RE: Porkers at the 'Ring - Page 3 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

In short: Splendid write up, sir.

Cheers Daz. I have already mentioned the cupholder pic omissions to the Tedster... He hasn't put my german novelty number plate up either

That was a great write up Dom. Really makes me want to get an RS and join in the fun sharpish! Isn't it amazing how much difference driver training makes to your lap times. Very amusing to think of a TT having difficaulty with a suzuki swift, lol! Sounds like your a real regular to the ring Dom. How many times have you all driven it now?

Just re-read my earlier post. Sorry to bring your ring into question there Dom, lol!

Leave my ring out of it... LOL I am a ring numpty to be honest. Visited 3 times, driven it once. I would drive it like a wuss until I knew all the lines etc. Daz is more of a Nordschliefe veteran, and SFV is most certainly Lord of the Ring

How are 911's generally viewed as a tool for the ring, in the hands of nupties (like myself) etc? Would it be particuarly unwise for a mere mortal to really 'push' the RS-ended one quite hard there? The lack of run off is rather intimidating. I wonder if a regular layout and more balanced car would be the ticket.....

Why didn't you stay a bit longer. It's the 24 hour race at the Ring this weekend. My bags a packed and I'll be off tonight.

I would say that at least 25% of the cars circulating the ring are Porsches, and half of those are RSs, CSs or GT3s. I counted about 15 different 964RSs over the few days, with about 7 993RSs, 5 or 6 GT3s and some turbos etc. The 968 CS was also in large numbers. Other favoured ring cars are the E30 BMW M3, modified E36 BMW M3s and VW Golf GTi Mk2s. You could count the Mercs, Ferraris and Astons on one hand. And I didn't see many TVRs at all - just Guillotine's Griff. It takes guts to push a 964RS to the limit, tho', and the 968CS is a friendlier drive. Ring racers don't mind the challenge it seems, as the 964RS was extremely popular.

I'd have thought the caterfields would have a strong presence too. None there? Where would you guys reccommend as a good place to learn how to handle a 911's specifically, with large run off's and decent advice etc? SE ideally I guess.

There were a few Caterhams and a Radical SR3, but there were in a minority compared to the Porsches and BMWs. I would suggest an airfield handling day to learn how to handle a 911 - I will do some kind of day like that myself at some point. I think Ride Drive do a day at an Essex airfield (North Weald?) for about 250 a head, two people sharing. Don't try and go beyond the limits on track, as you may collect someone else if you spin. Tracks are for negotiating as quickly as possible, not for learning handling characteristics. ATB Dom

£10k for a 968CS? Is that what they are now?

Well, a LHD one. Prices can be as little as 8k LHD, but they are normally ropey examples.

Great write up, Dom. Are you going to cover the PCGB day at Silverstone too....? Sounds like you had a *great* time... Maybe next year...

:blush: Cheers Dom for a marvellous write up, and a very complimentary note on your laps with me. Glad you enjoyed them. I've only been driving the car since April on the Ring, so I hope there's a fair bit to come yet. Just started to try the R compound tyres which should make the car stick better. The laps you did with me were on normal road tyres, so it probably was a little more slidey Great to see you all had a super trip, and came back in one piece. I shall post my trip report up here as well shortly. Cheers, E

Dom, nice prose, sounds like you had fun. Some friends did the 'Ring recently - hired a limo from an unsuspecting German wedding company - full on white stretched American jobby - dressed up in Tuxes, the lot. The driver had no idea what was going on unitl he arrived at the circuit. They did several laps drinking his champagne and enjoying the view - the Karussel was most entertaining....! As to airfield days - they are the best place (aside from a Tescos car park on a wet night)....but North Weald is ultra avrasive - I wrecked a set of rear tyres in my Caterham a couple of weeks ago on the circuit there - the concrete shags tyres. Did Elvington in Yorkshire this weekend too - that wasn't much better but less gritty than North Weald - note that airfields are always gritty and this'll stonechip the front of your pride & joy. Bassingbourn's meant to be OK too

