911's are great for trail braking actually. One of their strong points.

I disagree with people that say the engine is in the wrong place. I think it's brilliant.

Weight at rear for traction. Better weight distribution during braking.

Weight distribution while a car is sitting still is completely different than weight distribution when a car is moving.

cheers, tw

 

Care to elaborate?
The whole point is to carry as much speed - as you have the ***** for - INTO the turn.

 

What are you guys refering to when saying trail breaking?

I wouldont recomend accelarting in the turns most of you said this but 1 said they dissagree. My c2s will go nuts if you try that with the end so heavy

 

I would disagree with that statement as well.

The whole point is to carry as much speed OUT of the turn as possible. Exit speed is what is important.

As far as entering a turn TT Tommy and 997gt3north have it right. With a 911 its all about trailbraking and rotation. If you can learn to trailbrake well and rotate the car where you want it to go your exit speeds will increase tremendously.

 

Thanks for the advice so far. For the Seattle folks, I'm no stranger to Pacific Raceways. I don't waste my time w/ club events (esp. Porsche and BMW .... far too much traffic) but I do like to go out on the Kitch days. Good advice hooking up w/ an experienced Porsche driver which I'll do.

Sean and 997gt3north, thanks for the useful comments. I've also found that trail braking is useful. On initial turn-in, the car likes to push a bit so a little bit of trail braking or lifting off the throttle as appropriate to get some bite up front and to help rotate the rear seems to work well. But perhaps I should just be going in to the turns slower. I'll have to experiment to see which is faster.

 

seat time, seat time, seat time....at a safe track event with someone who has 911 experience. It is hard for me to put into words what it takes to drive a 911 fast! The issue with 911s and I learned more so with my GT3 is that is takes a level of smoothness that you dont need with some other cars. I started in karts, which require a lot of smoothness...when I moved into cars, I started in a 3 series then to a 944 turbo S. Both cars were effortless and did not punish me when i was not smooth. The GT3 wanted to bite me in the *** when i made mistakes. If I was not smooth it would punish me...

Your transitions, on and off the gas, on the brakes to off the brakes, turn in to when you squeeze the throttle on has to be smooth! its hard to make this sound good when typed, but when you get out there and practice you will see what i mean when i say abrupt behavior can be costly in both laptimes and at times to the pocket book. However, when driven well nothing is more satisfying than my GT3. Whats odd is the 993s i drive are very easy to drive now after my GT3. I have to go back to older 930s to scare myself a little

What I recommend is to sign up for a track event with the car and ask the registration people to pair you up with an instructor who is experienced in 911s and if you can find someone who has GT3 experience, even better. If you are out in the midwest, shoot me a PM and Ill ride with ya.

 

I am sorry, this is incorrect! braking and throttle steering is very important in racing, including into certain corners. That is a generalization that is incorrect.

 

Unless you are totaly blowing the corner, I don't think slower entry is the anwer, but likely more trail braking (again i'm speaking about all 2nd gear and mid rpm 3rd gear corners) and a very very slow transition off the brake with even a millisecond of no inputs to very slowly on the gas to then matting the pedal.

I would say pick a slow speed corner were it is safe to go off an then try and trail brake it all the way to and even past the apex until you get the feel / confidence to see if this works for you.

So far in my time with the car, I have gotten in more trouble with too abrupt throttle application (and not being ready to catch it) than too much trail braking.

Paul

 

+1.............

 

I'll back up BOYRACER's statements, I share the track with him.

I spent much of my mod money this year into my head, that is top notch instruction. Some of the guys I had instructing me were pro-drivers, such as porsche drivers Dominic Farnbacher and Wolf Henzler to name a few. They literally dropped my lap times by over 6 seconds last season.

One of the things they changed in my style was brake pedal modulation. I had the habit of braking at the very last moment, HARD, and then just pulling my foot off the pedal to accelerate thru the corner. They got me braking a little earlier, doing my heal/toe down shift(s), and then smoothly releasing the pressure from the brake peddle. It's all about being smooth in these cars!

 

This is useful advice and I'll put it to practice. The area I'm seeing a good deal of push is in slow to medium speed corners so we're on the same page. Btw, thanks for not making cliche suggestions things like go to the track I'm not a pro driver but I do have 8 years of racing under my belt and at least a thousand hours of seat time on a track. I'm just don't have much expereince in a Porsche. I was hoping this thread would result an a technical analysis but it's not going that way. I'll defintely get out to the track in the spring.

 

Trailing braking-yes! However, if you are among those who say to get all of your braking done in a straight line, then you probably aren't ready to trail brake much. Once you find yourself doing it anyway, then you'll probably want to start exploring it in more depth.

 

This is correct.

Most people new to 911's are used to cars with a more forward motor placement. Trail braking with these cars is much less prevalent as it loads the front of the car too much at turn in where with a 911 it's juuuuust right.

tw

 

What about me??? I was the first to mention it!

 

ok,ok, you win!
But you have to buy everyone a drink.

tw