Is anyone interested in recounting a few "near misses" where you did something a little risky, or the car did something unexpected...but then used your skills to stay out of harms way (or didn't correct...and paid an unfortunate price ...followed up by a tow to the shop?)

How about discussing scenarios where your DE/PDS/or autocrosse skills saved your butt"?

I think education on this type of stuff has high value. (Plus I love the war stories and battle scars. I think many of us have been in this situation at least once in our lives.

RJ

 

Within a few weeks of my purchase...

I almost kissed the curb. From a stop light, I accelerated a little too quickly around a wet corner in 1st gear while in "Sport" mode. I fishtailed a few times (dif directions) before I regained control. My heart skipped a beat. It was a very humbling experience.

The higher "sports" mode's RPM caught me off guard...but the real issue was for a moment, I was driving like this was a typical front engine, rear wheel 3-series. Since then, I've been much less aggressive in 1st in corners.

I look forward to getting in some weekend practice and learning the limits...maybe even attend a PCA event. I knew my old cars inside and out...but the 911 is a different beast. I look forward to the challenge.

 

In my old targa (before all the electonic gizmos for PSM etc), I got the back end out in front of me several times. The absolute scarriest time was on the Taconic Parkway in the rain. I hit an exit ramp accelerating way too fast and ended up on spinning onto the grass. My brother told me "You should drive the car backwards. Engines should go in the front of cars."

After that experience, i spent some quality time in an empty parking lot, and tested taking turns at different accelerations and angles. Granted my old targa was much different than what I drive today. I can never really tell if the stability management is really kicking in or at what level during routine driving on my new Targa.

 

For the sake of this it really helps to do at least couple auto-x events when it rains. Completely different experience and it helps to feel the limits of traction perfectly. My best spin was about 400 degrees when I pushed it over limits. Fun!

-- I have to add here - that is where I realized what sort of priceless feature PSM really is. I could not loose my car into hard spin until I turned it off. PSM was able to keep car stable in almost any wet conditions.

But all fun ends completely when it`s your turn to work on a track for 2 hours under cold rain.

 

Greece, ca 1968, Armed Forces Radio playing "In the year 2525" and "Can't take my eyes off of you." MG Midget that I'd driven in autocrosses, hillclimbs and a couple of full race course track days. (Rare in those days. Usually lost a car or two. Street cars were more challenging near the limit in the sixties.)

We were going down the coast of Crete to Xhania in a steady rain. Not tropical style. The Med is more like California. Just steady drooling rain on a winding road with the occasional wooded section. Nice roads on Crete were about 20 feet wide I'd estimate, with another couple of feet either side before you hit the mountainside or fell off the mountain. Secondary roads were more like ten feet wide with just enough room for a car to pass a cart.

On a blind curve at about fifty mph, a truck appeared, fishtailing on the wet road. The type we called a six-by in those days. A remnant of WWII and with a flatbed just the right height to clean the windshield and both seatbacks off our MG. If I let it.

In retrospect, being able to thread between pylons at 70 or 80 mph is what saved us, because you don't have time for problem solving in such situations. We were closing at over 130 fps, even with him slipping sideways like that. And incidentally using up both those narrow lanes.

Our side of the road had the drop off. I put the right wheel as far off the road as I could on a muddy shoulder without losing control. I certainly didn't want us flying down the slope, but neither did I want to pull a Jayne Mansfield. I remember thinking I needed to the keep the left side wheels on the pavement or we'd be airborne. As the truck's tail end whipped past us, I heard a loud bang. It made Cindy think the truck had hit us and injured me, while I was just left wondering "What the hell was that?" mixed with gratitude that I don't drive with an arm out the window.

The truck's bed passed along the driver's side of the MG, leaving a quarter-inch groove for about three feet along the fender and driver's door combined. The bang was our custom rear view mirror on the fender being knocked off and into the windshield. If I'd been at all conservative about getting our car off the pavement to let him slide by, or if I hadn't had autocross experience to let me know exactly where the edges of the car were, he'd have taken off my left shoulder the same way. Another six inches is all he needed.

One of the most important lessons in track days, autocrosses, and even sillycrosses, is learning to feel the car as an extension of your body. Learning how to put it where you look and knowing just how much space it needs.

That's not the only time track days saved our life, but I'll save the rest of the war stories for another night.