And another one..... This trip was mt mate Adrian Elkin’s fault, and he’s a cheeky bugger – more of that later. He sent me and a few other guys an e-mail back in the winter saying how’s about a combined Ring and Spa weekend in May – several of us got on the phone straightaway to book the Spa track day, as places were limited to 100 cars. The Ring is quite often quoted as the best track in the world, and Spa is often placed at number two, so you could say we were walking around for a while like cats who’d got the cream. I invited my friend Mike O to come along, because I knew he’d love it as much as me. To save on costs, we decided to share the driving of my car over the weekend. He’s the one person I trust to drive my car on the track. Some have and would call me mad, but we’ve been doing it for several years, and nothing’s happened to make me want to change it. We’d planned our departure time from London to ensure we were at the Ring for opening on Friday at 2.15pm. So we left before 6am to get to Dover. It was incredibly foggy, and as the weather forecast for the weekend was clouds and rain, we weren’t surprised. Half way across the English Channel, whilst we were snoozing, we were awoken by an announcement from the captain. “Ladies and Gentleman, you may notice we have stopped moving. This is because our engines have failed. Our chief engineer is currently looking at the problem, and we hope to get going again soon. I will keep you informed of progress.” So we were stuck in the middle of the sea in the fog drifting in one the busiest shipping channels in the world – great. Half an hour later….”Ladies and Gentlemen, I have good news and bad news. We now have one of our three engines operational, but unfortunately I cannot dock the ship in the port with only one engine……” Long story short, the crossing took I think nearer 3 hours instead of the usual 1.25 hours. Then we hit Calais where they’d decided to open only one booth at Customs meaning a long long queue to get out of the port. Then we hit a 3kms + traffic jam at the junction of the E40/E42, and was winding its way down the E42 as far as we could see. So we took a different route to avoid this – Ben’s suspension testing route which is interesting in a stiffly suspensioned car. Despite everything, we got there having missed only an hour or so of tracktime due to them opening an hour later than published. I did the first two slow laps, and at the end Mike said that if they were slow, he didn’t want to see a fast one – he is a nervous passenger! Similarly Mike then did two laps with me in the passenger seat, and I then said that if those were slow laps, I didn’t want to be around for a fast one – I was a nervous owner! Hence for the rest of the weekend, we didn’t do any more laps together. This was because with Mike being a nervous passenger, he wouldn’t enjoy laps with me anyway, and he rarely does pax laps with other drivers, particularly after he was in a crash a few years back at the Ring with someone driving beyond their abilities. I decided not to do pax laps with him as I thought Mike could enjoy himself more if I wasn’t sitting in the pax seat. It worked out well, as we could each take a nice break whilst the other was driving. Friday was spent driving the car on the new Goodyear Eagle F1’s I’d had fitted earlier that week. Being brand new tyres, they needed a while to settle down, and the car was a bit squirmy on Fri as I expected it to be. Nice grippy tyres though, and supposedly good in the wet. Said Hi to Daz and Domster and a few other Pistonheaders who I knew would be there – the Porsche forum on www.pistonheads.com was an excellent source of info when I was looking to buy my 968, and you guys gave me help on whether the price and spec of the car meant I should buy it, which I did. Daz had brought his 996TT with X50 upgrade which takes the power up to 450+ bhp. I was really looking forward to a ride in it. Domster owns a 964RS, but it was in for work in the UK, so he was blagging pax laps. I took him out for a couple of laps, and I think given this was his first time to the Ring, he enjoyed seeing how a 968CS goes in comparison to a 964RS – noise doesn’t compare, but I guess feel and handling aren’t that far off. Then went out for a pax lap with Daz. What a giggle! As I was sincerely hoping, he floored it on the exit of the cones, and the initial acceleration was good but not mind blowing. Then I’m guessing around 2/3000 rpm the afterburners kicked in and captain – we took off at warp speed factor 9! Superbikes didn’t even get a look in. And all in air conditioned comfort. Got down to Hatzenbach and the car’s being chucked with abandon sideways through one bend then the next. “This driver certainly ain’t race trained” says Daz with a big grin on his face. And the lap continued in the same vein – some fabulous moments of acceleration that I only dream about, followed by hard on the brakes, then drifts and slides through the corners letting the four wheel drive and psm sort out any over exuberant moments. Great stuff, and damned impressive for someone who’d only done 30 laps at that stage. And of course a max speed run on Dottinger Hohe just to put the cherry on the cake. Fri night was spent in the Pistenklause with Jeppe, JW, Adrian, Soren, Kim, Mike, Ray and Emma, Keith, and others up the far end of the table. As is tradition, we wandered up to Sabine’s for a nightcap after dinner, and ended up staying there a wee bit late. Adrian – jammy bastard – has a rather nice bottle of whisky that Sabine