Looks great. I did a few DEs when I had my 997.
I don't think I was ever that good but I had fun.
I always had a thought in the back of my mind...."what happens if I have an accident"

 

do u leave the rear wing up or down all the time, or just leave it on auto. any benefits of leaving it up all the time?

 

Wow you and I are going down the same road, literally! I was at my first DE at Lime Rock a couple of weeks ago with Hookedondriving. Even though they had way too many cars, it was a great day and boy am I hooked. I've already booked my next event at Thompson, I can't wait.

I'm glad someone mentioned that PCA has a deal for insurance, I paid almost $900 for insurance for one day. Steep but that's the price to play IMO. I wouldn't go on the track without it, I saw several spin outs at the end of the straight away at Lime Rock. Luckily I was no where near it but it can happen to anyone.

I'm thinking about some CHR wheels with R888s, also getting a break flush before the next event. I also need to invest in a holder for my go pro.

My car is wrapped with xpel and opticoat. I had zero issues washing it. A few rubber spots came right off with the nano skin.

 

Curious if you have a problem making left turns when there are no forward arrows? Seems like your car runs your life, not you having a car as a tool to help you go through life...

Perspective.

Good luck!

 

Just got a few pictures like this.

 

More pics please! Looks like you are both wearing a yellow HoD sweater

 

Glad you asked the questions you did, helpful answers that I will definitely keep in mind.

I was actually considering adding mesh in front of all the bumper openings to keep rubber bits and pieces from clogging the radiators - anyone have any advice other than the DIY chicken mesh?

After doing a HPDE class with Skip Barber at Lime Rock I fell in love all over again. I've only recently been tracking with four wheels after years of events on motorcycles.
Anyway I became enamored with the pastoral country and small towns of Litchfield County and am actually house hunting this weekend to make the dream real - Living in NYC has it's limits for cars and I need a proper place for them, close to a track. The must-have is of course a great garage or barn!

I was considering a 997 C2S, GT3 or Cayman for dedicated track duty with necessary equipment so I could sleep better, will start to seriously look after I have a place to keep them.

Look forward to seeing you NE people.

 

I've been doing track days for 19 years now, and Instructing for 17 of those. I've seen a LOT of cars trashed on DE days and blew the engine on my pristine 993 C4S in 2002 at VIR T10 (cost me $ 16,000 for a new engine from Porsche). In 2003 I was in a BMW3 series that was totalled out and broke my ribs on the right side when the student failed to listen to me at T3 at Summit Point and we went into the tree line at speed. I've helped more than one student/instructor team get out of their rolled car when they were pancaked inside as the roof came down on the car and they were upside-down.

Stuff happens at the track, so you have to ask yourself if you are prepared to trash your favorite car. A wrecked 991 will destroy your resale value - Carfax will be sure of that. And if your insurance fights you on a wreck, you have a big issue. Not being an alarmist, but its the voice of experience.

Dedicated track cars need to be trailered in, and that means storage for the car at home or a warehouse, a trailer and a truck. Lots of hardware, more expense. One thing I'll put out there is to consider going with a series car where you just show up and drive, all you need is your helmet. The past decade this is what my pals and I have been doing when we want to have a superb track day, we go to Bertil Roos and rent their open wheel formula cars for the day. The overall cost is less than owning a track car of your own, they do all the maintenance, they are less likely to spin/crash (somewhat) and if the engine scatters on the car or the rear drops out, they push your car over to the side and give you a fresh one. End of the day you climb out and go home, nothing to load up or work on. And once you drive an open-wheel race car, even a Porsche seems clunky and unwieldy . If you really get into it, then you can join their race series as well and go wheel-to-wheel with everyone else. Big fun, and the Bertil Roos guys are cool to work with. Don't me misled by the 'only 150HP', these are so light its a real handful to drive them well and fast.

http://www.racenow.com/About/Car.html

 

^^ This looks interesting. Thanks for the link.

