First Porsche Track Experience - Advice

[Archimedes]

shhhhhh don't tell the OP that! You're not supposed to make attempts at winning an HPDE at least until the 3rd or 4th event or at least until you feel your instructor is holding you back

That reminds me, OP, right before you set off, ask the instructor to step out and make sure that you shut the rear decklid. Then drive off before he/she gets back in the car. No bigger buzz kill on the track than some instructor next to you telling you what to do and filling your head with nonsense. Ever see Lewis with an instructor next to him in his Silver Arrow?

Then at the end of the day when you get the trophy for laying down the fast lap of the day, you don't have some 'instructor' claiming it was all because of them.

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[TDinDC]

Hats off to the instructors. I was invited, but I would never, ever, in a million years want to instruct anyone or get into the passenger seat of a car driven by a stranger. No way thank you very much.

 

[FlyingPoint]

Be sure to bring a fresh set of underwear.

 

[TDinDC]

Be sure to bring a fresh set of underwear.

Depends

 

[TXAG]

1. Hopefully you'll be taken as a passenger on a couple of discovery laps to learn the turns/hills and how hard the turns can be taken.
2. Don't look at your speedometer.
3. Don't jerk the steering wheel while turning. Smoother is better.
4. Use the paddle shifters even if you've never used them before. You'll shift when you see the tachometer light up (hopefully) in your peripheral vision.
5. Book your track time when the track isn't busy (like at the start of a weekday), and you won't diminish your experience by slowing down to let more experienced drivers pass you.
6. If your hands aren't shaking and you aren't soaked with sweat at the end of your four laps, you didn't drive fast enough.
Have a great time!

 

[Archimedes]

And whatever you do, don't buy into the 'slow is smooth and smooth is fast' nonsense. Think about it. If slow=smooth and smooth=fast, wouldn't that then mean that slow=fast. Where's the sense in that?

Gotta say, I'm shocked at all the bad advice in this thread.

 

[bsclywilly]

@Archimedes is on a roll today with all the good advice!

Really, a 4 lap experience is just about having fun. Don't expect to really learn anything except what covers you and your instructors safety. Hopefully you'll follow up this experience with some real seat time in the future and then you can focus on the advice given in this thread.

 

[Wakesurfer]

• smooth is fast
• listen to your instructor
• review the insurance deductible amount before deciding what to do
• I think you'll have more fun if you let it come to you rather than pushing it
• be prepared to be sucked into doing it again
• speed only comes with seat time - and you're going to have limited seat time, therefore you're going to have limited speed

have fun - there is nothing to "win" here - but you can begin the journey into a great hobby.

it's taken me years to learn how to be this slow…



enjoy!

Excellent advice - read and re-read Dave's comments - especially - let it come to you rather than pushing it. Years ago when I was a PCA DE Instructor I read every book on driving/racing that I could find. One comment (can't remember the book or the author) was an encouragement to let the car find it's way through the corner - turn-in, apex and finally exit. Now.................this is a huge over simplification but the point was/is - listen to your car as it will 'tell' you how it feels best going through a corner at speed. The smoothest drivers are the fastest and fighting or horsing a car through a corner is neither fast nor smooth. BUT as Dave also says - be prepared to become addicted to full PCA Drivers Education weekends with 4 20-25 minute sessions per day.

 

[DCYL725]

Pffffttt!!! It’s always about lap times.

If you ain’t winnin’, you’re losin’…

As Ricky Bobby would say:
“If you ain’t first you’re last.”

 

[DCYL725]

That reminds me, OP, right before you set off, ask the instructor to step out and make sure that you shut the rear decklid. Then drive off before he/she gets back in the car. No bigger buzz kill on the track than some instructor next to you telling you what to do and filling your head with nonsense. Ever see Lewis with an instructor next to him in his Silver Arrow?

Then at the end of the day when you get the trophy for laying down the fast lap of the day, you don't have some 'instructor' claiming it was all because of them.

Fastest way to get banned for life haha.

 

[DCYL725]

Excellent advice - read and re-read Dave's comments - especially - let it come to you rather than pushing it. Years ago when I was a PCA DE Instructor I read every book on driving/racing that I could find. One comment (can't remember the book or the author) was an encouragement to let the car find it's way through the corner - turn-in, apex and finally exit. Now.................this is a huge over simplification but the point was/is - listen to your car as it will 'tell' you how it feels best going through a corner at speed. The smoothest drivers are the fastest and fighting or horsing a car through a corner is neither fast nor smooth. BUT as Dave also says - be prepared to become addicted to full PCA Drivers Education weekends with 4 20-25 minute sessions per day.

Porsche marketing machine hard at work.
Take my money now!!

Thanks for the great advise everyone (especially Archimedes’), will report back on the event with my thoughts.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

But on the track, there are no lanes. You do have choice. And those choices matter. When to brake, when to turn, what line to follow.

Which track was this? Because every track I've been on (in Forza) has a line with braking hints - it even adjusts dynamically to your position and speed..

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

learn to use your brakes - you really need to stand on them - you dont get heat build up in the tires or brakes on the road.

This ^^. First time I did a DE event I had the chance to get a ride with an instructor (incidentally, he was driving a 993 ;-)). The first time he threw the anchors in T1 at Bremerton, I felt what must have been ~1g of deceleration: fully braced against the floor/firewall, all my weight against the harness.

 

[TDinDC]

I personally think that it is very hard to describe performance driving "correctly".

First of all, with only 4 laps, you aren't going to be learning much and you would be silly to try to win a race that isn't even a race. Have fun and call it a day.

I think when people say "smooth is fast", everyone thinks that means smooth inputs are fast. They are, so long as you are not pushing a car at its limits. What is much more important is that the car is smooth, and if you are driving the car at the limits, I can assure you that the inputs are not smooth. Smooth inputs are slow inputs and slow inputs at the limit = spin and/or wall. That's definitely true for steering inputs. For clutch (if you have one), you need to be in or out without this slow transition nonsense or you will soon find yourself without a clutch. Brakes should be forceful at beginning and easing off, but this is much closer to smooth. The accelerator is the one input where I can't even think of a situation where you would want to be abrupt, so I guess you could call that smooth. But you need to drive a car in part by feel, and if you feel something starting to break loose, you are far better off using more of an input than you think you need, because you can back it out, than you are by taking less of an input in an effort to be smooth, because you may very well find out that you are too late (and experience that sickening feeling of hitting the steering stop as you rotate around).

Watch Ken Block's steering inputs: From the outside, the car is in smooth drifts, but watch the steering inputs he needs to achieve that result -- I would not call them "smooth".

The same exact thing is true with Senna. Check out his inputs on a perfectly stock NSX: the car looks smooth from the exterior, but his inputs are not smooth.

But for this particular experience, just have fun and tell me and everyone else to shut the f@ck up.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

But for this particular experience, just have fun and tell me and everyone else to shut the f@ck up.

Nah, Archimedes can keep trol.^H talking.

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