Yesterday I drove about 40 laps of Road Atlanta with the GT3. During the morning sessions, both the track and myself were a bit chilled, but the afternoon allowed some very rewarding experience.

The car is pretty much stock and at factory settings. I have installed the GT3 seats and rollbar with 6-point harnesses, but have not changed any sway bar settings or other factory "street" set-up. I started with tires at 32/39 cold, and bled off to 35/40 hot that seemed to work well enough for a first outing.

This was not a through-the-wringer test of what the car can do - I'm not that good of a driver, and the car is awfully new to me (~2k miles).

Power is delightful. I had wondered if the flat area around 4200 rpm would be a nuisance, but I never noticed it on the track. The engine pulled strongly from 4k on up to the redline. Pedal control of engine speed is precise, as it needs to be.

Brakes (PCCB) were confidence-inspiring. Coming down the hill from turn 9 to the chicane at 120+, I kept moving the braking point closer to the turn-in as the short stopping distances continued to surpirse me. No fade, of course, and nothing else to be concerned about from the brakes.

Cornering was also inspiring, though that is an area where I left a lot of performance "on the table" for this first outing. Turn-in was crisp at sharp corners, developing mild understeer at 100+ mph speeds. I may soften the front bar one setting to address that next time.

In the hands of a competent driver, I am certain that this car will run only two or three seconds behind a Cup car.

 

Sounds great, I have driven Road Atlanta and the track is beautiful, can you tell me what was involved in installing the rollbar as the rear doesnt have the seat belt points exposed like the cars that do have rear seats, I would supposed they are concealed, how did you do your install and was anything further needed?

 

The bar uses four mounting points, two on each side. The front pair are the existing outboard seatbelt mounting points. The rear pair are also pre-existing threaded mounting points, used on conventional 996s for the rear outboard seatbelts. On the GTs, these mounts are concealed by a flap of carpeting.

The bar comes with bolts for the installation, however the thread on the front bolts does not extend all the way to the end of the bolt so they are not long enough to mount both the bar and the existing seatbelts. (I guess this is the factory's way of trying to make us use mulit-point harnesses if the bar is installed.) I obtained longer bolts of the same thread pitch and welded on an eye at the end so I can use clip-on harness lap belts (plated the fabricated bolts to match the inboard eyebolts on the sides of the center tunnel).

So, the only cutting required is in the mounting of the inboard harness lap belts, though those could be fashioned to use the seat mount studs. That arrangement is not recommended because it increases the possibility of a seat mount failure with consequent harness system failure. (SCCA and other sanctioning organizations require off-seat harness mounting.)

The toughest part of installing the bar is fitting it into place without bashing up the sills and interior surfaces. Cover the sills and rocker panels, and tape the padding in place. Use a pair of compression straps to ratchet the four legs of the bar a few inches narrower (they will spring back out firmly against the sides of the interior once the compression is released). Of course, you'll have to remove the seats, too.

You may have to remove the center console to have enough clearance; mine was out anyway for another procedure (B&M install).

Finally, disconnect the battery just to make sure that you do not have a side airbag deployment. Here's why that may be a concern: when the front mounting points for the bar are bolted down, they will crack some plastic trim adjacent to those points - you will hear a click. (If they don't crack them, you will have to make them do so to get a good solid installation.) This plastic trim forms an interior tunnel for a wiring harness and the side-impact airbag sensors. The installation of the rollbar will not affect these functions, but it is too close to leave it to any chance at all that the bags will pop while you're working on the car.

 

Thanks for the info, we have the Tech rollbar in the TT and I was just curious what would be involved in an install in the GT3 as the rear mounting points are concealed, I wasnt sure what we will need for a GT3 over the TT. If you have any pics that would be great.

 

Lap time?

Roy

 

u the man... 2K miles on track already

 

Something like 1:50.

 

Marco:

Can you be more specific:
quote:"I obtained longer bolts of the same thread pitch" I want to use the stock belts for now when I install the rollbar...
What size bolts and pitch do I need for the front part of the rollbar mount at the seatbelt mount point???
Where do I get them from....Thanks

 

The bolts are 7/16ths fine x 4". Use grade 8 bolts. They are widely available.

 

Thanks Marco....Interesting that they are not Metric

 

7/16ths fine is the world-wide standard for seatbelt mounting bolts.

 

Took mine to Willow Springs last month.... Such a stable car!!!