Gauss:
Fantastic write up, Achim! I enjoyed reading every line of it!
I'm particularly interested in reading the follow up story to this :
As Olaf Manthey was eager to hear my comments on the car after his work he took more than an hour on Wednesday to discuss everything with me: simply amazing how he knows every little detail about the car - will post more on that later (gotta go now)
Some of Olaf's comments on the most important components of the 997.1 GT3:
(1) Brakes: the ABS is calibrated for street use (has to do something with the "booster" set-up, mind you I'm not a techie - hence I can't explain all the tech details). Anyway while nice on the road it's problematic on the track. Once the ABS is engaged under heavy braking it feels like the brakes are gone - the trick to regain the fantastic braking performance is to instantly LIFT the foot on the brake paddle a bit: then the brakes bite again. Very counter-intuitive IMO. Couple of weeks ago I had such a moment when I went a bit too fast down to Wehrseifen (for those not familiar with the 'Ring: fast downhill section where you have to brake hard to turn into the slowest coner of the 'Ring). Normally I'm quite good in braking just up to the ABS zone (not into it), but this time I overcooked a bit. The ABS braking (or better: lack of braking efficiency) felt terrible and my seat became a bit tight Olaf said this kind of ABS set-up started with the 996 GT3, but is even worse in the 997 GT3 (not sure about the new 3.8).
(2) Discs: you can't go wrong with either the factory discs or the Cup discs. I discussed slotted discs with him also. Comment: braking performance equal to the drilled discs. Advantage: no cracks (usually appearing around the wholes in the standard discs), but less performance in the rain.
(3) Pads: the Pagids (either yellow or orange) are still a good choice, but he very much praised the "Endless" pads. They are pricey (1,600 € for both front and rear), but last 3x as long as any other pads, performance is equal to the Pagids and they are very gentle to the discs (therefore especially recommended to PCCB drivers).
(4) Tires: MPSC are still the way to go for track oriented drivers. But: the composite of the 19" suffers on hot asphalt. That's not the case for the 18" tires (actually he said the 18" even seem to improve from lap to lap on very hot tarmac). I can confirm his comments on the 19" from my own experiences - they are very temp sensitive. At around 15° C air temp they seemed to grip forever, at 25-27 °C the performance suffered after few hot laps BTW a friend with a "twin" GT3 was quite pleased with the Toyos (just freshly installed).
(5) LSD: the factory LSD is not the best for the track - I believed it after watching my right rear tire (much more wear compared to the left one). Hence he recommended a sharper LSD. Initially I was a bit sceptical whether it would be too sharp for me, but I have to say it works like a charm and should pay for itself by saving some rubber
Funny thing is that my PZ told me already 2,000 km ago that the front brake discs are gone and that I should replace them. Olaf looked at them and grinned: they are good for another 3,000 km (50% road/50% track)
Just detected some noises today coming from the front of the car. Guess it's a roll bar or something. I think it wasn't a good idea to run through the caroussel at close to 80 km/h with a 100 kg passenger (BTW one of Gnil's competitors in the Swiss Sports Cup ), but of course I had to keep up with my GT3 buddies (who were not carrying the extra weight)
BTW talking about weight: my luxo GT3 is exactly 100 kg heavier than the factory claimed weight for a "naked" GT3 But the engine may produce some extra horses: did some runs vs. a "twin" (0-220 km/h) on the Döttinger Höhe and was pleased with the performance
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public roads: Porsche 987 S Seal/Cocoa, toll road
: Porsche 997 GT3 Arctic/Black