Black Pearl Posted 13June, 2014 Author Report Share Posted 13June, 2014 Wow what a day. After an early start at 5 to get to winton from Melbourne and a short stop to meet to local constabulary on the way I found myself to be one of the first on the track.... I parked my self next to a couple of of other entree guys, got the car ready ( actually I was more trying to look busy cause that it was everyone else seemed to be doing) and waited for the formalities to begin. Without any other track days to compare I can't reference but I thought the organisers did a pretty good job. The 38 odd cars were divided into 4 groups. Soon things got underway with the first group hitting the track. I to wasn't long before 3 cars were sidelined. 2 exchanged some paint and a poor 993 had a knock with the wall on the first turn with its rear corner .... Ouch I was in my stock 85 3.2. Only changes were brake pads and fluid had been swapped by chris at Weissach earlier that week. As a result the brakes held up superbly, however by the 3rd and 4th (managed 5 in total) session when I was pushing it a bit harder I noticed the regular street tyres were the weak link. Also I soon found out why everyone else had race seats....lol Taking the track I wasn't prepared for how intense the experience would be. I felt like a new driver tackling manual for the first time or a first time skier. Lots to manage with gears, speed, line through the corners, checking mirrors.and despite it wasn't really going too fast it all seemed to happen so quickly...although I assured myself to take it slow, I probably didn't take it easy enough in the first couple of sessions and found myself facing the wrong direction a couple of times.....:-) By the end I had had a fabulous day, met some great like minded people and achieved what I set out to do, which was see what my new car could do, push her to the edge of its and my capability and have a few laughs. As great as it was though I was completely exhausted by the time a got back home... Would a come back again?..... probably but not straight away. I think I'd be better off with a bit more driver training under my belt.... Then there is the cost... If I was to return I'd prefer to come back with a car better prepared with tyres, wheels, seat, cage harness etc...and rather than mess with my car which really is a in great condition for its age I'd be better buying a fully set up club car... One thing is for certain is these cars a really an experience to own and drive... Love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
550Spyder Posted 13June, 2014 Report Share Posted 13June, 2014 Great write up. I could sense the excitement. And great to see you could drive it home which is a good measure of success. Track days are like crack cocaine. Once you start it's hard to stop, and gets bloody expensive. Having been down that slippery slide(track days that is, not cocaine addiction...) my council (for what it's worth) is just run it standard. Standard brakes keep you honest. It is important to have some fear and respect otherwise you just keep driving harder and harder until you shunt. Street tyres squirm and slide and give you both a challenge and great fun. My best track days were wearing out a dodgy set on nangchang tyres the PO had left on the car, my pride wanted to wear them out straight away and get some sticky RE11 on but in hindsight those track days of learning to dance on the edge of adhesion were both more fun and more educational than those after ploughing thousands into cages, brakes, exhausts, harnesses and tyres. Track days in a standard car are cheap compared to one speeding fine per six months. Best to learn the cars and your limits there than on the Hume. And if you want to actually go proper fast, buy a single seater and come racing. It refines what mid corner speed is and will cost you less than trying to make a beautiful eighties Carrera go three seconds a lap faster, plus you will get your capital back when you sell it. Good luck managing the addiction.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdc911 Posted 14June, 2014 Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 Wow what a day. After an early start at 5 to get to winton from Melbourne and a short stop to meet to local constabulary on the way I found myself to be one of the first on the track.... I parked my self next to a couple of of other entree guys, got the car ready ( actually I was more trying to look busy cause that it was everyone else seemed to be doing) and waited for the formalities to begin. Without any other track days to compare I can't reference but I thought the organisers did a pretty good job. The 38 odd cars were divided into 4 groups. Soon things got underway with the first group hitting the track. I to wasn't long before 3 cars were sidelined. 2 exchanged some paint and a poor 993 had a knock with the wall on the first turn with its rear corner .... Ouch I was in my stock 85 3.2. Only changes were brake pads and fluid had been swapped by chris at Weissach earlier that week. As a result the brakes held up superbly, however by the 3rd and 4th (managed 5 in total) session when I was pushing it a bit harder I noticed the regular street tyres were the weak link. Also I soon found out why everyone else had race seats....lol Taking the track I wasn't prepared for how intense the experience would be. I felt like a new driver tackling manual for the first time or a first time skier. Lots to manage with gears, speed, line through the corners, checking mirrors.and despite it wasn't really going too fast it all seemed to happen so quickly...although I assured myself to take it slow, I probably didn't take it easy enough in the first couple of sessions and found myself facing the wrong direction a couple of times.....:-) By the end I had had a fabulous day, met some great like minded people and achieved what I set out to do, which was see what my new car could do, push her to the edge of its and my capability and have a few laughs. As great as it was though I was completely exhausted by the time a got back home... Would a come back again?..... probably but not straight away. I think I'd be better off with a bit more driver training under my belt.... Then there is the cost... If I was to return I'd prefer to come back with a car better prepared with tyres, wheels, seat, cage harness etc...and rather than mess with my car which really is a in great condition for its age I'd be better buying a fully set up club car... One thing is for certain is these cars a really an experience to own and drive... Love it. Glad to hear you enjoyed the day. Let me know if you are happy for me to post photos of your car here..not all are on track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Pearl Posted 14June, 2014 Author Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 Yeah I agree. While they seem happy to be pushed, it seems a shame to push a nice pampered car on the track.... Shoot through some pics of these single seaters if you get a chance... I'd love to see. Cheers R Track days in a standard car are cheap compared to one speeding fine per six months. Best to learn the cars and your limits there than on the Hume. And if you want to actually go proper fast, buy a single seater and come racing. It refines what mid corner speed is and will cost you less than trying to make a beautiful eighties Carrera go three seconds a lap faster, plus you will get your capital back when you sell it. Good luck managing the addiction.