911 Platform, Is It Forgiving?

[Gator Bite]

Originally Posted by TRAKCAR

To my surprise the GT3 was way easier to handle on and over the limit.
When the rear steps out it is easy to catch, understeer is corrected with a quick lift of the throttle to rotate the car in a bit.
The few times it went fish tailing a bit I let my foor test on the brake and it was like throwing an anchor out the rear, as if stability control was on ;-)
Whadda these guys talking about with their "never, ever lift in a 911, I wondered??!! Old ones yes, new GT3's; Lift all you want..

With the RS now, even easier, you do have SC (When it rains, new tracks etc.) The DEMS make it even more stable and the car has even more stick front and rear.

Going 9/10th in an RS makes you pretty fast around the track :-)

I think they crash a lot because the are just so fast and forgiving, giving some drivers a false sense of thinking they can push harder. The car is fast enough to demand respect, more so for beginners.

Originally Posted by mooty

the LEGEND of 911 is really of older 911's. drive a 964 or 911, you will understand what what i mean. 996 and later cars dont feel the same as older 911's. the new cars are very neutral and not hard to drive.

lots of gt3 crash not b/c it's hard to drive, it's b/c lack of respect and the car has a lot more hp then drivers are used to.

i have had lots of miles on cay/box. at 7/10 both cars are easy to drive. subtle differences that takes 2 turns to get used to. at 9/10, you think you are superman in cay/box as it's as easy as 7/10. 9/10 in gt3 is scary for me. car dances everywhere telling you your end is near. at 10/10, 911 becomes friendly. it stops dancing and tells you what it wants you to do. listen and you will be fine. cay is still easy to drive at 10/10 until 10.00001/10. should you screw up, you spin like a top in cay box. have you spun a box/cay before? if you haven't, you dont know what i mean. you spin like a top, really, round and round and round until you have no idea where you are on the track. if you spin a gt3, it's extremely rare that you do more than 360. and usually i can catch the gt3, but can't catch cay box.

Originally Posted by bman

My 1st impression of driving a GT, to quote Seinfeld, was "nothing". The GT platform, compared to the Cayman, is so solid that I had difficulty reading the car. In contrast, the Cayman is more nervous and wiggles & jiggles it's way around the track. In the GT2 I was having trouble feeling the limit probably because I wasn't near it. I found myself, looking for open corners and tossing the car to get it step out.

It took a couple of sessions to learn the feel of the GT2; I discovered that it talks to you only when needed but you'd better listen. Could the number of accidents in GT cars be contributed to their solid build? i.e. a nervous car makes for a nervous driver whereas as a solid car builds too much confidence?

Easy to throttle steering.....awesome braking.....easier to rotate under braking.....love it!

Wow... Lots of great stuff here. Good idea on starting this thread Fatih. It has provent to be very informative.

I have to admit, as one of the guys who hasn't driven a GT-3, I have been buying into the "watch out for the rear engine" hype at least a little. But part of me knew deep down that the current GT-3s must be incredible, just because so many people whom I respect have said so. There has to be something there.... Hearing it from respected guys (all of you) who have expereinced both is very interesting....

[FTS]

Originally Posted by Gator Bite

There has to be something there.... Hearing it from respected guys (all of you) who have expereinced both is very interesting....

And you included Bman in that category too?

[jurnes]

Hello All. My first post on this great website.

I am also a change over driver from the 987 platform to the 997.

My car is a 2008 911S with pretty much a completely adjustable suspension: Bilstein coilovers (PASM compatible), two piece LCA's, TPC sways (5/4 adjustments). Tarrett links and toe kit, dog bones.

I had a very nice setup on my 987 RS60 Boxster and was very confident in the car. During the period where I way getting the suspension setup (this done over many DEs) I had a temporary period that gave me snap oversteer, which was very unnerving to say the least!

It was at that time that I realized that a mid engine car is not only very neutral to inputs, but that it will also rotate quite freely once the limit is reached.

Now my track days are in the 997 platform: I initially felt that the tail end was way to influential, especially at higher speeds. I had the corner weighting changed to get the back end down a little and now even with crappy street tires (PS2s) the car is just a second or so slower than the boxster was, even though the Boxster had DOT comp tires and race seat and restraints. (these two items: tires, restraints are good for about 4 plus seconds a lap by my estimation). I can throttle steer the car at both low and high speed. The car settles in just fine powering through apexes.

I have quickly forgotten that the engine is "way back there".

The Boxster was lighter and the 911 has more power but I think that is pretty close to an equal trade off.

Engine HP on the Boxster was 325, and the 911 is about 375. Boxster wieghed 3000, 911 weights just under 3200.

[FTS]

Originally Posted by jurnes

Hello All. My first post on this great website.

Thank you jurnes, and welcome, great first post.

I am also a change over driver from the 987 platform to the 997.
...

Now my track days are in the 997 platform: I initially felt that the tail end was way to influential, especially at higher speeds. I had the corner weighting changed to get the back end down a little and now even with crappy street tires (PS2s) the car is just a second or so slower than the boxster was, even though the Boxster had DOT comp tires and race seat and restraints. (these two items: tires, restraints are good for about 4 plus seconds a lap by my estimation). I can throttle steer the car at both low and high speed. The car settles in just fine powering through apexes.

I have quickly forgotten that the engine is "way back there".

It is really interesting that all the feedback we have had thus far mirrors your experiences. We ought to write an article on this, I bet we would get a lot of fan and angry emails