought the pedal travel was long. I noticed this before the brake flush driving on the street. Not sure if ss brakes lines would help or not. I may just be picky. As you can see from the video, I was brake significantly deeper than everyone else. Threshold at 130 three times a lap. There is one part of the video where I am headed down the back straight to turn 5 and there is no one within sight ahead of me. By the time I get to turn-in, I am on the bumper of another car.

I would be curious how the brakes would hold up if I switched to a r-compound tire. That would add significant grip and add more stress on the brakes.

I had an E46 M3 that I put r-compounds on without upgrading the brakes. By the 4th lap, I could stomp on the brakes as hard as I could and not get anti-lock anymore. I came in , stopped the car and got out to turn around and see them on fire! OK, it was a small little flame but still a flame. I got back in the car and drove it around.

Track map. Look at the video. You can see the Road America track out lined on the PCM.

The buffeting sucks. I am going to look for something that I attaché to the mirror to disrupt air flow.

 

You are right that Porsche specifically advises against r-comps in the Carrera manual though I suspect you're also correct that it's for liability purposes.

Even so, in general with the 991, I'm looking to run it as close to stock as possible. With my 997, I did a lot of intake/exhaust and eventually suspension mods, not because I wanted to go faster, but rather because I was unhappy with the way the car sounded from the factory, and because I was sick of cording tires because my camber couldn't be adjusted far enough. It was worth it to cure those problems, but I also learned about unintended consequences.

My point is, with the 991 being as complex and computerized as it is, I don't want to change any of the variables unless I have to. Would r-comps be more fun and fast? Yeah, but who knows how they will mess with the PDCC, PTV, e-diff, etc. (As a secondary point, it rains quite a bit here in late summer and with the Pirellis I don't miss half the sessions because of the weather).

I upgraded to SS lines in my 997. The pedal difference to me was subtle if at all. The main advantage is they are teflon coated so you can't boil the fluid. I say do a Castrol SRF flush once a season and let it ride.

I'm excited to try that track map feature next time out!

Please do let us know if you find a solution to the buffeting.