Posted this on rennlist, thought you guys might be interested as well.
Feel free to comment/advice!!

Had my 3rd DE yesterday at Moroso (my 2nd time there). This was a PBOC event and well organized as usual.

My instructor was my friend Petu "Flying Finn" Kummala. He is a very good instructor (probably cause he knows the fastest way around the track...lol)
Petu also gave me a hot lap in his car in the last session and all I can say is that I have a looooong way to go to even dream about driving a Porsche like that!!

My GT3 faired well, no problems at all. I'm still running street tires (and will be doing that at least untill I get used to this car, who knows how long that will take)
This was the 3rd DE and at 18k miles still no signs of PCCB rotor cracking. Allthough the tracking does take it's toll on the pads. I had just replaced them before Sebring and now I already noticed a lot of wear on them.
I need to swap the CUP toe links and do an alignment on the car before the next DE and I'm hoping I will find a feasible solution for making my exhaust note a tad bit noisier. (didn't like the straight pipes so I put the stock mufflers back on).


I had a lot of fun at the track and learned a great deal more about driving fast around the corners, thanks to Petu.
I also had my first spin with the Porsche. Luckily this was a 2nd gear spin and I was able to keep the car on the paved track. (I was mostly lucky I guess).
It was a pure 360 and I ended up my nose pointing in the right direction so I just continued and pitted for a short chat with my instructor. We discussed what had just happened and how I could have avoided it. Then continued with a little slower pace for the rest of the session.
I have been watching the video afterwards and analyzing it a bit more. What happened was that first of all I was going at 11/10s, which my instructor was actually just about to comment me on. It was in the middle the last session of the day and I got a little carried away.
I came into the braking zone a little hot and had to take the first left hander while still partially on the brakes. I was also carrying too much speed over the kink and was not able to stabilize the car between the left hander and the right hander, hence creating a sling effect. On top of that the car was a little unbalanced already in the left hander as I let off the brakes a bit too fast. This caused the tail to break loose just a tiny bit on the left hander. Followed by the “rough” steering input to the right, I got the car to sling around the kink and completely break the rear loose.
After this I was mostly a passenger with not a lot of time behind the wheel of a GT3 (or any rear engine car at that). I tried to save it but my initial correction was too light, there was a fraction of a second pause and I realized that the front tires were still pointing in the wrong direction and corrected more. At this point the car was already so much sideways that I had to swap my hand position on the steering wheel to compensate. This correction was a bit too late and a bit too much. Bang to the other side and it got worse. Then I realized I could not save it anymore and just focused on keeping the car on the paved track, hitting the brakes fully, clutch in and allowing it to spin freely.
Ended up nose pointing in the right direction and continued into the pits…

What I learned from the spin was three things:

1. As my instructor put it: “The DE is not a F1 race”, there’s absolutely no reson to drive at 11/10s (or even 10/10s) and I should always stay within my limits. I’m most certain that when I dropped my driving to 8/10s after the spin, my lap times were probably a lot better than at 11/10s because when driving over my limits I was making so many mistakes.
2. I need to focus on learning smoother driving (to avoid those “sling” situations). This will be the main focus on my next DE.
3. Car control in oversteer situation. I’m gonna go practice with my friends at the skidpad. I need to learn to correct the car from oversteer situations. I was able to control my M3 pretty well but this rear engine car is something totally different. I think the skidpad is the safest place to practice this.

That said, I had a blast and can’t wait for the next DE!!

Here’s the video (you can see the spin at the kink in the end of the video)

http://m3supercar.1g.fi/Videos/DE/M...-2007-small.wmv

Have fun and be safe!!!

Juha

 

Excellent post and great vid! Thanks.

-Joe

 

That was great, having had several or more bud selects prior to viewing its my impression your instructor was speaking a foreign language. If he was speaking english don't ruin it for me.

Curious to know, you seemed to be overcorrecting when you spun which is a natural reaction and just something to learn through, but I am curious if any other GT3 pilots can comment if it really is hard to save the car when it gets loose?

Thanks for posting, again, awesome vid and tunes!

 

My instructor was speaking a foreign language indeed; finnish! As we're both originally from Finland.
So no, the bud selects didn't trick you off...

If you look closely at the video, I corrected a little bit right after rear brake loose but that was too little, then I waited for a split second and noticed it was not enough. At that point I was already too late with the correction and ended up overcorrecting it.
Plus it's a lot easier to correct a pure throttle driven oversteer than it is to correct a "sling shot" like in my case.
But hey, all I need is practise, practise and more practise!!
I will never be a Michael Schumacher but hopefully someday I will able to safely drive the car how it's meant to be driven!

 

thanks for sharing your experience.

 

You know so few of us will turn the wheel in anger that I have to give you props for getting out there.

I've dumped my share of the goods in the past and a spin is a small price to pay for a little knowledge. Have fun and post more vids when you have them.

 

Coolest GT2 on the planet. ^^^ Congrats.

 

Very cool Juha! Nice vid bud!
Evan

 

I spun mine once in 2nd as well. As it was in my case, 3rd gear might have been a safer gear for you. In the GT3 2nd gear is way too torquey for throttle-on cornering unless the corner is real tight which that one didn't appear to be. Just my 2.

Zed