250 Miles in the GT3
#1
03-12-2007, 02:37 AM
250 Miles in the GT3
I picked up my GT3 Friday. No roll bar or Carrera GT seats fitted yet, but I needed to get behind the wheel. Thankfully, Thom had gotten the Traqmate (more on this later) and a few other touches taken care of on the car.
After a quick once over with Mark, I'm ready to drive. I get in. Get adjusted. Plug in my first destination address into the GPS (I don't know the back roads like I used to) and I'm off. I exit the dealer's lot... scrape the lip.
The odometer says "4" and I've already scraped the lip. Nice!
First impressions are nice. Not great, but nice. The shifter is crisp, but notchy. The throttle is responsive and sharp. The steering is unbelievably responsive. The clutch is heavy. Of course, this is the first hour and in kind-of-heavy Long Island traffic.
I stopped by Detailing Dynamics to have a few key pieces of 3M film installed and a lovely silver Porsche emblem put on the hood. (Those guys are fanatically good, by the way.)
Pulling out of Detailing Dynamics shop... I scrape the lip. Twice in the first 30 miles. Nice!
I head to a small section of north-shore road that I know to be free from police activity. Then, the love affair begins.
It's hard to describe when you develop a seemingly symbiotic relationship with a car -- but it happened. It's a feeling that I've not experienced in a VERY long time. Once the roads became free of traffic and other distractions and I remember how to really drive a car it was a whole new experience. The car truly connects you with the road.
The clutch moves from becoming a heavy thing you have to push to make the car go into a critical input device of connectivity with the car. The shift lever's notchy feel in stop-and-go traffic becomes a quick snap between power bands. The motor (that I've been doing my best to break in properly) has an amazingly flat torque curve... and the steering and braking and cornering only improve as the car gets warm.
Not wanting to press my luck, I head home after a quick jaunt across the Throg's Neck, up and down 95, to the Hutch and the Upper West Side.
When I hit the surface streets in Manhattan, I try to soften the ride with some button pushing. No luck. Personally, I'd not want this thing as a daily driver. At least not in Manhattan.
Day 1 is over. 90 miles.
Day 2 begins with a drive back to Long Island. I needed to hit a few folks in Huntington before a brief ride with a friend through the North shore. Again.
The ride out across the island was great. Nice and easy. Wonderfully pleasant. Actually, I was on the phone for most of the drive. Cruise set on 62... 'cause a member of the law enforcement community decided to tail me for about a half hour. (Was a wise move on his part.)
A few more uneventful miles and then back on to the twisties. A map of the route is below. If you know Long Island, the vertical blue line next to the map's axis is Harbor Road.
Before anyone gets all worked up, our average speed on this drive was 34mph. This trip was about cornering. Lots of safe, clear, twisties in this neck of the woods and that's where the love affair continues.
There is no proper superlative to describe how this car feels in the turns. It's just perfect. The power and the steering rack work marvelously together to precisely communicate the limits every step of the way. There is never the vague feeling you get driving an M3 or a Z06 or an SL500 as you start to maneuver. The car is always using every input to tell you something. The more you can interperet that input, the more you can push. Remembering how to throw that rear end around only augments the driving experience across the board.
Thankfully, I recorded this whole session with the Traqmate. It's interesting to watch how the same sections of road is travelled over time. As the car warms up, as the driver get more confortable. The data it logs is amazing and end result of what that system can tell you is somewhat overwhelming. I can't wait to use the Traqmate it on an actual track and not the "Long Islandschleife".
All in all, I love this car. It's amazing. An incredibly precise driving tool. Exquisite feedback. Strong performance characteristics. Stunning. If the first 254 miles are any indication, this is going to very rapidly become the center of my driving attention.
Miles Driven: 250
Maximum speed reached: 117
Maximum lateral Gs recorded: 1.2 - lots of room to go :-)
Smiles: Too numerous to count...
Front lip scrapes: Too numerous to count...
After a quick once over with Mark, I'm ready to drive. I get in. Get adjusted. Plug in my first destination address into the GPS (I don't know the back roads like I used to) and I'm off. I exit the dealer's lot... scrape the lip.
The odometer says "4" and I've already scraped the lip. Nice!
First impressions are nice. Not great, but nice. The shifter is crisp, but notchy. The throttle is responsive and sharp. The steering is unbelievably responsive. The clutch is heavy. Of course, this is the first hour and in kind-of-heavy Long Island traffic.
