mikeva

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I wanted to take my new Taycan RWD down to VIR from the Richmond VA area for a track day. This report details a bit of the 'range issues' as well as putting the car on the track.

First of all, it is a 2021 Taycan RWD with the base battery, steel suspension, 20" wheels and Continental all season tires.

I was originally undecided about the trip since there are basically no DC chargers on my route (there are a couple of Type 2 chargers - but with sketchy reports as to usability). It is 132 miles from my house to VIR so a one-way trip is obviously not a problem, but a straight round trip is a bit of a gamble. Add the idea of multiple 20 minute track sessions and things really get questionable. It turned out that Porsche installed 2 Type 2 chargers to support their use of a Taycan as the pace car for the IMSA race over the weekend. Since that gave me a guaranteed working EVSE at VIR I decided to make the trip with the Taycan.

I started from home with a full 100% showing around 250 miles of range. So obviously getting to VIR presented no problems. Got down there and had around a 60% SOC. I figured it should be charged up to 100% for the track time the next day and needed to figure out how to do that and still enjoy the remnants of the IMSA racing that day. My first approach was to stop at the EVSE and top things off. Unfortunately after plugging in, the system indicated it would be about 4 hours ( a little before 6 pm) until it would be at 100%. I should note that the EVSE is outside the main gate and probably 1 1/2 miles to the paddock area. No way to easily get from the EVSE to the race. Since that kind of killed the idea of seeing any of the race, I stopped the process and drove on down to the Porsche Tent to watch the race. After watching the race for a while I decided I need to get the charging process started if I wanted any chance of getting it done before dark. So, I drove it back to the EVSE, started the process and walked the 1 1/2 miles to paddock area -- and got there by the end of the race. My finish time was now indicated at 6:56pm.

I was lucky as one of my golfing buddies was down there working as a flagman and he called to ask what I was doing that evening. I offered to buy his dinner if he would come by and pick me up to go eat somewhere and then drop me back at the EVSE afterwards. Luckily the timing on that worked out perfect and we pulled up to the EVSE about 5 minutes after it hit 100% after a great dinner and some fun discussion.

On track day, there I was at the track with 100% and ready to see how the Taycan would perform. I was very happy with the performance of the Taycan on the track. I've been lucky enough to have a Cayman S, a Boxster S, a Cayenne S and my 991.1 S on the track for this annual track day over the past 15 years. The Taycan was a blast. I would rate it above the Cayman (which was underpowered) and the Cayenne and not too far behind the Boxster and the 911. I run in the touring group where you follow a pace car - and while there is a pace car the leader usually has a pretty heavy foot as once agin I occasionally saw 120 mph on the straights. And of course, as the participants spread out you can usually go through the twisties about as fast you are comfortable doing. Since it was my first time with the Taycan, I think (after the fact) that I was braking way to soon and should have gone deeper into the corners. I also can see where some good summer tires would have been a great advantage on the track. In spite of that I only had 2 laps out of about 15 where I did not keep right behind the car in front of me. In other words the Taycan had no trouble keeping up with the various late model 911's that were in front of me. My current thought is that this 5,000 pound electric vehicle has some serious 'chops'.

The first run went through 16% of the charge so I drove back to the EVSE and charged it for about 45 mins which only took me back to around 88%. A type 2 charge is better than nothing in this situation but not by too much. After the 2nd run I needed to check out of the room so I did not 'top up' and figured I would do it after the third run before I headed home. (There were still opportunities to run 3 more session in the afternoon but I had promised the wife I would be home by late afternoon to meet some obligations.). After the third 20 min run I was down to less than 58% SOC and that was not enough for the drive home. So I grabbed lunch and took it back up to the EVSE to get the charge up to a level that would give me a cushion of about 30 miles since I still have a bit of range anxiety (give the total lack of options to charge anywhere on the way home). Took about 1 hour to give me the cushion I wanted and I hit the road. By the way the screen indicated 85.3 kWh / 100 miles after all the runs!

