GT3RS 4.0/ RS3.6/ CGT/ Cup/ 910 Bonanza!
Dear all,
I was at circuito di Monteblanco in Andalusia to train on the Cup car and brought along my 4.0 and a few other cars, perfect weather, 20 deg just me and a couple of friends who came to enjoy a very special day.
Monteblanco is an FIA F1 certified track, what an amazing place, it is way up there with the best tracks I've driven on. And the staff is pro and super nice.
Here are my first impressions in a few words and in no particular order.
The 4L is AMAZING! The press is right, the ultimate 911, the creme de la creme. On the track that is of course, I'm yet to drive it on the road, but I guess it would be pretty pointless. You need a lot of space to exploit the power and you need the Cup tyres to be warm and stable at 2 bars, and that it not possible on the road of course, mind you, a warm summer day on an alpine pass, it must be pretty special...
4.0 vs 3.6: The immediate two differences you notice are the power of course, or rather, the torque, but also the wider front track of the 4.0, and hence a more neutral behaviour, it still understeer but a lot less, you can enter the corners with more speed and at a higher gear ratio, it just stays planted, it's phenomenal.
The 3.6 is still a great car of course, but after the 4.0 the engine is disappointing, you need to work the revs a lot, not much happens below 6000 rpm, the 4.0 comes alive from 4000, it's insane.
Bear in mind I have not driven the 3.8, so I am sure this GT3 addresses the torque issues and is probably a good compromise.
weaknesses of the 4.0? Not many, obviously if you compare it to the Cup car, its tyres, the Michelin Cups are great but they're not slicks.
Also the gearbox is slow, it needs a precise hand, especially 2 to 3 or 3 to 2.
The car was brand new so the gearbox will losen up with time but my 3.6 has 30000 km and the gearbox is still quite slow, as opposed to the GT who has a longer and softer throw.
The GT. A great paradox the GT, Could be a great trackcar (it's not as good as the 4.0 clearly) but some settings are too soft.
Especially the tyres, although the Supersports are a great improvement over the original Pilot sport developped in 04, they're not cup tyres.
But I can only recommend them, supersport tyres, again, warm pressure of 2 bars on all four corners and the GT comes alive, mid engines so less progessive than the GT3 but the engine is a peach! So linear, so full, fabulous!
The Cup car is of course the daddy but that's stating the obvious, it's a race car, so no suprise here.
What's surprising is the lap times, on a 3.7 km configuration, the 4.0 is ONLY 4 secs behind the Cup! Amazing! Its weight is balanced by the more powerful engine, the Cup car has a 3.6 which churns out approx 430 hp.
And also the 4.0 was brand new, I was driving 80% and the engine's potential was not there yet.
I am sure that on slicks, the 4.0 would only be 2 secs behing the Cup car, stupendous!
I saved the sweetest for last: 1967 910, 250 hp for 670 kgs, enough said. So light, so nimble, so charming, so efficient, and the lady is almost 50 years old.
Evolution works. There's magic is all these cars!
Here are two crappy phone pics, I have a lot of nice ones coming soon.
. I've finally installed the SS tires on my CGT but I've yet to try them on the track. They are however a big improvement on the road, specially on Riyadh's super slippery tarmac.