keeps for him behind the bar, so we had one of those. Oh – and I discovered a new drink – Bananeweizen – great for the stamina. Sat am – plenty of clouds around but no rain yet. Mike and I got up early to put on the spare wheels with the R compound tyres on. I’d brought a trolley jack but couldn’t get it under the car – car is too low. So we had to use the crappy Porsche wheel jack, which just about held the car up without slipping. Took us forever and a day to change all four wheels, but we got there in the end. Took the car out for a lap, and immediately noticeable was that the right hand rear tyre was fouling on the wheel arch through left hand bends. This was accompanied by a strong burning rubber smell. And rubber smoke according to Christer who followed me round on one lap. We kept a very close eye on it, and it was just the slightest scraping on the outside edge of the tyre, so we weren’t concerned about a blow out. We were however concerned about the front left blowing – this tyre was already heavily worn when I put it on the car, and by lunchtime is was through the canvass and into the next layer. Laps were reduced significantly for the rest of the day, mainly because of some closures. Christer and I did a convoy lap together, and predictably Christer was cruising behind me in his missile of a Corvette – I just ain’t fast enough yet. I did also have a passenger – Adrian – which gave me a further power/weight diadvantage, and on shagged tyres, I wasn’t willing to show Christer what the car is really capable of, but we had a pleasant enough lap. Came across a nasty bike accident between Kallenhard and MHM – biker motionless; several people in attendance, so we carried on. Back up to speed by Bergwerk, and I’m absolutely maxing the car on the way up Kesselchen one when I notice out of the corner of my eye Adrian getting some sort of paper out of the door pocket. I’m concentrating to be flat out through Maddock Bend, so can’t look over. After Maddock Bend, I look over to find Adrian reading Motorsport magazine with his head down, not looking where we’re going. “Boring” was what he said. I won’t tell you what I said back, but it could be summarised as cheeky bastard in much much ruder words. But raised a good laugh – Adrian calls that the Book Test. He’s done it before, and been asked to get out of the car by some who take themselves too seriously. I thought the R compound tyres were great, and will be sticking with them. The turn in to corners is so much sharper, the car feels much more planted, and they still slide around a bit but at higher levels which is nice. I was running them at too high pressures on Saturday which again contributed to them not performing at optimum levels – I set the pressures cold at just under 2.0 bar, left them that way all day, but this turned out to be way too high as I found out on Monday. As Johann said to me on Sunday – there’s no going back to normal street tyres once you’ve experienced the R compounds. The 18” tyres worked well on the 968 as well – I had expected them to spoil the handling of the car being too big. But they were fine, and the car does look rather nice on the proper Porsche Speedlines – almost a mini 968 Turbo S look, with the bonnet vents too. Also did a lap with Adrian as a passenger again where we followed for an entire lap a Jaguar C Type and Jaguar D Type going round in convoy, and being driven bloody well. Some massive provoked sideways moments through many corners by the D Type. A joy to watch. Cars looked original to me, but they were in fact well used replicas – owner of the D Type was an old Jordie lad, had the car for 15 years, driven it everywhere in Europe hard, never trailered it, always drove it from the UK even in the pouring rain. I love characters like that! I also went out with Keith in his 968CS – again brilliant. Car sounds much sportier than mine due to different exhaust. Living so close to the Ring is really starting to show, and the car is going round at a great speed now. I wouldn’t like to race Keith coz I think he’d beat me, even though my car has bigger brakes and stiffer suspension. Keith is noticeably very hard on the brakes, so just as well he’s upgrading to Pagid yellows. Funnily enough I’m now concentrating on trying to brake less, as I think I’m losing too much speed on entry to some corners through overbraking. And I’m also thinking about saving the expensive pads and disks, which is helping me to feel a bit smoother round the Ring. Swings and roundabouts….. I then did my final pax lap of the weekend – with JW in his 964 Carrera 2. At one of the fastest sections of the track, on the way down to Aremburg, JW’s brakes failed in some way. Not no brakes, but severely reduced braking power. There was nowhere to go but straight into the gravel trap, except this isn’t very deep with gravel we discovered, and it didn’t help stop the car much. So then we were heading head on into the Armco on the outside of the gravel trap. At the last second, as I was bracing myself for a very ugly crash, JW managed to turn the car so that it hit the Armco side on at the rear. The damage was much less than I anticipated. I got behind the Armco whilst JW phoned the marshals to come and deal with the formalities. They were perfectly amicable, and all was dealt with quickly. One local came through the yellow flags first time slowly, saw there was no big accident and that the car was out of the way, so next time he came around, he came through at normal speed ignoring the yellow flag. The marshall