I stopped by Detailing Dynamics to have a few key pieces of 3M film installed and a lovely silver Porsche emblem put on the hood. (Those guys are fanatically good, by the way.)
Pulling out of Detailing Dynamics shop... I scrape the lip. Twice in the first 30 miles. Nice!
I head to a small section of north-shore road that I know to be free from police activity. Then, the love affair begins.
It's hard to describe when you develop a seemingly symbiotic relationship with a car -- but it happened. It's a feeling that I've not experienced in a VERY long time. Once the roads became free of traffic and other distractions and I remember how to really drive a car it was a whole new experience. The car truly connects you with the road.
The clutch moves from becoming a heavy thing you have to push to make the car go into a critical input device of connectivity with the car. The shift lever's notchy feel in stop-and-go traffic becomes a quick snap between power bands. The motor (that I've been doing my best to break in properly) has an amazingly flat torque curve... and the steering and braking and cornering only improve as the car gets warm.
Not wanting to press my luck, I head home after a quick jaunt across the Throg's Neck, up and down 95, to the Hutch and the Upper West Side.
When I hit the surface streets in Manhattan, I try to soften the ride with some button pushing. No luck. Personally, I'd not want this thing as a daily driver. At least not in Manhattan.
Day 1 is over. 90 miles.
Day 2 begins with a drive back to Long Island. I needed to hit a few folks in Huntington before a brief ride with a friend through the North shore. Again.
The ride out across the island was great. Nice and easy. Wonderfully pleasant. Actually, I was on the phone for most of the drive. Cruise set on 62... 'cause a member of the law enforcement community decided to tail me for about a half hour. (Was a wise move on his part.)
A few more uneventful miles and then back on to the twisties. A map of the route is below. If you know Long Island, the vertical blue line next to the map's axis is Harbor Road.
Before anyone gets all worked up, our average speed on this drive was 34mph. This trip was about cornering. Lots of safe, clear, twisties in this neck of the woods and that's where the love affair continues.
There is no proper superlative to describe how this car feels in the turns. It's just perfect. The power and the steering rack work marvelously together to precisely communicate the limits every step of the way. There is never the vague feeling you get driving an M3 or a Z06 or an SL500 as you start to maneuver. The car is always using every input to tell you something. The more you can interperet that input, the more you can push. Remembering how to throw that rear end around only augments the driving experience across the board.
Thankfully, I recorded this whole session with the Traqmate. It's interesting to watch how the same sections of road is travelled over time. As the car warms up, as the driver get more confortable. The data it logs is amazing and end result of what that system can tell you is somewhat overwhelming. I can't wait to use the Traqmate it on an actual track and not the "Long Islandschleife".
All in all, I love this car. It's amazing. An incredibly precise driving tool. Exquisite feedback. Strong performance characteristics. Stunning. If the first 254 miles are any indication, this is going to very rapidly become the center of my driving attention.
Miles Driven: 250
Maximum speed reached: 117
Maximum lateral Gs recorded: 1.2 - lots of room to go :-)
Smiles: Too numerous to count...
Front lip scrapes: Too numerous to count...
#2
03-12-2007, 02:45 AM
...and here's the map from the Traqmate. For what it's worth, I'm running the Traqview software on a Mac using Parallels, Vista, Coherence mode and a Mac OSX GUI skin.
#4
03-12-2007, 10:26 AM
Love mine...600 miles and the beast is starting to get better....try redline after 500 miles...get those tires warm before high speed turns and the lip no matter how careful u are will scrape a new one is $110 order a sapre..I did
Last edited by Marc; 03-12-2007 at 04:37 PM.
#6
03-12-2007, 10:54 AM
congrats again emilgh,the wheels look great. when you said you were going to paint that front lip i said to myself not a good idea from my previous scrapes already.oh well have fun drive safe we will meet up soon.
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#9
03-12-2007, 11:16 AM
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I miss the "love affair" that comes with owning a certain car. My prius just ain't doing that for me.
#10
03-12-2007, 11:25 AM
Beautiful car, mine's coming in a few months and I can't wait especially after reading your review. I'm on Long Island too and know real well the road you mentioned, there are not allot of roads out here where you can let it hang out a bit but that one's nice. Detailing Dynamics will be doing my GT3 too, they're the best on LI. I'll be looking for you on the road, haven't seen a new GT3 in person yet.
Last edited by Bruce; 03-12-2007 at 11:29 AM.
#15
03-12-2007, 02:31 PM
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