Porsche World Roadshow / Racing school
A short write-up on the Porsche driver’s education and briefly discussing the
capabilities of the old 3.2 Carrera. http://www.jabbasworld.net/photopost...6Porsche_2.jpg The pictures from the driver’s Ed can be found here (http://home.bredband.no/froder/porsche.htm). After several weeks of poor autumn weather the sun decided to grace us with its presence. I have no problems with driving in the rain with my 3.2 – but I always prefer a dry track over a wet one. There were 10-15 of us who met just north of Oslo at 07:20 a Saturday morning. The drive up to the Valerbanen racetrack (150 km) took almost two hours. The day started with breakfast and a short introduction to what we were going to experience. - on the page referred to above you can find the program for the day. There were approx. 30 fellow Porshcephiles there for the day –everybody showed up in their own cars. It ranged from 944 NA to 911TT and GT3 RS. My car representing the budget-approach to a fun day at the track. There were 5 instructors there, two factory drivers and three “hired in” racecar drivers. The norwegain representative of this crowd – Roger Sandberg took us to the basic principles of weight distribution during braking, cornering and exit. Furthermore he discussed the ideal way around a curve – and the how people approach this differently. The practical part started with showing how NOT to sit in you car while driving. As you all know; up right, wrist over steering wheel and back firmly back in the seat etc. etc. My group then drove of to the northern part of the course for some time trials. We were timed in a Boxter S around a Go-Cart circuit – fun :-) This took about an hour before we drove on the track. The instructors had divided the track in two halves. The instructor first drove each participants car, with the owner in the passenger seat – all the time the rest of the bunch followed the same line. This also took almost one hour. The same thing repeated it self for the other half of the track The two last exercises before lunch were done on the wet section of the track. This racetrack is also used as a driver license course. Living in Norway means driving 4-5 months in snowy conditions, therefore when you take your drivers license one of the practical lessons is maneuvering in slippery conditions –emergency braking etc. We did slalom in close to zero friction condition, and driting around a long 220degree corner - that proved to be very difficult!! After a nice lunch we drove our cars flat out on the course, tying the corners together – trying to master the finer skills or racecar driving ;-) This was for me the highlight of the day – test driving the new 997. It’s one of the most emotional experiences that I’ve had with a car – I had total confidence in it after 3-4 laps… To put things in perspective; I have driven my 3.2 on numerous track events and Auto-X, starting to really know how it handles at MY limit. The same level of confidence appeared in the 997 after just couple if minutes... The car talk’s back to you during acceleration, breaking and cornering – telling you exactly what are happening, and what will happen if you don’t back of…. I felt like Walter R. for a few minutes. All the time an instructor with the name of Dirk ( Factory Driver) gave me corrective input, asking me to brake later, alter my line, not use the curbs etc. etc… After this (way to short session) Dirk took me around the track –and showed me the true capabilities of the 997S – It was truly embarrassing! I had not scratched the surface in terms of it performance envelope. He carried so much speed into each corner, controlled the tendencies to drift wide with ease, and at the same time positioned the car as such to exit with maximum speed. Truly amazing :shock: When discussing the capabilities of my car, compared to the newer 911’s, is difficult to make a general statement. Out of the box the newer cars are way faster. Then you must decide what kind of driving exercises that you would like to optimize your car for… My car is fairly good on the smaller Norwegian race tracks ( Valerbanen & Rudskogen). I have not yet taken it to ArticRaceCircle. In the national PCN (Porsche Club Norway) slalom cup I finished third this year (my first year). Beaten by a RUF-converted 964 and a BoxterS. http://www.autoni.no/BP91199/Side-1.jpg For this event we have devidied Porsche cars in three categories; - Front engine (924/944/968/928) - Rear engine (911/914/Boxter) - R- series (any car with slicks, roll cage, racing seat etc..) - My car normally outperforms original 964/993/966 on this type of events. But then my car only weighs 1180-1190 kilograms and are tuned to an approx. 250 hp. This equals to 4.76 kg / hp which is not that bad. This combined with RUF sway-bars, turbo tie-rods and sport shocks make my car a reasonable competitive vehicle. Examples: 964 4 = 5.84 964 3 = 5.52 993 2 = 5.03 I holded a techart tuned 993 (appr. 300 HP) up to 100-120 km/h, then he pulled away For more PCN pictures – look no further: http://www.porsche-club-norge.no/galleri/ I have not yet started to plan what to do this winter to improve for next year – but I have a strong feeling that I have to look at my driving skills – rather than paying shit loads of $$$$ for upgrades…. I found a really interesting site that will teach me some theoryhttp://<br /> http://www.redlineren...iversEdEd.html - let me know if you have found similar sites that can help me.... Have fun – or laugh trying Frodefe |
Thanks for the writeup! As I said already, it must have been a blast for sure :D
On a side note, the porsche Norge website requires registration to see the pics in their gallery. |
Simply what an interesting and passionating article....as every article around the porsche in general, and any 911 in particular......receiving some driving techniques, and getting used to the 911 difficulties (a lot of difficulties BTW) must be exciting.....indeed these sort of articles are welcome for me.....
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amazingly cool
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Excellent write up Frode. It sounds like it was a lot of fun and very educational.
I absolutely love your car :wink: . I had a quite a few of questions if you wouldn’t mind. Did they suggest different racing lines through the turns for rear engine verses front engined Porsches? What year is your car? What did you do to up the horsepower to 250? Did you install a Ruf exhaust system? How did you get the weight so low? Did it come that way with delete options or did you have items removed? Are the tire widths and rims widths stock? Did you have the car before and then after the suspension changes? If so could you describe the change in the cornering behavior before verses after the tie rods, sport shocks and sway bar changes? From what you said it sounds like your 911 is able to stay with 964, 993, and 996. In what areas do you find your car is least competitive with the other 911s. For example, is the difference most noticeable in cornering or acceleration at higher speeds ect. Thanks again for sharing pictures of your car and the event along with your experiences in attending. |
AutoX
Hi,
I've uploaded a short video (+20MB) showing a typical AutoX arranged by Porsche Club Norway. As mentioned earlier the cars are divided in front engined, "ass" engined and racing classes: Best times this particular day (the combined laptime of the two best laps), of an extremely thight course: - front = 1.47.2 - "ass" = 1.41.3 - racing = 1.37.4 http://home.bredband.no/froder/AutoX.wmv My time was 1.41.9 - which I was very please with (3 place). My car is the first on this clip. There were a 30-40 cars that day - which is representative for this type of event. |
Frode thanks for the clip and congratulations of your fine time :wink: . I can see why you did so well, you drove much smoother than most of the other drivers.
You can see the value of ABS as many of the non-ABS cars locked their front wheels at the end of the runs where you had to turn while braking. |
993 vs. C3.2
Hi,
Just received this video showing a drag between two different 911 models - mine, a '85 model - the other a 993 '95 model - I managed to get off the line somewhat quicker than the 993 But he passed me at 85 mp/h (135 km/h). His car has a techart engine kit (+300 hp), mine has (+/-) 250, but is much lighter http://home.bredband.no/froder/dragrace.wmv |
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