was straight on the radio to the office to tell them to pull him off and also a Brit in an Audi TT with a video camera – so be warned. Spent the evening with Sir B and Lady B in Adenau. Good fun evening – Sir B got rather opinionated (as in worse than normal!) towards the end of the evening, as tends to happen after the Xth beer. At one point, he figured I didn’t know where Sprunghugel was, so papers and pens were got out, and the track was drawn. Turns out sir B didn’t know where Sprunghugel was – I had to go to the toilet to piss myself at this point. Also discovered Sir B does a very funny and accurate impression of Christer. Sunday took the car up to Ring Racing to ask them to see if they could help with the rubbing rear wheel – they raised the suspension by 2mms which did the trick. They also changed the wheels back to the normal wheels as the R compounds were shagged by that stage. All for a paltry sum. Saw Tom’s car up there – seen it had been in an incident because the whole right side was scraped. Apparently happened at T13 on Friday afternoon. Going out on one lap, a yellow local GT3 and a superbike following very very closely to him bombed past at Tiergarten – they were clearly racing. Coming into Hocheichen, there was a fairly heavily just smashed yellow GT3 – except it wasn’t the same car. The crashed one had a chequered black pattern on the roof. Debris and bodywork all over the track, but no one hurt. Did a warm up lap with Sir B – I swear he just goes out sniffing out fresh scalps. Good fun lap even though it was the first of the day. Think I met Ross but not sure – scruffy looking bloke in leathers and glasses, taking the piss out of Daz for consuming all the beer at Brens? If I’d known who you were, I would have said hello, but didn’t at the time. Spent a few hours at Brunchenn spectating in the evening – plenty of 24 hrs race activity in terms of camper vans staking out their territory. Finished the day at Sabines – met up with Dexter who gave me two photos of my car – really pleased with them. Retired early as we would have to leave at 6.30 am the next day to get to Spa. Weather at Spa was wonderful once the fog had burnt away. Had two new Pirelli PZero Corsas fitted to the fronts by the tyre supporter – Silverline. They said I should be running 2.1 bar front, 2.2 bar rear hot. After two laps, came in checked the pressures, they were already way above 2.5 bar on the fronts, so reduced them down to recommended, and they worked well the rest of the day. Spa and the cars there meant that R compounds were essential. There was everything from a Rover Metro 1.4i to a full race spec 650/800 bhp Porsche 935 (I think that car is known as the Moby Dick?) to a Lola F3000 car running a Ferrari 355 engine at 420 bhp. Circuit was a real joy, and took a bit of practice to learn the line. Initially braking for the bottom of Eau Rouge in the morning, we both got to almost flat in fourth by the end of the day. A corner to savour…. The D Type and C Type we’d seen at the Ring were there too, as were many other cars we’d seen at the Ring over the weekend. As I spotted the D Type about to go out for a lap, I asked politely if I might come for a lap with him. He said no problem, so I jumped in and harnessed up. A very special view to be had looking down that sculptured bonnet; the noise was superb; and he was chucking the car around power oversteering through most bends just for the sheer fun of it. Was as good as I had hoped, and I spent the six laps we did just grinning like a Cheshire cat. Followed the C Type for about three laps, then they switched places and the D Type led. Real gentlemen racers too – giving very proper hand signals to anyone wanting to overtake, heel and toeing and double declutching on the gearshifts. That was the best pax lap I had over the weekend, just because it was that bit more special. Spent the night at Aeaventures about 5kms from Spa – run by a Ring instructor, Neil, and his wife Ann. English speaking, so makes life easier. Very much bike focused. Hospitable in the extreme – cooked us dinner, gave us beers and wine and more special local beers, took us down for a ride round the old Spa circuit and pointed out who’d crashed where, etc. No wonder they’re almost full already for this year! Tues morning – time to think about going home. Neil had recommended going to the Stavelot museum as a way of using up the hour we had spare. But I had one thing I really wanted to do – Adrian’s car had been broken on Monday, but was meant to be working on Tuesday. I wanted to give him the Book Test back. It had to be done. So I dropped Mike off a the museum, and went looking for Adrian. Found him, asked for a lap – no problem. On about lap three we overtook the D Type and C Type and were getting up to pace nicely. As we came into La Source (the sharp right hander before the downhill run to Eau Rouge) I knew Adrian would be looking to the right in a right hand drive car as we went round the corner. So I got my Le Mans leaflet out of my pocket quickly, opened it up, and started reading it as we went down towards Eau Rouge. I got the finger of course from Adrian – can’t say much in an open Caterham at speed. But I wanted to savour this moment so I continued reading with my head down all the way through Eau Rouge, up the other side, and along the Kemel straight. A punch in the balls from Adrian eventually encouraged me to put the paper away. Satisfied my weekend was complete, I went home to London, after remembering to pick Mike up from the museum.

