Notes from the track
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Notes from the track
I wanted to share some of my thoughts from the track. I recently participated in a POC (Porsche Owners Club) STS drivers clinic. I followed the class with actual time trials the next day.
First some background. This was my first time on an actual road course and the first time doing any kind of racing with my red beast. However, this was not my first time doing what I would call auto enthusiast driving. In my M3 I have done Auto Cross and a lot of drag racing on both 1/8 mile tracks and 1/4 mile tracks.
Let me start off with some of the concerns I had. Let me know if this sounds familier.... I bought my Porsche for a lot of reasons but one of them was the racing pedigree. I see plenty of guys racing their babies and part of me always wanted to get on the track but I was worried about, getting hit by another car, ruining my paint job, "money shifting", blowing my engine.... basically ruining my beauty being the bottom line. I can say now, a lot of my concerns were a little ignorant and stupid. I will expound on this point later.
I cannot say enough good things about the POC STS event. For about $140 I received personal instruction all day, a delicious lunch, and some ice cold beer to finish out the day.
The cannot place a value on this STS event. If it had cost me triple, I would have paid it. Some of the drills included, Braking drills, Apex drills, Skidpad/Drifting drills, and getting to know the tracks lines. All of these were designed to increase the drivers confidence with their Porsche. Those of you that have taken a motorcycle safety will find some similarities here. You could almost call this drivers event an advanced drivers ed. How often to get going as fast as you can and then slam on your brakes? This drill has both real world value and value for the track. Realizing how fast your car can slow down, and that you can control it greatly increased my confidence.
The other priceless event was the skidpad. I honestly cannot tell you how fast I was going in a circle but I can tell you with certainty that PSM in sport mode is awesome. I was able to take my car to the point where I was in a slight 1-5deg drift and then try to take it past that point and feel the PSM cut in.
Mobonic and I one the final skidpad exercise. They let just the two of us go out without instructors. I do not have a picture of it but Mo did this session with PSM completely off and at about 10-20 drift for the majority of the time. Needless to say, he had to change is rear tires afterwards.
The final event of the day was a "follow the leader" session around the Streets of Willow. With an instructor in the car I was able to learn the "line" at about 60% speed/effort. Beyond the obvious benefits of this exercise I also learned that 60% effort is still a blast but very safe. This taught me something, I could go out on the track have blast but never put myself in a position that was dangerous for me or the car.
Overall a great STS event for POC!
The next day was the time trial event. Again this was just an amazing event put on by POC. We started the day with a drivers meeting where the event organizers talked about the car classes, passing zones (the straights), and the overall schedule for the days events. I was put in the white group. I was basically in the second from the bottom group. It was my first event but my car is in the same class as the 996/7 GT3s so the white group made more sense.
I was assigned a personal instructor for the entire day. I cannot thank my instructor enough for his great insight! The schedule called for basically four 9-10 lap sessions. One 15min session and then three 20 min sessions. There was about an hour between each session which is good because my engine got up over 250 deg by the end of each of the 20min sessions.
The first session was a warm-up. Passing was allowed but this session was basically to get my mind and my car warmed up. I would say I was running at about 60-70% effort. I re-learned/remembered the line quickly and just started having a blast. Right off the bat I realized pretty quick that I was not going to get hit by another car unless something really strange happened. Passing was only allowed on the straights and you had to be pointed by in order to pass. In the more serious time trial events, passing is allowed anywhere but in my run-group passing only took place on the long straights.
I learned very quickly that my GMG setup 997S on Damptronics was quick car. I was passing GT3's and 997TT's with no problem. That being said, one of the quickest cars in my group was a heavily modded Cayman S. The best mod is a better driver!!!
I could a write a four page essay on my racing this day so I will give you the highlights.
All my fears about miss shifting/money shifting were expelled after some great advice from my instructor. He had me do the whole course in 3rd gear. Thats right, I did not shift a single time. This required some good control of momentum but it took the fear of miss-shifting completely out of my mind. As the day went on I would short shift to 4th on the straights. With this combo I was able to put down some respectable times.
The most fun I had is either when my instructor said, just see if you can keep up with that track prepped 964. Or when he got out of my car and let me do 20min on my own.
Here is me chasing down that track prepped 964. He was very very fast but I could stay with him throughout most of the track. In this pic we are stuck behind a Boxster and waiting for the passing zone.
To wrap things up I cannot tell you guys how much of a blast I had! I will be doing a lot more of these events in the future!
For those of you concerned that tracking is going ruin your babies. Dont worry. You can go out, take it easy but still have a blast and learn a lot. I am a huge perfectionist. Mobonic and Gomez will attest to the fact that I have an OCD when it comes to my 911 and I would not continue to do track events if I felt that I was ruining my car. Again, the payoff in participating in this event was huge!
One final pic. On this straight I had just passed a silver 997TT and a very clean 300ZX TT.
