Sep 15, 2005 2:06:46 PM
- 69bossnine
- Rennteam Pro
-
- Loc: FL, USA , United States
- Posts: 2028, Gallery
- Registered on: Jan 27, 2005
- Reply to: Dubliner
Re: Launching?
U Boat... Londondude's original post was asking for advice for a street-race launch. IMHO your "safest way" was over-the-top safe, and slow. You may have a good street record going, but I know 1st-hand how different launches result in much different 60-foot times in a controlled and timed environment. Analyzing the 1st 60-feet by 100ths of seconds was my weekend hobby for a decade. There's nothing controlled about street racing. Suffice it to say, your perfect record would have been shattered badly, and early in the race, if I had been the pilot of that 400 h.p. Corvette. The only reason you beat him with a much slower car (which a 996 is, period) was his absolute ineptitude, because there's nothing quick about a 996 floored off idle in 1st gear. Heck, there's nothing quick about my 997S floored off idle!!! Any time you've got a car with weak torque (in the world of performance cars, the low-end torque of a 997S is meager), the worst thing you can do is force the thing to pull off of idle. Every road test of the 997S attributes it's ability to best the 400 h.p. Corvette to it's rear-weight bias, and its ability to shoot like a gun out of the hole with a hard high-rpm launch. That's how ALL of the Corvette-beating numbers have been accomplished. Otherwise, beating the Vette is a mathmatical impossibility. If you took a new C6 Corvette, and a new 997S, and raced them from a slow ROLL, in 1st-gear, right off idle speed, simple mathmatics alone tell you what would happen. The Corvette would gain an enormous lead in the 1st 60 feet, by virtue of it's vastly superior and lower-range torque powering almost identical weight. By the time the 997S gets past its weaker low-range, and starts to spin into its power-band, it can hold-check with the Corvette fairly well, but it could never make up the lost ground unless you had a little shot of N2O up your sleeve. Curb weight, plus h.p. and torque curves, plus gearing, tell that tale. We've all got David slaying Golliath stories to tell, but those stories are more about the men than the machines. A fast car in the hands of a hapless driver, is no different than when Anna Nicole Smith was married to Howard Marshall II! 
Considering C&D and MT both accomplished 4,000+ rpm launches that resulted in some violent axle-tramp, but no clutch slippage, I think a fresh under-10,000 mile 997S clutch is up to the task if you're at a track, and really want to see the best it can do. It's just not something you'd want to do regularly, or just for a meaningless street race. For me, 3,000 rpm will have to do on the street, and at that conservative level, I likely don't have a chance against the beefier-torque Vette if drivers are equal. Luckily, the majority of Corvette drivers are peddling around with automatic slushboxes, and the ones who do have a 6-speed, aren't terribly adept with them. That's not ALL Corvette owners of course. Having been a former owner, I know the frustration of being an enthusiast among mostly NASCAR fans and retirees.
The 996 had a different clutch, and we have no idea how many miles were on your example-guy's 996 clutch, nor do we know how he treated the clutch up to that moment. Too many variables involved, to draw any reasonable conclusion.
Lastly, the guy in the Corvette you raced must have had two left feet, shifted like Miss Daisy, and shifted 2,000 rpm's early, LOL!!! Hey, I've beaten plenty of theoretically faster cars than mine on the street, as the hopeless and hapless driver can't seem to work a clutch, a shifter, and eyeball a tach at the same time.
Lastly-lastly, it should go without saying that this all SPECIFICALLY applies to straight-line drag racing, which is far from being the primary engineered purpose of a 911. As an ex-1/4-mile-track-junkie, I certainly did not buy my 997S to do straight ahead sprints. But if duty calls.... I won't leave anything on the shelf, I'm putting the whole pantry into the stew!!
BTW, are you really a U boat Commander?? As Butthead would say, "THAT would be COOL..."
Considering C&D and MT both accomplished 4,000+ rpm launches that resulted in some violent axle-tramp, but no clutch slippage, I think a fresh under-10,000 mile 997S clutch is up to the task if you're at a track, and really want to see the best it can do. It's just not something you'd want to do regularly, or just for a meaningless street race. For me, 3,000 rpm will have to do on the street, and at that conservative level, I likely don't have a chance against the beefier-torque Vette if drivers are equal. Luckily, the majority of Corvette drivers are peddling around with automatic slushboxes, and the ones who do have a 6-speed, aren't terribly adept with them. That's not ALL Corvette owners of course. Having been a former owner, I know the frustration of being an enthusiast among mostly NASCAR fans and retirees.
The 996 had a different clutch, and we have no idea how many miles were on your example-guy's 996 clutch, nor do we know how he treated the clutch up to that moment. Too many variables involved, to draw any reasonable conclusion.
Lastly, the guy in the Corvette you raced must have had two left feet, shifted like Miss Daisy, and shifted 2,000 rpm's early, LOL!!! Hey, I've beaten plenty of theoretically faster cars than mine on the street, as the hopeless and hapless driver can't seem to work a clutch, a shifter, and eyeball a tach at the same time.
Lastly-lastly, it should go without saying that this all SPECIFICALLY applies to straight-line drag racing, which is far from being the primary engineered purpose of a 911. As an ex-1/4-mile-track-junkie, I certainly did not buy my 997S to do straight ahead sprints. But if duty calls.... I won't leave anything on the shelf, I'm putting the whole pantry into the stew!!
BTW, are you really a U boat Commander?? As Butthead would say, "THAT would be COOL..."