dom how quick was the gt3 mk2? and what did it sound like.... i saw them at monza 2 weeks ago but the owners wernt exactly going for it! iam thinking about getting one or a 996 t thats why. i want the gt3 but the roads in milano might have the front splitter off quicker than my italian friends here eat the canoli! cheers

Sounds familiar: www.nurburgring.org/trip_reports/trip25/index.html

Crikey SFV, you've been busy at the keyboard. I saw JW and he showed me the damage to his car on saturday evening. Good reflexes and car control had clearly averted a possible injuries and expensive repairs. Unexpected mechanical failure is perhaps something we should all look out for and deter us from trying to run at nine or ten tenths of our ability on a public day in road cars without harnesses, roll cages etc.. Yes that was Ross you met in the carpark sunday morning, an hilarious opinionated scots/south african comedian who was at the Ring on an R1 bike. I would like to take the credit for clearing Sliders out of beer two nights running, however I was ably assisted by my fellow guests into the early hours of both mornings. DAZ Edited to say sorry to hear about the Yellow GT3, he was driving very sensibly on saturday, moving to the right as Gary (American GT3 driver) and myself went past him in convoy between Eisekurve and Pflanzgarten 1. Apparrently another GT3 had an off at the weekend, but he was the same guy who kept everyone queueing whilst checking his tyre pressures, washing windscreen etc whilst blocking the petrol pump he had previously used, To$$er. >> Edited by dazren (moderator) on Wednesday 28th May 16:03

