August 14-15; PCA DE @ Charlotte Motor Speedway

[SH || NC]

Registered, and have a garage reserved.

Setup with be a ROVAL. Never driven on one before so am very excited to experience it

Clubregistration.net Link

Three Region HPDE, 'Shine & Show' and Tech Quiz at Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Blue Ridge, Carolinas, and Hurricane Regions, Porsche Club of America, will conduct a high performance drivers' education event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, August 14-15, 2011.

The drivers' education event is the first PCA DE event held at Charlotte since the annual Porsche Parade held at Charlotte, NC in 2008. Participants will again have an opportunity to drive a portion of the famous oval race track usually open only to NASCAR drivers.
Featured at the DE event are two additional activities that are open to all PCA members who want to show their cars for prizes and demonstrate their knowledge about Porsches.
PCA members can display their cars in a DE Concours, 'Carolina Shine and Show' competition at the speedway on Sunday, August 14. The competition is open to all PCA members. Entries may be sent the three sponsoring regions DE Chairmen Judging will be completed and prizes awarded Sunday afternoon, August 14.

An extra bonus for the two day event will be a Porsche technical quiz competition held on Sunday afternoon, August 14 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Competition is open to any PCA member who wishes to enter. Details for the tech quiz are available from the Blue Ridge DE Chairman. Prizes will be awarded for the most correct answers.

Registration for the drivers education, concours, and technical quiz will open April 15 at www.clubregistration.net. Questions about the event may be directed to the Blue Ridge, Carolinas and Hurricane Region DE Chairs.

[SH || NC]

~3 weeks out

[FTS]

I bet you cannot wait for this, especially with the "improved" GT3

[SH || NC]

I won't be pushing, by any stretch, but yeah, I can't wait to get back out on track with it.

[bman]

I'd like to see the track...please post a vid. I haven't run any banked corners so I am looking forward to hearing about it.

Drive well and have fun!!!

[SH || NC]

I haven't done a full write up yet, but here is my video compilation of a few good laps. I know 130s are slow, but it took me afew sessions to find the line and gain confidence; lots of steel and concrete around the track. Still, I had a great time!

The banked turns are very interesting; I experienced Gs like I never had before in the car, and knowing where to look when in the backed turn was very new.

I was told the car would stick going into T3 & 4 at much higher speeds, but I had nothing to prove and that wall looked hungry. One other Club Racer GT3 put it into the wall coming out of 4 on Sunday.

Fatih, the vimeo embedding isn't working?

http://vimeo.com/27750021

[bman]

Wow...interesting track! There's a lot going on....was it difficult to focus on a line? Does the car feel stable braking on the banked surface?

I haven't run any banked tracks and look forward to reading your write up.

Btw, did you and a couple of buddies rent the track? Where are the other cars?

[SH || NC]

Originally Posted by bman

Wow...interesting track! There's a lot going on....was it difficult to focus on a line? Does the car feel stable braking on the banked surface?

It was a difficult track to get a read on, at least for me; very segmented; hard to get good site lines with the undulation and turns. It was also hard to get good site lines when my vision was always attracted to the ginormious concrete blocks, walls, and steel barriers! It was not a track for me as a first timer that encouraged risk taking.

The videos I watched for prep just don't communicate the banks and elevation changes. On the orientation laps, I felt like I was going to fall out my window; I was giggling.

I didn’t do much braking on 3 and 4, just a light pressure. The AIM brake channel is 0 or 1, so it may look like I am full on the brakes at points, but its not totally accurate. In fact, you don’t use much brakes anywhere at all except for turn in into the infield.

Originally Posted by bman

Btw, did you and a couple of buddies rent the track? Where are the other cars?

Ha, no. It was in fact a tri-region PCA DE, but we only had ~72 cars sign up, so the run groups (4) were pretty small, and the pit marshall spaced us out at the beginning of the session, so lots of pretty much open track.

Not much more of a write up really I’m afraid. Had a garage, which was nice; it wasn’t terribly hot, but it was nice to be out of the sun, and the pass-through setup allowed for nice breezes. Sunday I was struggling to find the line and confidence until really my last session where it came together for me. Picture taking was difficult because in the infield you’re kind of in a bowl / depression with lots of fences. I’ll try to get a few posted this week.

[bman]

Originally Posted by SH || NC

my vision was always attracted to the ginormious concrete blocks, walls, and steel barriers!

Not much more of a write up really I’m afraid.

Watching the video I found the tall, thin, black scoreboard distracting. It looks like you track out to the base of it when you turn in for the infield and then you see it again when you're heading back out. Also, seeing the other cars wiss by on the banking, in the opposite direction, while you're runninig the infield caught my attention too.

Would you run it again?

[SH || NC]

What are the allowable cracking specs for solid (non-drilled) rotors?

Originally Posted by bman

Watching the video I found the tall, thin, black scoreboard distracting. It looks like you track out to the base of it when you turn in for the infield and then you see it again when you're heading back out. Also, seeing the other cars wiss by on the banking, in the opposite direction, while you're runninig the infield caught my attention too.

Would you run it again?

In the car, I bet your focus would not be on the pole or the other cars.

Its only a ~2.25hr tow for me, but not sure if i will do it again, unless I was really jonesing for some track time, the cost was low, and had some friends going. The high speed banks are new / fun, but after a weekend, I think I have had my fill for a while.

There's not a lot of run off anywhere, so even if I became more familiar, there's not much room for error, at least IMO.

[bman]

Originally Posted by SH || NC

What are the allowable cracking specs for solid (non-drilled) rotors?

Not sure.....

I have a set of 1 1/2yr old AP's that have a lot of surface cracking but nothing that's reached the outer edge. And none that are opening up....I saw a crack in a solid rotor at Mid Ohio earlier this year that concerned me. It wasn't very long and wasn't near the edge but was opening up. I pointed it out to the owner and sure enough it split wide open, all the way to edge, the next session.

[FTS]

Originally Posted by SH || NC

I haven't done a full write up yet, but here is my video compilation of a few good laps. I know 130s are slow, but it took me afew sessions to find the line and gain confidence; lots of steel and concrete around the track. Still, I had a great time!

The banked turns are very interesting; I experienced Gs like I never had before in the car, and knowing where to look when in the backed turn was very new.

It is very interesting to see how you run through those banked turns; I have never run on such a course, not counting Shenandoah, it does not even come close to compare. So where do you look? To the inside line?

Fatih, the vimeo embedding isn't working?

I am not sure what the issue was, but its fixed now.

[SH || NC]

Originally Posted by FTS

It is very interesting to see how you run through those banked turns; I have never run on such a course, not counting Shenandoah, it does not even come close to compare. So where do you look? To the inside line?

When in the banked turns, I was actually looking more UP, than I was lookking left; just odd. Also, Its pretty much a single input, and the only correction (for me at least) was if the rear end started to come around, was, 'turn down!' 'turn down!' 'turn down!'

[SH || NC]

Some pics

[FTS]

Nice!!! I wish VIR or Summit would have garages