Did a DE this past fri on thunderbolt @ NJMP with the second chicane open. We don't usually do it that often but it looks like it will be used more this year.

For the chicane you brake hard and the trail brake turning right and use the curbing, then it a quick move to the left and then back to apex,on the right and then track out to the left.

Even with all my suspension mods I can feel all the movements of the car as you go right-left-right-left all in a few seconds. The car doesn't stay level and the back end moves out and drifts slightly as you make the first left.

I enjoy every second of being in the chicane. I was hence wondering with a 991, especially one with PDCC I would be no doubt faster, but would it be as much fun? Probable not. But it would be cool to see how fast I could take the chicane speed wise with a very stable car utilizing PDCC.

Also my buddy an intermediate driver, told me how he shifts in the middle of the turn using the buttons on his PDK. I once made the mistake of shifting gears in my 6 speed and almost lost it. He doesn't care where he is on the track, when the car needs more power he shifts and then goes. He says it so smooth he doesn't feel the shift and there is no lose of balance in the car. I didn't realize that with PDK cars.

Amazing technology.

 

I enjoy every second of being in the chicane. I was hence wondering with a 991, especially one with PDCC I would be no doubt faster, but would it be as much fun? Probable not.

I think it would be just as enjoyable. Having raced a fair amount in formula cars in another life, take the extreme no suspension vehicle, a go kart, and it is no less enjoyable or fun that a full suspension car. The dynamics are certainly different, but you are still driving a vehicle which is subjected to the forces of physics, i.e. tire grip and slip angle. My PDCC equipped car is still a couple of weeks away, and it will probably be a couple of months before break in will allow me to put it on the track. Until then I can't give you a first hand account, but I'm anticipating having a great time with it.

Just my 2$ for what it's worth. (Would have used 2 cents but with the price of this thing, I'm using $'s)

 

JD,

Sounds good.

thanks

 

Hi Buckwheat,
I am looking forward to Thunderbolt in mid June and I will let you know. But I was in a car control clinic in the driving rain yesterday and, even with PDCC, you can lose it. And even when on a skid pad and controlling circumference with throttle only, while you were very level, you could still fell the back end sliding just a bit -just on the edge. It is still exhilarating. It is more forgiving - but I managed to end up backwards a few times - which was, fortunately, the point of the clinic. It was great!

On a breaking exercise, after a sharp set of 90 degree turns, you were supposed to accelerate hard towards a wall of cones. With the water, if you hit it too are, too quick, the back would come around. I did that, but I was going a lot faster than a 997 out of the turn before that would happen - visual inspection, we were not using a radar gun.

Glad you had a good DE!

 

I suspect that the rev matching with PDK is close to perfect, so that should certainly help with preventing the balance of the car being thrown off. OTOH, there's some pleasure in determining when to shift (and not to shift) when faced with the imperfections of manual shifting.

It's the same ol' debate about whether we really want to be making things easier for ourselves. To illustrate, I recently read that traction control was banned in F1 cars starting in 2008, which has made differences in driving abilities more evident.

 

There is a debate about making things easy for ourselves? Really? Put me in the yes column, as often and as many places as possible.

 

Carried to the extreme, that would mean that the car is doing all the driving, and the 'driver' is just a spectator. I don't think anyone of us want that, except maybe people who's main priority is to be 'faster' than others (even if the credit goes to the car rather than their driving skill). At the same time, I'm not suggesting that we should get rid of important safety features like ABS. Somewhere between the extremes, we need to find the right balance, and I doubt consensus will be reached regarding where that is, hence the debate.

 

good info on the CCC...

I did some of this type of training at the PSDS and was terrible at it.

I would love to do more.

 

I think I've noticed that there is very little RPM increase hesitation so it takes very few milliseconds to match RPMs. I think it's an big improvement from 997.1 and a slight improvement from 997.2.

ChuckJ

 

I wouldn't expect PDCC to help that much with control of understeer and oversteer. I think that will continue to be primarily a matter of brake and throttle modulation, along with steering corrections. I'm not very good at this myself (at the limit), and am still plenty afraid of oversteer, but there's much fun in trying to get better over time.

 

yes...i'm not sure if it does help...if it keeps the tires more planted it may help.. possible with understeer.

 

Good point, I didn't think of that. If PDCC works mainly by increasing the size of the tire contact patch (I don't know), I can see that affecting the tendency to understeer or oversteer, depending how it affects the front vs rear tires.

 

Yes, and you've got to wonder if they change the hydraulic strut extension values based on wheel slip sensors.

ChuckJ

 

Buckwheat,

I very strongly endorse the CCC. It was great fun! And I learned a great deal. This one had four stations - clockwise and counterclockwise skid pads where the goal was to go around almost drifting, but locking your steering in place as much as possible and steering with throttle alone, a breaking station where you accelerate to a sharp 90 degree right turn, to a second 90 degree right turn, and a straight run to a straight line breaking station ending in a wall of cones where you hope to stop inches from the wall. The final stations was a triangle of tight slolums. It was great. The driving rain and deep puddles made it a challenge to not spin out at lower speeds - great for a beginner like me. My instructor commented that because of the PDCC, even in steep turns the car was flat. You got a definite sense that you could push things reasonably far and all was forgiven. That feeling, however, evaporated immediately when you crossed the line. That could have been the rain but the PDCC will take you up to the edge without you even knowing it and then...oops. That was what I learned about my car.