Cheers for the comments guys, and a great read from SFV. Re the GT3 mk2, my thoughts are that it is marginally quicker than a 996TT through corners if driven by a competent driver - it seems to have more grip in the dry, probably due to stiffer suspension and less weight. In the wet, you can forget it though. In a straight line, the 996TT with an X50 pack nails it, but apparently the power/weight ratio is better than a 'normal' 996TT, so it would be a closer call if not X50'd. So, generally summing up, the GT3 - on dry roads - is quicker around corners, but slower on the straights than a 996tt X50 (the massive torque would probably keep a normal 996TT ahead of it, too). In the wet, I would wager that the 996TT would nail it in all criteria, X50 or not. Depends whether you are a 'corners' man or not, I suppose, and whether wet weather perfomance and everyday useability is critical.

Hey SFV - Adrian's still abroad isn't he?..doing the Spain trip if I remember correctly. given you know him, you'll also know that my mate in the limo was Toyn Pashley, also still loose on the continent I believe - small world eh?

Good man - be rude not to as they say. Quick anecdote that I think you'll appreciate Daz. Went into Sabines on Friday night for a nightcap. There's a guy I know there who's a fixture in her bar -great big bloke with a beard who sits in the corner of the bar next to the toilet entrance. You might have seen him? His name is Poofy - don't worry, he's not. Plonked myself down next to him, he doesn't speak a word of English, I hardly speak a word of German, but we always manage to have long conversations somehow?! I speak superb German after six or seven pints Him and his mate were just ordering a couple of coffees with Grappa. I said can you make that three. Those were drunk, and I said Mmmmmm, what's next Poofy? OK - two pints of Banana Weizen (pint of beer with banana liquer in them). He downed his pint in one gulp, I didn't, but it was surprisingly nice nonetheless. What's next Poofy? Mmmmm.....OK, two Tequila Bomb Bombs. Down in one's obviously. What's next Poofy? My memory starts to get hazy at this point, but it was either double whiskys or Jagermeisters. What's next you big Poof? "Nein, nein, no more for me, I've got to drive home you know" I don't condone drink driving btw, but out in the quiet country, it's part of life I guess. Cheers, E

Hi Rubystone, It is indeed a small world - Tony Pashley's a good mate of mine. Had many a beer with him in London. He was at Spa on Mon/Tues with the Caterham gang - he spent most of those days repairing other peoples cars. Matt in the Caterham Blackbird had gearbox trouble - Tony had the gearbox out and was rebuilding it last I saw of him on Tues morning. I met Ade for the first time over the weekend - I know he was heading to the A1 Ring in Austria for a trackday today with Easytrack - not sure where he is after that. Certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. Do you know Adrian Elkin - Tony seems to spend a lot of time with him? If so, I've got an amusing picture of them when they were 5 years old sitting in a Caterham :smile: E

Hi Bobo, Depends what you want to do with the car? imo, the 996tt is a significantly faster car in straight line acceleration than the GT3 of whatever era. But the GT3 is set up to be faster through the corners, without all the toys the 996tt has. For serious track driving, I don't think you'd want the psm traction control, even though it's very very subtle in the tt. The GT3 is a fairly uncompromising car, and should be bought mainly for track work, although it's driveable from A to B on normal roads. The tt is a Jekkyl and Hyde car - very civilised for day to day driving, but can transform in an instant to a pretty serious track weapon, as proven time and again by Daz. However the GT3 is built for the track, and will in theory be cheaper to run and more satisfying to drive if trackdays are your thing. For me, in your position, I would buy a GT3 and a normal road car with the cash you've saved over buying a tt. If has to be only one car, more difficult decision. Regards, E

SFV I don't think the lack of taxis in the area help with the drink driving. Though having been almost killed by a DDriver in an accident 4/5 years ago though I'm now extremely anti. We had a table at Sabines for the early part of friday evening but I was on the soft drinks together with two other volunteer drivers for the evening. This did give an excuse to get well and truly stuck in, playing catch up, drinking till 5am when we returned to Sliders guesthouse. DAZ

