popped my cherry - TRACK DAY!

it was a great weekend at the newest track in the west, reno-fernley. 2ish mile track with 2 fast straights. i took the front strait at 120mph and the back straight at around 105~110mph... plenty of pucker factor hilarious. i came out of this track day with one MAJOR impression, the 996 is a DAMN FINE CAR! found out that she pulls away from other 996s (thx to the mods i guess ), e46 m3s , runs circles around boxsters and can pull away from sl500 AMGs.. but maybe it's the driver hilarious. who needs a supercharger . held my own, still managed a 360 spin at 90 :O. clik on the links for more pics: reno-fernley track 1 reno-fernley track 2 damn fast car another damn fast car

VIRGIN NO MORE!!!!! Congrats!

Great shots Karlooz!!

What tires are you using? Are they R-compounds? How did they do at the track?

great to hear Karlooz. How much were you pulling against the e46 Ms? I've never gone head to head with one, so I'm interested to know.... I just had my first track day a couple weeks back and love it. Are you addicted now?

THX, man it was soooo much fun, and scary too. i am soo hooked

i am using dunlop ssr r compound tires. they communicate very well and have a very progressive break away. some say it's not a true r compound tire, just a hopped up street tire but that was exactly what i was looking for anyway. i wanted a track tire where i can drive to and from the track. after ~500 miles of freeway driving and almost 4 hours of track time the tires look to be in good shape

Welcome to the addiction. I wouldn't place too much stock in passing people if I were you. In green group (since it was your first DE, I assume you were in green), you have a lot of different skill levels (e.g., some great drivers from other regions and some scary newbies), different type cars AND different reasons for being on the track. It is sorta like passing someone on the street . . . you can't really know whether the other driver was really trying or not (their instructor may have been holding them back). That said, the 996s make outstanding cars for DE. It will be hard for me to trade down in HP when I get my 944 NA. The main point I am trying to make is that if you worry too much about the other drivers, it can interfere with your ability to make yourself a better driver. Easy advice to give, very hard to do.

i am soooooo addicted . the driver of the m3 had more skill than me (i think he had 3~4 DEs under his belt whereas this was my first) and had better lines through the curves but after the last turn i was WOT and pulling away. it wasn't night and day though. the m3 is a really nice car. oh ya forgot to mention it was a heavy convertible so the 996 had more of a weight advantage.

oh i hear ya about the passing. this was all meant to be tongue in cheek yes i was in novice and yes everyone in my group had varying abilities. some in novice had 5 DEs and some, like me, were absolute newbies. just wanted to say the 996 held its own against the more "experienced" newbies an instructor had a 944 s2 and it was a fast "momentum" car. he sure had a lot of momentum down the end of the straight at 130mph

Welcome to the dark side side. There is no chance to ever go back. Chad

Welcome to a slope slipperier than doing mods. Or. actually, this will direct and encourage mods ! . Those SSR's are awesome. Keep an eye on the outer third of those SSR's at the left rear. That's where they will cord. At 4 track days, it might actually be a good idea at this point to flip and switch all tires left to right. Don't forget to rebalance them. BTW, great pics!!

hey thx, good tip about switching them after the 4th track day. they are looking really good after 4 hours of track time (2 days). i'll see how they look after the next DE. i run 225s front and 265s on the rear and i thought the rears wouldn't be enough rubber but surprisingly the car felt neutral. easier to induce oversteer with a little lift. i'm thinking with bigger rubber in the rear i may get even more understeer.

I am predicting your next mod is a harness/roll bar and some 4pt harnesses.

you are absolutely right! tequipment bar is coming, but i am still debating 6 point or 5 point. there's a great thread in the racing forum re: 6pt/5pt.

Welcome to the dark side, in with the track mods, out with the bling crap.

do you think SSR's can be driven all year around? Because everytime I go to de track (3 or 4 times a year) I got to travel 200 miles each way to get there for a mere 4x30min sessions. I do approx. 12000miles/year with no snow, some rain and plenty of sun... Thanks in advance.

whoa now, still holding on to the bling . i already put the bling 19" wheels on and looking for bling wing/skirts/bumper, getting a bling tequipment rollbar and bling harnesses. hey, track stuff can be bling too

if you don't already have 2 sets of wheels, track and street, then you may want to consider it. if you are sticking with one set then go ahead and drive on the street with the SSRs. i only have 600 miles on my set so i couldn't tell you how long they would last but i could only imagine 1/2~1/3 the mileage of a regular street tire. viken uses them on the street on his gt3. btw they are NOt recommended for heavy rain/standing water situations.

Kiko, my SSRs are fantastic on the street. Caveat, I live in California, though. I was really worried that they would suck until you warmed them up and/or be scary in the rain. To my surprise, they are very good even on damp/wet roads. I actually got caught in a SERIOUS downpour with them, and I was sort of concerned that these were not the best tires right now to be driving on. I took it easy since the rain was so hard visibility was maybe only 5 cars. Left lots of space around me and avoided the nuts in SUVs trying to set land speed records. To my surprise, I never felt any hydroplaning (they were new, though). The only thing I could say was that they sure kicked up a lot of water spray. I think they are a what a summer tire should be (except for maybe full tread depth).

arenared, I'm convinced!!! The only problem now is that I'm contacting the sole importer of Dunlop for the country and they don't seem to know the tire even exists, actually the English Dunlop site doesn't shoe the SSR as an option. Does anyone knows if they're only available in the US?

tirerack.com got word from damon @ tirerack, "they are not being discontinued. Dunlop just quit making a few sizes. I think their size lineup is pretty much settled now." so far the widest is 265

ahh, i actually read the rest of your post. seems like they are only for the US. i guess you are in the UK. others on the racing forum have also had problems finding them over seas. weird thing is that the extra set i bought from tirerack (they have blowout prices right now) had a "made in germany" sticker so go figure

Kiko, I first heard about SSR's from a guy in Malaysia. He orders the tires direct from Germany, and has them shipped to Malaysia. I've had three sets, and all of them say "Made in Germany". karlooz, I'm not too sure they are NOT being discontinued. It just doesn't make sense to not have them available right after troductory year. I hope you're right, 'cuz I really like these tires. I'm not too keen on going the "true" R-compound route because of the sporadic reports of oil starvation with slicks on these engines. Despite their reputation as being sticky street tires rather true R-compounds, I can hang in there on the track with cars that are on slicks. I do hope they bring them back.

hey palting, i'm just the messenger . that was a direct quote from damon@tirerack so i hope HE is right. i would like to go with wider tires at some point so i hope they bring back the 285/295/315 sizes. how about a 265ft/315rr setup, hmmmmmm............