 

I have a lot of respect for instructors. I do not think it is obvious to verbalize and communicate, on time and in a concise manner, what you have learned through lot of seat time.
But most of all, and as grateful as I am for what others have done for me, I am not sure -provided I ever get to that level- that I would dare to get into any novice car for the reason you explained. Not only because of the driver, but most novice car have no extra safety feature.
Every once in a while, you see instructors who do not seem to be comfortable enough and keep overreacting (it happened to me only once and I asked to get another instructor). Along the same lines, you find instructors who only want to focus on te perfect line, shifting point, etc. and are not wanting to teach throttle steering, off-line driving, practice how to react to unexpected issues, ... But again, it takes some serious guts to do it. I drive solo, but I am always happy to get one of my (good) previous instructors in the car to do a status check, get useful pointers etc.

In a few words, THANK YOU for taking risks to teach others how to practice as safely as possible what is one of the most exciting hobby!

 

it's actually long sleeve shirts they passed out to everyone.

Here's a few more shots. I'm having a brain fart and can't remember how to embed the pictures but this should work. Cheers.

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/ph...atform%25253D1

 

John, glad to hear you've caught the bug! My opinion as an intermediate level driver at DE events (I have about 20 track days total) is that as a novice to stick w/ the stock pads and wheels/tires for a few track days to get a feel for the car OEM and to see how the pads and tires wear. You likely won't be taxing either for the first couple of DE events, you may even want to keep them stock until you start solo'ing or move up to intermediate run group. As far as brake fluid, I'd consider just going to a high temp fluid now, no need to wait on that, I like motul rbf 660.

As far as clearbra, it's a must. If you only have a couple chips, I'd just touch them up and put a full front bra on w/ side mirrors. If you have more than that, consider respraying before putting a bra on. Xpel ultimate is probably the best choice now.

 

I left it in auto mode, it went up and down according to speed. Not sure if it would matter much either way.

Awesome! Looks like you had a blast. I really liked Lime Rock, going to NJMP next and heard it's a flat track with longer straightaways. It's going to be nice to contrast the difference between the tracks.

There is a company named Rennline that make mesh grills for the front bumper. Here is a thread with info: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...installed.html

If I do the clear bra, I might as well get the mesh installed. Otherwise, I'm nervous about removing the front bumper unnecessarily. I had to remove the front bumper on my old Z06 and it never sat right when it was reinstalled. Bothered me every time I looked at the car, but no one else seemed to notice.

Lots of great advice, thanks! I guess if I ever wrecked it on the track, it automatically becomes a dedicated track car because resale value will suffer to the extent that it might not be worth selling.

Thanks, I agree. I might stick to the stock Pirelli's and brake pads this year. Still on the fence about the brake fluid. It seems there are two groups: one believes the stock fluid is more than adequate for DE and street driving, the other group firmly believes a high temp fluid is better for both. I was also told that a higher temp fluid may require more maintenance (bleeding the lines), which doesn't sound like a fun way to spend free time. I might just stick to the stock setup this year and then decide what the weak link is and upgrade it (unless it's the driver, then I'm in trouble lol).

 

Take a look at the dyi section here. Serge posted some great instructions for getting the mesh installed cheaply, easily and without removing the bumper. I did it a year ago and it's been flawless including a track day.

 

I am not sure -provided I ever get to that level- that I would dare to get into any novice car for the reason you explained. Not only because of the driver, but most novice car have no extra safety feature.

Actually the Novice drivers are what I prefer! They are a bit uneasy and you can teach them and they will listen. The guys that spook me the most are the fast Intermediates who are on the verge of going into the Advanced Group, because they know enough to go REALLY FAST - and yet lack the experience to know what to do if the car drops two wheels off or they get loose, or the guy in front of them goes sideways. Every serious incident i have ever been involved in to date as an Instructor has been a fast Intermediate who gets caught in a situation and then does the wrong thing, in spite of covering all the things in classroom training. The Advanced group guys are very stable and very competent, I never have a concern riding with them but they don't really need or want Instructors anyways.

I only do a few schools now - I mostly gave it up because the days of 150 HP cars are over and everyone shows up with a 350 HP or better car. They go fast and with more speed recovery becomes more difficult, and at the end of the day the Instructor is little more than a Passenger in a street car when all is said and done. I used to be a paid instructor for the AMG driving experience through Mercedes Benz and pretty much decided to back away from it when one of the students took a Mercedes-supplied S55 and put it nose first in a tree at speed a few years back with one of my Instructor pals in the car.

Now I do just the Aston Martin schools, because they are not as amp'ed up as some of the other groups and once the wine and cheese come out at 1 p.m at the catered lunch events, most of them are all done for the day!