I was at the 'ring and Spa but Scaramanga was sick from the moment I set off from Blighty and is going back to Colin's to have repairs done.... [ ].. am obviously very pissed off that the trip turned into a washout despite glorious weather and excellent track conditions. Such is life; any extensive work needs a shakedown of some sort and I never got a chance to do that before shooting off to the continent. So it was always a risk. Personally I have never been to the 'ring on a public day, always going with the apparently-now-defunct Wheeltorque who booked the entire Nordschleife so you could do as many laps as you liked. But the atmos was great this time, lots of nice cars to ogle as usual, rather more scary having to overtake nervous bikers and then occasionally being overtaken by mad bikers leant over at 70 degrees or more. Hopefully one of those was not one of the ones who lost an arm and died that weekend (apparently)..... Spa was brilliant as always, a stunning circuit I only lapped a few times at lowish revs in the RS to be sure I could get back home in one piece, but I did go out in a couple of friend's cars as well - an E30 M3 and a Boxster S - and marvelled at how good they were to drive. The M3 drastically underpowered but wonderfully sweet-handling on super-sticky Formula R tyres, the Boxster S even more of a revelation as its' neutral balance and poise around the higher-speed corners contrived to carry even more speed around despite normal road tyres and no tweakery. Combined with excellent food and Belgian beer, quite a trip. I'm going back to the 'ring, at least, as soon as I'm able - another long weekend perhaps. Thoroughly recommended.

Heck of a write up, Domst! Excellent stuff, sounds like 911 nirvana. I dunno, you savven playboys; it's just one ring cycle after another! And well done Daz & Co for having the doughnuts to actually take it on; salut!

Great write ups from both of you and I'd like to thank SFV for once again showing all the beetles how it should be done. I'll tell you what Dom, I'll let you do a straight swap, my CS for the Baron. You might want to wait until the new exhaust is on though PS Jim Murray, your Roock 993 RS is bloody gorgeous. It's enough to make me want another 2 cylinders.

LOL, I already suggested a swap with Euan The thing is, I can't be bothered working up to a 964RS through the 968CS (bit silly, but I tend to go in the deep end and then worry about flotation) and I've already owned a few 944s. Would be a bit like a step backwards, even if dynamically it would just be a fantastically friendly learning curve. I will learn the Baron, knowing that once the Baron is mastered, I'll be a very good driver indeed. Until then, I will try not to worry the badgers and have fun improving my skills. PS Andy tells me you owe him some new knuckles re the exhaust job

Nice write up's. Ewan the Speed King of the Ring Look forward to our next meeting there mate, I will take you out for sure.

Look forward to it - take me out as a passenger I presume you mean? You didn't hang around enough last time - too desperate to get to the porn capital of Europe I seem to remember? I'll be back on 20-22 June if you fancy it. Cheers, E

Yeah June sounds good for me mate! Don't know what I will be in M3 or EVO will decide that week mate, always nice learning a new car round the Ring Let me know your travel details for June as I might tag along with ya than driving bored on my own. I will also be at the Piston Heads show on my trade stand for the last weekend in June, you going to that?

Domster, I'm pretty much in agreement of your assesment of the '04 GT3 vs the TT except that I think the sizeable weight advantage of the GT3 combined with the bigger brakes and zero turbo lag have it all over the TT in braking, cornering and even acceleration out of the corner. You can carry a lot more speed in the GT3 in the corners and that translates to some incredible speeds down the straights as well. The TT just can't keep up and I think the driver has to work a lot harder to cope with the weight, understeer, AWD and PSM doo dads. The GT3 is a track car that you can use on the street, the TT is a steet car that you can use on the track. Now that I've owned and driven both cars in anger I can say that the TT is no match for the GT3 on the race track. Now if I could have only one car it would be the X50 but if I can have multiple weapons I'll take the GT3 and use it only for track work. -Gary