Got home with 15% SOC so the system had the numbers 'spot on'.

In summary, the Taycan was a blast on the track but being limited to a Type 2 charger kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. There is too much charging time and the fact that the EVSE was about 1 1/2 miles from everything certainly did not help. The other great thing was being able to meet @NC_Taycan and be able to watch him zip around the track - he runs in one of the real track groups.....
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porsche_mann_

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Nice write up! Have some questions if you don't mind.

I have the RWD with the standard battery, but no Chrono option.
Do you have the Sport Chrono option? It adds temperature control of the performance ( standard ) battery. Wondered if that is critical to some track play.

I have seen online that there is a CCS DC charger at VIR on raceplex drive. Was that not in play? I am in Charlotte and considering the fall PCA event next month if I can recharge it there. Appreciate any input. Thank you!
 
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mikeva

mikeva

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Nice write up! Have some questions if you don't mind.

I have the RWD with the standard battery, but no Chrono option.
Do you have the Sport Chrono option? It adds temperature control of the performance ( standard ) battery. Wondered if that is critical to some track play.

I have seen online that there is a CCS DC charger at VIR on raceplex drive. Was that not in play? I am in Charlotte and considering the fall PCA event next month if I can recharge it there. Appreciate any input. Thank you!
I do not have the Chrono option.

I am not aware of any DC charger at VIR. The only reliable one that I know of are the two new level 2 units Porsche installed right before the main entrance at the private garages. Each of these two units produced exactly the same charge rate as my home unit. The pair are a great addition and I thank Porsche for putting them in. it is going to be a problem if more than two EVs are running at the track.

As long as you are comfortable with the limitations of recharging you will have a blast. I know I had a lot of fun (and learned a lot about the capabilities of my car) running around the track.

Porsche Taycan Report on a trip to VIR for a track day 9DE01DA1-3AC6-4F52-B806-163C1F9C7BD0
 

NC_Taycan

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The CCS charger was removed and replaced with these two Porsche destination chargers. I got it to work once and it was only good for 13 kW so it really wasn't much better.

The paddock grid was less heavily used this time than in the past - I was able to get 40A without the PMCC dropping out due to low voltage or spikes. Although these destination chargers are direct wired, they are still only putting out 9.6 kW - same as 40A in the paddock.

I have it a bit easier than @mikeva since home for me is 66 miles or home to a new shiny EA 350 kW charger is 40 miles from VIR. Considering you start to lose acceleration once SOC falls below 25%, I can run down to 15% and charge while packing up my stuff and have just enough to get to the EA charger.

And as Mike said, even after a track day, the range calculation vs. SOC seems to be right on - maybe a bit conservative (I arrived at the charger with more SOC than predicted).

Lastly, I ran with new Pirelli PZ4 NF0-spec summers, having finally burned off the all season Contis after 7000 miles. Definite improvement though they still get hot and greasy trying to keep 5000 lbs going in the right direction. After 20 hard minutes either the tires or the battery are too hot, and 20 minutes will eat at least 35% of the battery. Fortunately with this event there are six runs, so you can go out for 15 minutes five times, get your fix, skip the last run, and be home for dinner.

Porsche Taycan Report on a trip to VIR for a track day IMG_2368
 

NC_Taycan

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I am in Charlotte and considering the fall PCA event next month if I can recharge it there. Appreciate any input. Thank you!
I will be there as well if all works out with a car I'm buying for track days. If rooms are available, get a Pit Lane room and charge overnight in the paddock. Or bribe someone to shuttle you between the destination charger and your room and leave it overnight. If I'm there, I'll gladly play taxi for another Taycan owner. Bring your PMCC, or another EVSE where you can control the charge current. North Paddock power has been unreliable, though I've had good luck dialing it back to 30A. FWIW closer to the tech shed seems to be better, and Monday I used tower 21 and got 40A, but I suspect that was more due to light utilization of the grid vs. that particular tower.
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