Aug 14, 2006 3:50:33 AM
- Dock (Atlanta)
- Pilot
- Loc: Atlanta, Georgia
- Posts: 386, Gallery
- Registered on: May 1, 2002
- Reply to: jlr
Re: 997TT vs Z06 vs F430 from an owners perspective.
Quote:
jlr said:But, I'm disputing that you are going to become an accomplished driver, who can consistently apply technique and be able to drive near that limit safely on regular basis, simply by hot-rodding around on the public highways.
You're having trouble identifying the subject here, and staying on topic. The issue is not about going out, and on a high percentage basis, driving the Turbo to the very edge of it's cornering performance ability on public roads. You talked about not being able to find the limits of the Turbo on public roads. This is very different than a discussion about the "sport" of tracking a sports car trying to improve some personal best lap time.
Performance limits, as they pertain to a sports car (Turbo in this case), are limited to acceleration, braking, and cornering. Taking the Turbo to the maximum performance limit in either acceleration or braking is just no big deal at all on a public road. The cornering limit takes some work since the right road has to be available to accomplish that - but it is attainable. So the basic fundamental limits of the car (the original discussion here) can be realized on public roads. There is no "personal best" in terms of lap times, a measurable criteria, when it comes to max performing on the street, so that objective has to be saved for the track where all three performance elements (accel/decel/cornering) have to be linked. This is where the "sport" aspect comes into play. But it is critical to remember that this has nothing to do with identifying the basic performance limits/markers of the car, which was the point I was originally responding to.
When I'm driving on mountain roads, my objective is NOT to max perform my car for the *entire time* I'm in the curves...I don't need to do that for personal satisfaction or ego building.
When I was in the Air Force, we flew a sortie called "advanced handling characteristics" where the entire performance envelope of the jet was explored. The sortie had nothing to do with the actual employment of the aircraft in it's combat role - the objective was just to identify the performance limits. Given the right roads, this same approach can be taken with the Turbo.