GT3 On Track

[FTS]

Hahahaha, this car is awesome on the track!!! I cannot contain my grin, just amazing. I believed I perfected my driving at VIR with the Cayman, I knew how to do few 2:17s with new R888s, but my best was 2:18:6 ever on old R888s.

First session with the GT3, very sloppy driving overall, multiple 2:19s. Second session, better driving but still sloppy, multiple low 2:16s, on street tires!!!

The car is just amazing :D

[Gator Bite]

Can't wait to hear more.

[FTS]

Day complete, four total session, quite relaxed, not a lot of car during open practice, but a lot of different types, including spec ford racers, cobras, corvettes, rx-8s, bmws, etc.

Incredable weather, hit 78, slight increasing winds. The last two sessions, I got slower and slower. I suspect it was due to getting tired and temps increasing fast and high that impacted my body negatively.

The car is superb. It is not difficult to drive, but I am not deciphering all the signals yet. I cranked up the wing to full up in the afternoon, maybe that slowed me down ;) I also turned off SC, left TC on, the car was stable enough that I wasn't worried much. However, in one corner (T3) coming in ~90 mph and trailing the brakes down to about 65 mph, I nearly lost the rear, but the transition was almost slow motion that it was easy to catch and the car reacts to counter steer very well, so recovered without issues, but probably got to an angle of about 10-15 deg. Then same happened in the very next slower corner, but this time I braked too late and had to trail the brakes hard into the corner, but again was easy to recover.

The car is gaining speed very fast and doesn't let up. I am not used to such power, so I am backing off earlier from the throttle at the end of the straights.

Looking at data, old and new, the power of the GT3 is worth about 3 secs on the circuit, but at braking and corners I lost about 2.5 sec to the time I was driving the Cayman. Most of that is due to the tires I think. The Toyo Proxes 1 don't quite have the grip of the R888s, and don't stand to heat as well as r-comps of course. More track time tomorrow, and I should get more comfortable with the car. Unfortunately, it is going to be very busy, I will most likely have 2 students, so that means 9 sessions in a single day, running from one to another.

Cheers,

[TRAKCAR]

Enjoy it Fatih!
Feels great doesn't it?
Keep en eye on your rear pads with SC and TC on..

[FTS]

Enjoy it Fatih!
Feels great doesn't it?
Keep en eye on your rear pads with SC and TC on..

The car certainly feels great. I am really amazed with it.

The weekend was truly awesome; after 5 months being off track, it was much needed for me. First time with a 911, I was apprehensive, but the car turned out to be very stable, easy to push, and the power is relentless all the way to red line.

As I posted earlier, my lap times were lower the first two sessions and it just got worse from there until Sunday. I think initially I was the 'unconscious novice' and was just trying to drive without thinking. As I started to think more and become conscious about my driving and feel more of the car, I slowed down; I was just not familiar with the way the car was communicating, so I did not know how to interpret the signals. But on Sunday, I felt more and more comfortable with the car and my times started to drop steadily. I am going to write my opinion in an article later on for new comers to the GT3, but for now here are few interesting notes:


I could not feel, yet, any difference between having the rear wing fully down or up between sessions. But with the wing full up, I cannot see anything in the back, so I had to adjust my side mirrors to compensate.
Eventhough SC+TC ON does not feel to intrude abrubtly, I could barely feel it, it was strange that the light would flash when upshifting on the straights of all places.
With SC ON I was, however, about 4-5 secs slower on average than when I turned it off, leaving only TC ON.
With the PASM ON, the shocks are really nicely valved for a street car on the track that the curbs were not an issue, quite smooth still.
The front end pushes a little on hairpins, but otherwise the turn-in is quite instentaneous and steering is very direct, as you would expect from any Porsche, but especially the GT cars.
I hadn't imagined how wonderful it is to have such a high redline. Gearing felt great running all the way up to 8500, but hit the limiter one time when I forgot I was on 2nd gear where normally I would be in 3rd in the Cayman.
There is still quite a bit of body lean, where it is a little beyond the point of giving good feeback to driver about the limits. I was loosing confidence on some of the corners due to the body roll. But seats are absolutely great :)
On the back straight, the car hit 150 according to logger and on the front straight 142. That is about 12 mph faster for the back straight and 5-6 on the front compared to my Cayman. However, the real difference is how much faster the GT3 gets there compared to the Cayman. GT2 guys were about 6-7 mph faster on the back straight, but about 3-4 on the front. Again, the GT2s definitely get there a little faster than the GT3, but the difference was not very significant. The difference was more pronounced on the shorter straights and in between corners.
Both of the GT2s were about 6-8 secs a lap faster than me on R888s.
Stock brake pads held up through the whole weekend without any fade or other issues. But my pedal now has a very nice travel compared to before ;)
At the end, I was able to do 2:16s consistently on Sunday and started dipping into 15s on the last session, which is exactly 3 seconds faster than what I could do in my Cayman. Given the fact that I was so familiar with the Cayman and used R888s on it vs. first time and with street tires on the GT3, I think it is a testimant to how great the GT3 really is.