bsclywilly

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Great car, but had to go with the Turbo. 4S just doesn’t have that kick at mid-speed when you put your foot down/ Turbo/S are the only track worthy Taycans imo.
Just returned from a track day in my 4CT and I have to agree (partially). Acceleration is so uneventful (subtle gear change, no noise), an extra 2-300hp surely would have been better.

But speed on the straights is just part of the experience, good brakes and handling can make up for some of it. Having said that, the brakes on the base Taycan suck.
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Ross

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It’s all about the driver……
Anybody can boot it in the straights.
Any pro driver such as a Porsche Experience instructor driving a base 2wd would absolutely smoke any of us amateur old boys in a Turbo/S.

As long as you have the 21s for the rubber the base and 4S could actually handle better as they are lighter.

Very surprised you found the brakes poor. They certainly don’t suck! Porsche steel brakes are state of the art. The base brakes are same as 4S and will only overheat after a while if you absolutely lunch them.
Benefits of carbon ceramics only start to show after 2 maxed out laps of the Nurburgring.

The ‘track focused’ GTS has a fractionally larger version of the same base steel brakes. The brakes on the GTS are superb.
 

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Just returned from a track day in my 4CT and I have to agree (partially). Acceleration is so uneventful (subtle gear change, no noise), an extra 2-300hp surely would have been better.

But speed on the straights is just part of the experience, good brakes and handling can make up for some of it. Having said that, the brakes on the base Taycan suck.
Yeah I didn’t mean that as an arrogance thing; just as someone who has driven every class of race machine under the sun, you become accustomed to and expect a level of performance at all aspects on the track.

Taycan brakes are good, considering the size and weight. I use the surface coats. While carbon is the obvious choice, these work just fine for a road car.
 

bsclywilly

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@Ross @MissionE I just posted an update in my thread on brake performance at the track. Easily overwhelmed the standard brakes. However I think a more suitable pad compound would have helped alot. But then upgrade tires, and then the brakes might be inadequate again...
 


G7SUM

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I am sure there are a few fast drivers who do track days etc may be OK but I am with @Ross on this.
I know plenty of people who quite fancy themselves as drivers and I have also been driven around a fair few race tracks by proper racing drivers. The difference is huge.

I am not familiar with the track layout at PEC Silverstone but as long as there aren't many very long straights and the base car had the big tyres on what he wrote may well be true.

One memorable experience was a lap of the Nordschleife with Keke Rosberg in his rental Mercedes 190 when we went back their for the first GP on the new short circuit, 1985 iirc.

He wanted to show me the old circuit which I hadn't seen in person. When we got to the "gate" a test driver from one of the tyre companies pushed in front of Keke's 190, probably assuming his test would be held up. Well until the first long straight Keke was inches from the back of his car and he gave him a few little pushes when he thought he should go quicker into a corner :)
Keke had raced on that circuit in a Porsche 956 so it would all have been slow motion for him - it wasn't for me.

Brands Hatch in the wet with Carlos Reutemann explaining to me how his car felt on the surface changes was breathtaking, he sat slightly sideways in the seat to face me, drove with one hand on the wheel yet was going at speeds I wouldn't try in the dry. He didn't bother to completely straighten his drift out of Clearways so the car was nicely set up for Paddock. This was probably the most impressive driving I ever experienced.

Michael Schumacher in his Bugatti 110 at Circuit Paul Ricard was pretty mind blowing too, this before he won his first World Championship.

Plenty more illustrated to me the massive gulf between actual fast drivers and those who just think they are - I certainly know my skill level is nowhere compared to them!
I'd say i'm a decent driver but one hot lap by the PEC instructor made me realise once again how average I really am. This was an ex traffic cop of 20+ years. I've also been driven round Silverstone in a Lotus Exige by one of there test drivers. Its a totally different experience altogether.

Thanks for sharing your experience Frank.
 
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Ross

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Um, no. With all due respect
Absolutely fair enough, you have done a lot of driving. That also must mean that you are even more Crystal Clearly aware that most of the rich old boy Turbo S heroes are much worse than you and the other professional drivers!
 

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I am sure there are a few fast drivers who do track days etc may be OK but I am with @Ross on this.
I know plenty of people who quite fancy themselves as drivers and I have also been driven around a fair few race tracks by proper racing drivers. The difference is huge.
I understand but there’s only so much a car can do if it’s technically far less powerful than other models. There’s a reason they don’t have a RWD Taycan at PEC.

They probably should offer it there to exemplify the chassis differences, though.
 


MissionE

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Absolutely fair enough, you have done a lot of driving. That also must mean that you are even more Crystal Clearly aware that most of the rich old boy Turbo S heroes are much worse than you and the other professional drivers!
In sheer power, yes. But of course skill matters. It’s akin to shooting with a film camera versus a modern iPhone. Yes, the quality of a modern iPhone is going to be superior in the resolution, but skill is a different matter. If you have an iPhone and skill, you can be a pretty competent photographer.
 

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Great car, but had to go with the Turbo. 4S just doesn’t have that kick at mid-speed when you put your foot down/ Turbo/S are the only track worthy Taycans imo.
:CWL:
You know there are entire race series with slower cars than the 4S, right?

And who cares if the owner’s having fun?
 
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senditback

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:CWL:
You know there are entire race series with slower cars than the 4S, right?

And who cares if the owner’s having fun?
Yep. Just for fun. Would probably be best for everyone if these two stopped talking and just brought out the measuring tape.
 

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:CWL:
You know there are entire race series with slower cars than the 4S, right?

And who cares if the owner’s having fun?
Agreed. Just in this case with such a heavy car, I prefer adequate power.
 

Archimedes

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Agreed. Just in this case with such a heavy car, I prefer adequate power.
Adequate. Do you have anything more subjective? :CWL:

These are all fat pigs. Drawing an arbitrary line between the Turbo and the 4S is comical.
 

MissionE

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As a matter of interest if you switch off all driver aids (if you can) how close is the car to the limit of the power it can actually transmit to the tarmac?

One of my oldest friends used to be technical director of the Ferrari F1 team and knew a bit about what the road car people were up to.
He told me Ferrari had a breakthrough when they adopted the approach that by the time most people were rich enough to buy a car at the price they wanted to sell they would be older, so making the cars easier to get in and out of was an important consideration.
The second thing was most were used nowhere near the limit in towns and headline numbers in the marketing counted a lot but would never be used by most customers. They resolved the problem of most of the cars having far more power than either the owners or chassis could handle by using sophisticated vehicle stability software which has multiple settings but, afaik, can’t be completely switched off.
i’d say with an electric the ultimate potential is unknown since this is such a novel engineering concept.

I understand that cars are getting more refined, but I wouldn’t agree that super cars are becoming more accessible because of old school linear wealth standings. By that logic cars should be just as complex to drive now since more people are wealthy at a younger age today. And I certainly wouldn’t agree that Ferrari would accommodate aging buyers and more accessibility [although that’s about to change with the Purosangue.]

You most certainly can switch off traction and assist programs on any modern sports car. We were discussing the Taycan and the substantial power to weight differences as regards tracking though.
 

MissionE

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Adequate. Do you have anything more subjective? :CWL:

These are all fat pigs. Drawing an arbitrary line between the Turbo and the 4S is comical.
Well that was in reference to the Rwd vs Turbo

And I’d say the differences between Turbo and 4S are far more substantial than arbitrary.
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