Tuesday was my first track day with the 991 Carrera S. Overall, a great experience. A bit of background: I have 3 years and about 35 track days under my belt so far. I typically run at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and NJMP. Prior to the 991 I had a 2011 M3 sedan, which was a fantastic car--very well balanced, powerful, fast, and a great daily-driver. Just a bit heavy, though, so I was going through tires and brake pads like nobody's business.

This event was with Chin Motorsports at Watkins Glen. The weather was perfect, which is a bonus for the Glen. This track seems to have its own weather patterns, which are often less than ideal. Tuesday the skies smiled on us. In no particular order, here is my collection of thoughts on the 991 at the track:

• This car lives to rocket out of turns from apex to track-out. Really an amazing experience. I always marvelled at how GT3s that I was keeping pace with in the M3 would squirt so easily away from me coming out of turns. Now I get to experience it myself.
• With my GiroDisc rotors, Pagid RS29 pads and Motul fluid, the brakes held up very well on a track notorious for cooking brakes. Very pleased with the braking performance.
• I hate to say it, but the PDK was a bit of a let-down, and at least for now seems inferior to the DCT in the E90 M3. The DCT paddles have more of a positive, direct engagement, while the PDK paddles feel a bit more "electronic," like there is a layer of software interaction between your fingers and the shift action (which, of course, there is, but it's much less obvious in the M3). More important, and more disappointing, the PDK intervenes when it's not wanted. On a couple of occasions I came out of a slower turn (toe of the boot) in a gear higher than ideal because I had caught another, slower car, and didn't want to downshift in the middle of the turn. When I would put the accelerator to the floor to make the pass coming out of the turn, the PDK automatically downshifted on these two occasions from 3rd to 2nd, as a "kickdown" mode. This was while I was running in manual mode. It was not only a surprise, but felt like it could throw the balance of the car off as it suddenly downshifted and jerked the driveline. I was not pleased. Similarly, on one occasion I was approaching a braking zone while close to the rev limiter in a particular gear. I held it for an additional half a second rather than doing a quick upshift-downshift just prior to braking. Rather than bounce off a soft rev limiter or hold the revs, the car automatically upshifted without my intervention. Again, a surprise and a feeling of upsetting the car's balance. I also noticed that under ful-throttle upshifts on a straight, the car tends to lurch forward a bit. While there are no cornering forces on the car at this point, it still feels a bit unsettled for the chassis. I ran my M3's DCT in full manual mode at all times, both track and street, and never had these experiences with it. Is there any option or method for defeating some of these automatic take-over modes with the PDK? I have to believe that the GT3's PDK does not behave this way; otherwise people will be demanding a reprogramming update from Porsche.
• As others have mentioned, the water temp gauge never climbed above 194deg F. So either the thermostat does an amazing job of maintaining an exact, ideal temperature, or the water temp gauge is essentially a "cold" and "warm" gauge with "warm" preset at 194, regardless of the actual temp.
• Oil temps ran as high as 265deg F during 30-min sessions. Ambient temp was 69-72deg F.
• According to the onboard oil level measurement, the car didn't burn any oil during the day.
• Oil pressue, which normally runs around 20-35psi on the street, ran as high as 65psi on the track during high-rpm periods.
• The Yokohama AD08R tires did very well--gripped well, and didn't get greasy or chunk apart. I bled out pressure to keep them around 36psi front and 39-40psi rear.
• Overall, the balance of the car felt very solid and confidence-inspiring. By the end of the day, I had done a lap in this car on street tires two seconds faster than my best time in the M3 on R-comps. And I feel that there is quite a bit left in the car once I get more and more comfortable with it.

Again, it was an overall excellent first track experience with the car. With more time and familiarity with ideal revs/gear selection at various points on different tracks, I can hopefully avoid the PDK going rogue and acting on its own.

As a fun aside, the Tudor Sports Car series was arriving in town Tuesday to set up for practice sessions over the next couple of days. (The next race at the Glen is in June.) The transporters were filling up the paddock, and James Clay from Bimmerworld was actually running a beautiful E46 M3 club racer in the advanced group with Chin. I actually ran into Ryan Dalziel on the hotel elevator after dinner. Pretty cool.

