It was the first track day for our 03 Cabriolet, at least under our ownership. My fiancee used to autocross in her BMW, and later in her Audi TT, but since moving to Connecticut she had pretty much given up on official driving "events" of any sort. However, she maintained that she wanted some instruction on the finer points of piloting the 911, and the 9/22 PCA High-Performance Driver Event (HPDE) was a perfect opportunity. I learned a long time ago that I am happier behind the lens than ever behind the wheel, so I tagged along for the morning run before having to get into the office and actually....work.

For the detailers out there, I had just tried out Meguiar's 205 on the paint, and I am happy to report that the stuff was very easy to use with a PC, and finished down quite insanely - I topped the car with Collinite 845 for its durability, we installed the hardtop, and set out for Lime Rock.



Hardtop on:



And while we probably overdid it with the tape, I'm happy to say that it did keep a lot of detritus off the just-polished finish. Which is nice for me, because I do not need to spend another X amount of hours on the thing.




























By the end of the day, Jess had measurably more confidence in pushing the 911 to its limits, or at least approaching them, and also knew what not to do in sticky situations thanks to the excellent advice of her instructor, who also drove a 996:

 

Miscellaneous Porsches:

 

I will say this - I have attended DEs at Lime Rock before, and I have never seen any group tear it up like the Porsche crew. From the old-school widebodies to brand new 997TTs, some of these guys absolutely razed the track seemingly without regard to the expense of the machine they were piloting. I'm talking rip-roaring, tire-squeeling, backfires the volume of a shotgun as some of the nastier turbos were downshifted....it was insane. Completely, totally, utterly insane and I hated having to leave as early as I did.

Finally, some last pics before I left:


















Thanks for checking out the thread.

 

sharp pixs...thanks

great tape job...btw

 

great pix. thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Amazing skills behind the camera my man great job!

 

Thanks guys. I wish I'd been able to stay and get more, but it was still a lot of fun!

 

I want to see more pictures of the red 996 in this pic!!!

 

Sure. I just processed these:



















All 996s.

 

Beats the hell out of the HPDE's we have up here at our local track... looks like a fantastic time. What's the cost for an HPDE there?

 

Great pictures, thanks for sharing!

 

No problem John!

$195 on a total of four runs groups, ~25 minutes each, plus two classroom sessions. I'd be curious to know how this stacks up against other PCA HPDE events across the country, but it seemed very reasonable.

 

I'm working on getting our local PCA club to do an HPDE. The one's I've attended are put on by the Winnipeg Sports Car Club at Gimli Motorsport Park. $200CDN for two 2-hour classroom sessions and two full days at the track with 1 instructor for two students... a very good deal. The track isn't nearly as developed as Lime Rock, but there aren't many guard rails to destroy the car if you lose it.

 

Looks like a ton of fun...great pic's!