Jason
First some background. This was my first time on an actual road course and the first time doing any kind of racing with my red beast. However, this was not my first time doing what I would call auto enthusiast driving. In my M3 I have done Auto Cross and a lot of drag racing on both 1/8 mile tracks and 1/4 mile tracks.
Let me start off with some of the concerns I had. Let me know if this sounds familier.... I bought my Porsche for a lot of reasons but one of them was the racing pedigree. I see plenty of guys racing their babies and part of me always wanted to get on the track but I was worried about, getting hit by another car, ruining my paint job, "money shifting", blowing my engine.... basically ruining my beauty being the bottom line. I can say now, a lot of my concerns were a little ignorant and stupid. I will expound on this point later.
I cannot say enough good things about the POC STS event. For about $140 I received personal instruction all day, a delicious lunch, and some ice cold beer to finish out the day.
The cannot place a value on this STS event. If it had cost me triple, I would have paid it. Some of the drills included, Braking drills, Apex drills, Skidpad/Drifting drills, and getting to know the tracks lines. All of these were designed to increase the drivers confidence with their Porsche. Those of you that have taken a motorcycle safety will find some similarities here. You could almost call this drivers event an advanced drivers ed. How often to get going as fast as you can and then slam on your brakes? This drill has both real world value and value for the track. Realizing how fast your car can slow down, and that you can control it greatly increased my confidence.
The other priceless event was the skidpad. I honestly cannot tell you how fast I was going in a circle but I can tell you with certainty that PSM in sport mode is awesome. I was able to take my car to the point where I was in a slight 1-5deg drift and then try to take it past that point and feel the PSM cut in.
Mobonic and I one the final skidpad exercise. They let just the two of us go out without instructors. I do not have a picture of it but Mo did this session with PSM completely off and at about 10-20 drift for the majority of the time. Needless to say, he had to change is rear tires afterwards.
The final event of the day was a "follow the leader" session around the Streets of Willow. With an instructor in the car I was able to learn the "line" at about 60% speed/effort. Beyond the obvious benefits of this exercise I also learned that 60% effort is still a blast but very safe. This taught me something, I could go out on the track have blast but never put myself in a position that was dangerous for me or the car.
Overall a great STS event for POC!
The next day was the time trial event. Again this was just an amazing event put on by POC. We started the day with a drivers meeting where the event organizers talked about the car classes, passing zones (the straights), and the overall schedule for the days events. I was put in the white group. I was basically in the second from the bottom group. It was my first event but my car is in the same class as the 996/7 GT3s so the white group made more sense.
I was assigned a personal instructor for the entire day. I cannot thank my instructor enough for his great insight! The schedule called for basically four 9-10 lap sessions. One 15min session and then three 20 min sessions. There was about an hour between each session which is good because my engine got up over 250 deg by the end of each of the 20min sessions.
The first session was a warm-up. Passing was allowed but this session was basically to get my mind and my car warmed up. I would say I was running at about 60-70% effort. I re-learned/remembered the line quickly and just started having a blast. Right off the bat I realized pretty quick that I was not going to get hit by another car unless something really strange happened. Passing was only allowed on the straights and you had to be pointed by in order to pass. In the more serious time trial events, passing is allowed anywhere but in my run-group passing only took place on the long straights.
I learned very quickly that my GMG setup 997S on Damptronics was quick car. I was passing GT3's and 997TT's with no problem. That being said, one of the quickest cars in my group was a heavily modded Cayman S. The best mod is a better driver!!!
I could a write a four page essay on my racing this day so I will give you the highlights.
All my fears about miss shifting/money shifting were expelled after some great advice from my instructor. He had me do the whole course in 3rd gear. Thats right, I did not shift a single time. This required some good control of momentum but it took the fear of miss-shifting completely out of my mind. As the day went on I would short shift to 4th on the straights. With this combo I was able to put down some respectable times.
The most fun I had is either when my instructor said, just see if you can keep up with that track prepped 964. Or when he got out of my car and let me do 20min on my own.
Here is me chasing down that track prepped 964. He was very very fast but I could stay with him throughout most of the track. In this pic we are stuck behind a Boxster and waiting for the passing zone.
To wrap things up I cannot tell you guys how much of a blast I had! I will be doing a lot more of these events in the future!
For those of you concerned that tracking is going ruin your babies. Dont worry. You can go out, take it easy but still have a blast and learn a lot. I am a huge perfectionist. Mobonic and Gomez will attest to the fact that I have an OCD when it comes to my 911 and I would not continue to do track events if I felt that I was ruining my car. Again, the payoff in participating in this event was huge!
One final pic. On this straight I had just passed a silver 997TT and a very clean 300ZX TT.
Jason
Thread Starter
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Registered User
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 2,012
From: San Diego
Rep Power: 123
Jason
Thread Starter
|
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 2,012
From: San Diego
Rep Power: 123
BTW the pic of the BMW M3 is me at an AutoX event in NC about 5 years ago! Still drive the M3 as a DD!
Keep in mind this was not a PCA event. This was a POC event.
Jason
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