Here's a clip of a lap or two. I apololgize for the pathetic video quality from my RaceKeeper system. The bullet cameras are not high-def, and the rollbar location makes the front camera do light metering off the dark interior of the car, with a resultant washout/overexposure of the image outside.

 

Interesting about the PDK. Mine has never shifted on its own while in manual mode. The real advantage to PDK though on the track is to leave it in sport plus auto mode. Did you go around in full auto mode in sport plus at all? All reviewers say it flawless in this mode on the track.

 

I was at the Glen last year and had the same issue with the PDK kicking down. Just have to learn to go down 99% on the throttle on some corners to avoid it. I hate it though.

I tried it in full Auto mode in Sport plus, but found that it shifted into 2nd in a some places that I would actually prefer to be in 3rd to keep my lap smoother. In Auto mode it just always wants to be in the lowest gear. I think it translated into a slightly faster lap time, but its a DE, so for me, who cares.

I am also coming from a modded E90 M3 and the 991 is just so well balanced for a fast track like the Glen.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I agree on the PDK kickdown issue in manual mode and would like to find a way to defeat it in Sport Plus mode only (it can still prove useful in traffic when something unexpected happens). Right now, i am doing like Stalker and try to run at 99% when necessary to avoid the PDK to override my own input.
I still totally love the PDK though as my M3 experience is with the SMG system, not the DCT

Glad to see you are happy with the AD08R too. Surely not as grippy as R comps, but they indeed do not get greasy over time. I think I ran them around 36 PSI at the rear and they worked just fine.

Keep us posted on future events and feedback!

 

Didn't try full auto mode on the track. I'm a contradiction and an anomaly--I want to feel in control and want to make the decision to upshift or downshift myself, and yet I also want the PDK's abilities to provide quick, full-throttle upshifts and perfectly rev-matched downshifts coming into corners. And word on the street is that the 991's 7-speed manual is not as smooth or nice as the 997's 6-speed manual. I want it all.
Absolutely--thanks for the feedback.
I will!

 

On my way home the next day I stopped back at the track to watch some of the Tudor series practice sessions. Had a good vantage point in the Argetsinger grandstand next to Turn 2. I've been to a couple of races before, but I always forget just how loud and fast these cars are when you see them live--TV does them no justice. The entire metal grandstand was rattling when the cars blasted by. Very cool to see them go flat through the uphill esses.

Here's a clip of the SRT Viper, followed by the Falken 991.


And here are a couple of LMP2 cars. The lead car must have been running a V8--sounded incredible.

 

Very cool videos of the practice runs!

Any more you can share? Love seeing these as I don't get the opp to visit the tracks very often!

 

Not super-high quality, but:

ALMS practice at Lime Rock July 2011


GrandAm practice at Lime Rock uphill Sep 2013


GrandAm practice at Lime Rock Turn 1 Sep 2013

 

Overall happy with the tires and the size?

Overall good balance?

 

Yes--very happy. Seemed to grip well and didn't get greasy. Ambient temps were low 70s. Hopefully they will do well as the Summer approaches and temps rise.

Still trying to figure out ideal pressures. Settled on around 36psi front and 39-40psi rear hot. That might be a bit too high. Didn't check across the tread surface with the pyrometer--I need to do that next time. I had to bleed out some pressure after sessions 1 and 2 until they became consistent. Overall, pressures rose about 6-7psi over cold settings.

I'm still getting used to the car and how it handles on track, and I've obviously never run a 991 on the track on R-comps, so it's hard to say, but I get the sense that the one area where R-comps would make a big difference is in braking. The brakes on the 991S, especially with the GiroDisc rotors and Pagid pads, are fantastic, and they could use a stickier tire to really take advantage of their power. I was very easily getting to the threshold of ABS and wonder how it would feel with a Nitto NT01 or Hoosier R6.