Hi Gary You are most certainly right - my obs were based purely from the passenger seat of Daz's car. As you say, a GT3 is probably going to outbrake it into the corners. Traction in the dry is likely to be high enough to equal the grip of 4wd as well, so you could get the power on just as early - if not earlier. Nevertheless, in damp or wet conditions, the Turbo would be much faster and more exploitable. Plus it's more of an 'everyday' street car - as you say. Is the GT3 run in now? ATB Dom

You're right, I think the GT3 might be a bit of a white knuckle ride in the wet especially with those special Michelins that come with what looks to be half tread depth. The turbo should run away from it in the wet. For everyday give me the turbo as well except that here in the states it's totally useless, I'd be in jail in a week. I'd say it's completely broken in by now, I even had a chance to pin the needle on the way back to Zuffenhausen. LOL. -Gary

Bloody hell; I must really be missing something here. When I drove a GT3 it felt massively underpowered compared to even a standard 993TT, much less anything 'tricked up' like an X-power 996TT. Still, I guess this is merely the voice of a track ignoramus?

The ring is a real 'leveller' of cars - hence a tricked up Suzuki Swift giving our Daz a hard time. The bhp per ton of the new GT3 is half way between that of normal 996tt and 996tt x50... That said, because it has a peakier and less torquey output, the GT3 may *feel* slower, even if it isn't in reality. I saw a great car for you on www.911-rs.de Simon: it's the yellow 993 RS with 525bhp - take a look

Less weight and the same tyres as the 996tt, means that in the dry the GT3 mk 2 can carry more speed through the corners before playing the drifting/sliding/4WD power transfer game . In addition the weight issue also helps with later braking in the GT3's favour. In an idea world having both would be nice. Hmmmmmmm, come on Herr Depreciation, go to work!!!!!! I wanna used car bargain!!!! On the gossip front, Gary mentioned that he couldn't order a clubsport in the USA, something to do with lawyers screwing it up for everyone. A roll cage would probably look a bit of a mess with warning stickers every 20cm "In case you're thick and didn't realise, don't headbutt rollcage, it'll hurt". The other thing he couldn't order in his car was the Porsche bucket seats. Crazily though the US OPC can fit both a roll cage and the bucket seats retrospectively. DAZ

Domster; Ludicrous! I love it: can you imagine the thrust in that baby? (Can you imagine trying to keep it away from your furry friends 'neath the bramble, too? ) Then again, when Wulvenspurter gets his razors sharpened properly (given what I experienced of the 550-600 bhp on tap), that too might resynch even your insane idea of schnellerism. Jawhol mein Baron!

Yeah, it's stupid here. At least we are getting the GT3 at last on this side of the pond. We missed out on the first one. I think the US DOT (Like German TUV) required POrsche to crash test many cars in order to certify the bucket seats so POrsche said thanks but no thanks. Not too big a deal to just buy 'em and fit them later. I think the car is considerably cheaper in the US than in Europe anyway. Once a car is sold the owner can basically do whatever he wants with it as long as it meets emissions testing every two years. You see all kinds of wild aftermarket stuff. The Brits kill me though, they will register anything with four wheels for the steet. Seein the Ultima GTR and the Radical at the 'Ring with reg tags was hilarious. Imagine driving a Radical to work everyday in a business suit. -Gary

Regs must be different from state to state - this guy on the Ultima forum has just registered one in the US of A... www.worksstand.com/jeffs.htm He is a bit of a drag racing afficionado. 'Project goal: standing quarter in 9.9 secs at 146 mph' So are you getting the race buckets put in after market, Gary? (Apologies in advance if you have already told us.) Cheers Dom

I guess anything is possible if you pay off enough politicians. Yeah, I bought the GT3 fixed back seats a while back fro the X50 but never installed tham. Glad I did because prices have gone up considerably since the announcement of the GT3 coming here. Ahh, supply and demand. -Gary

Great report Dom, but where is the picture of the cup holder being tested? DAZ