A track day with the Porsche Club of America is like attending a Miss World contest. Even a number 8 that you couldn’t even dream of dating gets over looked because next in line there’s a number 10 or even an 11! And just like beauty queens some of them will just sit around looking pretty, some will prance around strutting their stuff, and some will pick up their fists and kick your ass!
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Delaware PCA’s weekend track event came at a bargain price. I needed at least one more event before the season unded. With six sessions at 25 minutes each it wasn’t a bad way to spend the weekend. What I should’ve done was sign up for Friday where I could’ve gotten four hours of track time in addition to Saturday and Sunday!
This was my first time at Thunderbolt. I had done some homework by looking at in-car videos and figured out the basic lines. Getting into the groove even after only 6 weeks since my last track event took some time. The first session was used to get a feel for the tires, suspension, brakes, and driver. The morning was a bit rushed between unpacking, registration, tech and swapping pads. At VIR I completely burned through my front Ferodo DS2500 brake pads. So I opted to go with a track-only Hawk HT-10 all round. The difference was instantly noticeable. The DS2500 is an entry level track pad that can be street driven. The HT-10s won’t do much cold, but once warmed up they bite like a rabid pitbull and redicule the adhesive force of the Dunlop Direzzas. Don’t stomp on the brakes! Noted.
In my rush to get onto grid I had completely forgotten to bump up the suspension compression. As a result the car was wallowing everywhere and felt very unstable. I did not have the confidence to push hard and was soon beginning to question myself. Learning the lines and being smooth are the most important things the first time out on a track. If you swing a golf club or shoot a basketball the wrong way in the beginning, correcting that will require hours of de-programming those wrong actions. I wanted to make the best use of the little track time we were getting.
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Our 2nd session was cut short due to an oil spill on the track. instead of going out for just a few minutes I ran shotgun in an instructor’s Lotus Elise and picked up his line. The Elise and the Evo are completely different beasts. Think gymnist versus line backer. The Elise on Hoosiers can flat foot most of the fast corners that the Evo on street tires has to either lift or requires a tap of the brake. Where the Evo comes out on top is on corner exit and the decreasing radius right-hander. Apex, track out, load on the power with a little steering lock, and four-wheel-drift! Closing in on cars has never been so easy.
At the third session with the suspension compression set and and better idea of what to do I set out for some hot laps. The car felt better composed and I was able to push harder and use all of the track at speed. As the Brits say, I was driving the car in anger! Highlight of the day: passing a Lamborghini Superleggera. Scary moment of the day: watching a Carrera 4S get sideways 10 feet in front of me, and then my getting sideways trying to avoid him!
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Another point worth mentioning about PCA are point-bys. With 6 passing zones and good awareness of the cars behind, very rarely did we have trains forming. Of course as always there are a few notable exceptions where the stubborn driver refuses to accept that the driver behind is faster and ends up holding up things for a few laps.
Back at my shelter for the night in Philly I looked through the data and found a laptime of 1:37.50 on the third session. Decent, but I had clocked a modded Evo on R-comps doing low 1:30s, so I new I needed to get out at least a few more seconds out of the Direzzas. I was also running the SCCA STU legal tune on the ECU which doesn’t alter boost. From the factory the Evo runs about 1.3bar of boost, however once oil temp head above 90C the boost drops down to around 1.1bar. This means that when I do crank up the boost on Sunday, I’ll get the factory values and nothing more… bummer.
Sunday. I finally pull out the party shoes, a set of worn down 235/40/17 Toyo R888s. These tires have been beaten on more than a dead horse, but they should still provide better grip than the Dunlops. Shoes on, boost cranked up I head back onto the track. Immediately I’m able to carry extra speed into the corners and get on the gas earlier. Stomping on the brake, still can’t do that, but I can definitely brake later. After a warm up lap I start pushing harder and the Toyos seem to comply well. Up ahead I see a modified Mini sporting a sticky set of Hoosiers. I start catching up to him but as I continue pushing I notice that my breaking points were back to when I was on the Dunlops and I can’t carry too much speed through the faster corners, but at corner exit I still have plenty of grip. What’s going on here? It seems that under braking and track out the R888s can still hold their ground, but under fast cornering they aren’t that much better than the Dunlops. My only theory is that the cornering forces of the fat Evo is too much for the thin 235mm tire. The Mini driver is too busy to check his mirrors so instead of wasting time behind him I decide to come into the pits and check my pressures. Fronts are a little high so I dropped them back down to 38psi and head back out for a few more laps. No difference, these R888s are done!
Session three was pretty much empty with about half the people already heading home. Less people on the track meant a lot of open road, so I managed to push a bit harder. Tracking out onto the rumble strips at 100mph and counter steering is a little nerve racking. But if I’m ever going to be competitive at Time Trials I’m going to have to get comfortable with doing just that. I need to remain calm if I push it too far or if I make a mistake at high speed so I can regain my composure and not blow the entire lap. Fear is what keeps us from making stupid mistakes and keeps us alive. Fear is also what governs our limits. Take turn 3 for example, a fast 5th gear right hander. As I approach the turn I lift off the gas and turn in. I feel body of the car roll to the outside and settle. The outside tires take the load as I approach the apex. Just after the apex I begin feeding the gas, too soon and I will need to lift again to prevent going off the track, too late and I won’t use up all of the track. Something tells me that done properly, I would only need to breathe off the gas instead of completely lifting. What’s keeping me from doing that? My survival instincts.
There are two ways to overcome this: stick to the plan and hope for the best, or have confidence in my gear and myself that this can be done. The first method is what daredevils use, and will be the quickest way to find out if it can be done. Unfortunately this comes with a high probability of doing damage to the car, or worse, to the driver. The second method requires more time and experience. This is exactly what HPDEs are meant to do. Build confidence and acquire the skill at the pace the driver is comfortable with. Even so, sometimes you just need to tell yourself that a corner can be taken faster and make yourself step out of the comfort zone. Sometimes you just need to hamfist that shit!
Back at home I review the data from the two days. On Sunday with a little extra boost and the R888s I managed a fastest lap of 1:35.30. A healthy two seconds quicker than Saturday. Satisfactory, but not really. The speed vs. distance graph confirms that on some corners the R888s are considerably quicker than the Dunlops, but on others I’m carrying about the same speed. I need to unlock my mind!