I had an awesome time at Firebird yesterday in the GT3. There was a private test day with only 6 guys there on the track. There were 5 BMW racecars + me in the GT3.

The GT3 performed flawlessly. It was the first time in about four years that I'd driven a rear engined car on the track. And the first time ever in a 911 on the track. The handling was very neutral (had the rear bar as set by the factory, front one notch softer than factory) with a slight amount of understeer in one corner. Not enough for me to consider any adjustments on a fun day. I had also changed front pads to the RS19 compound, and had Corsa Rs (unshaven) on factory wheels. Otherwise, the car is stock.

The rear weight bias was noticeable mostly in that the grip at the rear was amazing. The car really puts the power down. I also noticed a few times that the polar moment of inertia (tendency for the rear to want to lead the front) is a little more pronounced than my M3 race car. But, I actually steer as much with the throttle and brakes as the wheel, so it was a very natural feel. Also, the two times when the rear weight became a tad unsettled, it gave more than ample warning. The car communicates its heavy *** end very well. If you are smooth, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

For the first time ever I actually looked at the speedometer to see how fast the car was going. I had passengers most of the time during the day, and they all wanted to know how fast we were going. Generally we hit about 145 just as I hit the brakes at the end of the straight. A few times when I was willing to take a little more risk going onto the front straight (there's a concrete wall all along the track out point), I hit about 148-149. But, by and large I stuck to 9/10ths since I was carrying passengers, with no roll cage, in a 100+K car that I'm not prepared to push over a cliff right now.

The brakes were amazing. The best street car brakes I've ever had the pleasure of using. And I used them hard. No fade, no issues whatsoever.

The mechanicals also performed flawlessly. Every other street car I've had on the track always has some kind of issue. Inadequate brakes, insufficient cooling, oil starvation, oil foaming, etc. The GT3 seemed to be completely unstressed despite hot lapping for a couple of hours with only a few breaks.

The tires performed well, except for the outside front. There was a small amount of chunking. Nothing that would make the tire unsuable again. But, it was surprising as I did not push the car in any understeer conditions. It probably just needs more camber, and I ran the stock camber setup since this is mostly a street car for me. That said, if the Porsche Club has a class for stock cars... I'd be tempted to race it in PCA or POC. The perfect arrive and drive racecar!

The most fun of the day came in the last two sessions. A friend of mine brought out his BMW factory M3 racer from 1988. This car won the Macau Grand Prix and was driven by Brian Redman and other well known divers in the DTM series. BMW spent $6 million to build 30-35 of these race cars for the DTM and BTCC. It must weigh right around 2400 lbs and has 300+ HP. We played for about 30-40 minutes total in two sessions. In the first session, I managed to gain on him with every lap - always on the straights as his car stuck better (lighter, full race setup, etc). I managed to pass him in the braking zone and lead for a while in that first session. In the second session, I started from behind and was catching him little by little, when the gas light came on... That was the last session of the day. Now, if he'd had the rev limiter set at the DTM series level, he'd have had another 1300 RPM and I don't think I would have been able to gain on him down the straight away. So, that was the equalizer. (Of course, if I'd done X, Y and Z to my car....)


The other BMWs had a bad day in general. Two guys hit walls. How they did that in a private test day is beyond me. Well, actually, it was extremely poor driving in both cases. One guy, who is relatively new to racing but has WAY too much ego/confidence in his abilities, somehow hit the outside barrier in the tower turn. How he managed to do that is beyond me as the car should be nowhere close to that barrier under any circumstances. He hit it backwards, climbed the armco and hit the concrete wall behind the armco, which started a mid air roll. But, as he was about to careen over the wall into an adjacent parking lot, he hit a large light pole, which th car bounced off of and back onto the track. He was fine - thankfully he's got a good cage. The car was toast. Hopefully humility is beginning to set in...

Yours in speed,

 

I was also quite impressed with the GT3 I got a ride in at Buttonwillow a few weeks ago. It did have the Dunlop R tires, but the stick and power were very nice indeed, and it seemed very neutral and balanced. I don't think it has quite the sensory involvement of my 360, but it's much less exensive, and I have one on my shopping list right now as a track toy.

Gary

 

Seems like your introduction to the world of tracking your GT3 was a pleasurable one!

How did you get on with the tyre pressures? Did you leave it a 2.1bar or did you get the chance to experiment at all?

Interested about your chunking problem. I have always found the car to be very light on the front tyres and an absolute killer in the rears. I don't get any understeer, throtle oversteer is always available however!

P.

 

Do you have any pix of your friend's M3? TIA

 

I get understeer with my MPSC on tight turns. This past weekend I was out with the POC at a VERY tight and twisty short track (Streets of Willow) and have to be careful with applying power after the apex. But sliding the car evenly is easy as the car is so balanced. I'm on my second set of MPSC and moniter air pressures carefully (running 32-35 hot) and as much negative camber as possible. For big turns it's fine but I'm thinking I need to start messing with the sway bar settings for the short tracks. I'm pushing the car hard - close to maximum grip in most corners.

 

The GT3 is a blast at the track and it sounds like you had a great time.

 

Nice play by play. Thanks!!!

 

I just left it at 2.1 bar hot. The chunking was more like a very mild but irregular wear, right on the outside edge. I've seen much worse.

The bite at the rear was amazing... I don't see how I could have induced throttle oversteer under natural "race like" conditions. I could do it for fun of course. But it would have had to have been a deliberate effort.

 

Unfortunately no pics yet. I need to communicate to him that there are two racing styles that work: surgical precision or controlled aggression.

His style, which I think is best described as uncontrolled aggression, doesn't work well. He's very head strong and, while fast some of the time, tends to take unnecessary risks. He drives 10/10ths all the time. For example, three weeks ago we were competing in a race event against each other for the first time. He was boasting about being a second quicker than me in practice. I didn't bother to tell him that practice is, well, a time to practice. Not a time to do *****-out laps. In qualifying, I outran him by a second and a half and never saw him again the rest of the weekend - except in my rearview mirror at the start of each race. I never had an off track excursion, never put more than one wheel wrong (and only for a brief instant). He spun, slid, and just generally overdrove the **** out of the car with the result being some fast and some slow laps. But, a slower elapsed time and much more risk taken on. To finish first, you must first finish. That means you have to manage the car and not flog it to death.

Any way. Sorry for the long fillibuster! I'll see if I can get some pics!

 

racer63...

Sounds like you are really enjoying the Gt3.. Its amazing how fast that car is compared to our race prepped M3's... Makes you wonder.. .........
Looking forward to meeting up on the grid soon

Fabryce
Global Motorsports Group Inc
www.gmgracing.com

 

Fabryce,

You said it. The car is amazingly fast right out of the box. I think my M3 is likely to be faster at this point. But, we will see soon enough. With the new bodywork on the M3, and a very stiff new cage, I'm expecting to be down in the 1:07s at PIR next weekend.

That said, if I put slicks on the GT3 too, then 1:07s would probably be quite do-able.

-DV