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstone Posted 14June, 2014 Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 and don't be like this guy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LYbl-gO3ak(I'm sure you are not but there is one in every session!) Gold..... Actually there's one of these guys on the highway every so often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko Posted 14June, 2014 Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 Wow what a day. If I was to return I'd prefer to come back with a car better prepared with tyres, wheels, seat, cage harness etc...and rather than mess with my car which really is a in great condition for its age I'd be better buying a fully set up club car... One thing is for certain is these cars a really an experience to own and drive... Love it. Uh oh....think the track bug is biting....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hugh Posted 14June, 2014 Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 Glad to hear you had a good day. After driving up Saturday afternoon in horrible weather, waking up to sunshine was amazing- there was not a cloud in the sky! I had put fresh rubber on the car that week (Advan 050's) and the level of grip was staggering, the car ran solid and was enjoying it more as the day went on. Surprised to hear you had a couple of spins, you must have been really enjoying yourself! It's a very slippery slope once you start but a lot of fun when it all comes together. Shame to hear about the accident, it can all get pretty serious pretty quickly. Hopefully we can catch up for a run soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9fan Posted 14June, 2014 Report Share Posted 14June, 2014 Yes it is addictive R, seeing what a Porsche can do on the track. Hugh, how was the wear on the 050,s ? I had a day at Broady but the old 888's (year 07) rear I had on while good, were down on times. The new ones I have have on the front have done 4000 km with 1 hillclimb and 2 track days are at about half wear. They are good value and wear well for road and track but I would like to compare wear rates before I dig deeper into the wallet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hugh Posted 15June, 2014 Report Share Posted 15June, 2014 I have only used the 888's on the rear and found them to be pretty good, although it have been told that they used to be better due to a change in the compounds. I was looking to put a fresh set on all corners but my mech strongly advised the 050's and so I did as I was told. Wear seems ok, pretty full day with loads of track time - I'd say that are at about 60% or there abouts. I'll defeinately get another track day or 2 out of them and I'm ok with that. The general discussion is that whilst the 888's are a good tyre the 050's provide better feedback on the limit and following last weekends efforts I tend to agree. You do a lot more km's than me though so the 888's are pretty good value for both road and track. (Sorry for the tread hijack!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airhead Posted 15June, 2014 Report Share Posted 15June, 2014 Were you running under an alias Hugh? Cant see your name on Natsoft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdc911 Posted 16June, 2014 Report Share Posted 16June, 2014 Yes it is addictive R, seeing what a Porsche can do on the track. Hugh, how was the wear on the 050,s ? I had a day at Broady but the old 888's (year 07) rear I had on while good, were down on times. The new ones I have have on the front have done 4000 km with 1 hillclimb and 2 track days are at about half wear. They are good value and wear well for road and track but I would like to compare wear rates before I dig deeper into the wallet. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to move around so my photos from Broadford aren't great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hugh Posted 16June, 2014 Report Share Posted 16June, 2014 Were you running under an alias Hugh? Cant see your name on Natsoft Maserati club, on the Sunday - yellow group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko Posted 17June, 2014 Report Share Posted 17June, 2014 Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to move around so my photos from Broadford aren't great. Thats a pretty good shot IMHO... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
333pg333 Posted 17June, 2014 Report Share Posted 17June, 2014 I reckon that there is some good advice and experience in this thread. I also very much agree with one of the last things the OP has written about the day. "If I was to return I'd prefer to come back with a car better prepared with tyres, wheels, seat, cage harness etc...and rather than mess with my car which really is a in great condition for its age I'd be better buying a fully set up club car..." I would guess a huge amount of people (enthusiasts) worldwide would go through the same process where they take their road car to the track and then proceed to modify it continuously (at varying levels of expense) and wind up with either a pretty fast road or track car but is almost always a compromise for dual driving activities. Of course this is gauged by the owner/driver and some people are satisfied with a few simple mods (seats, harness, rubber) but many are not. Especially if you have forced induction where you can achieve massive power hikes via many well known mods. My advice (having gone to a fair extreme down this path) would be in the majority of cases if you have a nice Porsche road car, leave it like that and just buy a track prepared car that someone has sunk a bunch of time, money and love into already. If you think you are really the competitive type with a bit of extra money and want to push yourself then I'd definitely go for a properly prepared track car. Safer, faster, stronger, less likely to blow up (depending on mods) and you can keep your nice roadie as an enjoyable daily driver. You will save suitcases of cash if you can go this way...I promise. On the other hand, if you really are just happy to pootle about and have a bit of fun with your car without getting too serious (in the pursuit of a plastic trophy at best!) then definitely a seat is a must and while a lot of people advise sticking with road tyres for a year or so, I think if you've got any ability at all, just go to some R specs and enjoy the extra grip. While the top of the line Yokos or Hankooks are pretty expensive, try Nittos Nt01 if you can find them in your size. Despite internet rumour about them being an R888 with a different tread pattern, I always found them to be faster than the Toyo and similarly priced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9fan Posted 29June, 2014 Report Share Posted 29June, 2014 Have just done a track weekend - I first ran the tyres I had at Broadford and then ran a set of part used A050's the difference was chalk and cheese. Don't ask for times as I did the runs in dry untimed practise, the comp day was wet so just ran the A050's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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