GT3 On Track

FTS · #5 02-21-2011, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRAKCAR

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.