Am I putting my C4S in danger with upcoming moderate events?

I spend a fair amount of time on this forum and have read a lot about how to prepare my 996 for track use etc. Unfortunately I haven't had the time or budget to do much of anything to prepare (UAOS, deep sump etc). However, I have come upon a couple events I think will be a lot of fun and want to try to "get into" some more advanced learning. I have done a couple of Autox's which I really enjoyed but this is unknown territory. I really don't want to end up with a $40k paperweight sitting in my garage. My possibilities are this: I have an opportunity next weekend to enter an HPDE in N. Georgia as a novice driver with an instructor. and In March I plan to go with some other Peachstaters to do a few laps at Talladega Speedway. I am anticipating easing my way into these events and think I will be far from the "oil pressure drop on long right curves" etc. but I am not sure if I want to risk it. My Pcar is an 03 C4S with 63k however it has an RND engine installed ~7k ago with the IMS solution and nickies, and outside have bilsteins and new rubber on the corners. Interested in some thoughts about a moderate couple of outings to get my feet wet. Thanks for any advice! Cheers!

U wont drive the car hard enough as a novice to hurt it. Make sure the aos is working, the oil level is correct and have fun.

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North Georgia you mean Atlanta Motorsports park? That will be so much more fun than Talladega. I see it's only one day which is a bummer. Also don't bother with the Taste of the Track option. Only do a full HPDE. But as Aaron said your car is fine. I did my first eight days on track with my car bone stock.

Good to hear! Yes, AMS is the spot. I did the "taste" last year and from what I understand this is more of an actual track type event for my group. I would be in Group1, novice with instructor (will probably be practicing my point by technique a lot), Group2 solo point by on straights and group3 is the big dawgs.. AOS is working great and I have been scared into obsessing over my oil levels! Thanks!

You will have a blast and im betting u will be taking a lot of passes too. Dont be affraid to get ahead of people. Our cars do so well on the track. Let us know how it goes.

Quick follow up - track insurance - yes/no??

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In a brand new 911 most of my students will pay for track insurance. I don't know that track but most newer tracks are built safer than the old school ones. I would never tell someone not to buy it, I don't know your risk comfort level. I have never had it, Aaron does and it worked for him last year.

I buy a year policy....i unfortumately used it last year. The common thought is if u can afford to loose your car then no....if not yes. Although as a novice the risk is much lower but a mechanical or fluid can always happen I use On Track out of NY but Open Track is also good.

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You will be in good shape as a first time novice with your set-up. As Aaron mentioned, check your AOS, run good oil, make sure you have plenty of brake pad, change your brake fluid, run a good set of tires and enjoy the 996! Track insurance isnt very expensive, I would consider it.

I have a stock c4s. Have tracked it twice and it was a blast and it did not have any issues during or after. I bought the track insurance. It�s a small price to pay for peace of mind.

I was in charge of repairing and maintaining a fleet of 996 and 997 back in the day for Porsche Sport Driving School at Barbers Motorsport Park ( BTW George Barber just passed away yesterday, big lose for the Motorsport Community)...when I was still working as a Tech for B'ham Porsche back in the day. The Instructors were highly experienced and well known race car drivers and the students were mostly Novices... The cars were bone stock new as delivered and were kept that way even the Factory "N" Spec tires as delivered on Michelin , Continental, or Pirrelli ..... The ,"N" Spec tires are around 320 tread wear. No one runs "N"Spec tires on these cars anymore and tires with a lower tread wear rating can generate higher g-forces in turn and cause oil pressure drops... It's been proven here on Rennlist that the engine can survive moderate short temporary oil pressure drops when using fresh high quality high viscosity low friction oil... But if any oil pressure drops is discovered it should be corrected immediately for protection of the engine..... At the very least a camera should be mounted to record the dash oil pressure gauge when on the track after about 15 min of hard driving.... The oil pressure should follow the RPM if your at 4k RPM in the corner you should have 4Bar oil pressure.....( ie....1 Bar per 1k RPM ).. if at 4k in the turn and pressure drops to 2Bar you do not have full protection... If running very aggressive tires like 200 tread wear even Novice drivers can generate high G forces even on the streets enough to cause oil pressure drops ... You mention new rubber but not the tire specifics, it can make all the difference.. If pressure drops are encountered, follow the advice here on Rennlist for the cures....( Lots of threads on this subject ) Have fun !!!

As always the knowledge and advice on this forum is excellent and informative. Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I will let you know how it goes!

I keep on having additional questions come to mind .. Oil... So after reading some posts here I translated that to choosing Liqui Moly Molygen 5w50 for my last oil change (my Blackstone numbers have been very good!). Not wanting to start an oil debate but for my activities mentioned here does this sound acceptable or do you think I should consider going with a "track" oil? It only has 500 miles since the last change. Thanks!

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As Skip said, oil with high moly and high viscosity which leads to the ability to handle high temps. Below is a grid that Slakker put together a couple of years ago showing a list of oils comparing viscosity numbers at various temps. You can also see the new oil analysis breakdown.

Thanks! I think I should be good to go. I have CoopDuc's oil temp gauge installed and haven't see my oil temp above ~210 even with some fairly spirited driving.

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The gauge will come in handy. Your temps will rise higher on the track since you will be on the gas harder and longer at higher rpm levels than street driving. The longer the straights the higher the temps. Fwiw, if you catch the track bug after your first track day, the first thing i would do is budget for a UAOS w/Track Drain so you can better process the oil under G as well as run an additional 2 qts of oil for oil pressure stability. For sure, you also want to run a higher moly/viscosity oil as well. But first things first, enjoy your track day. Nothing better than enjoying the driving experience in your 996!

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I just want to reiterate that this is a single point and we don't know where this data came from, what method for testing was used (RDE and ICP will give different results - not apples to apples), and raw numbers do not translate into real world performance.

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Thanks Charles. Any idea if Lake is coming up with a summary analysis or similar grid given all of the analysis he is doing with his database?

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Happy to shed some light on this. The temperature calculations were performed using ASTM D3041 after consulting with two tribologists � with Lake Speed Jr. being one of them. Also, the new oil analysis numbers for the Driven oils came directly from Driven themselves. Let me know if you�d like any additional details. OP, when in doubt, use 300v 10W-60 filled to the max fill line. We consistently see the best oil pressure data and used oil analysis reports from both street and track use with this oil and a change interval of 5000 miles (reduce by 500 miles for each hour on track).

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I don't know for sure. I can ask him, but between SDX and his consulting work, he's I don't think he has any more bandwidth. Last week when I was at SwRI we did discuss oils while we were doing testing. For an oem spec oil, Pennzoil Platinum is his top pick, but the DI oils are still what he recommends above that, at least for our Porsche engines in place of A40 and C40 oils.

I pinged Lake just now. To reiterate, this is what he sent me: At SPEEDiagnostix, we’ve evaluated thousands of samples from Porsche engines. The oil that consistently provides the best results, street or track, is Driven DI40. That’s just what the data shows after 7 years of testing oil from Porsches.

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I'll buy it first time on a new track. Don't over worry. You won't be going fast enough to overstress the car yet. I would suggest a good set of track pads for the front. I smoked a set of C4S/Turbo front pads in 20 minutes. It's a lousy way to have your fun end early.

I think the flaw in Lake’s perspective is that almost no one sends in a used oil sample after an engine failure. DI40 works great, until it doesn't. That is why it voids our 2 year, unlimited mile, street or track use, engine warranty. We’ve spent hundreds of hours researching oil starvation, and the oil pressure data from one of our engines, compared to other PCA spec racing engines, is what led to us consulting with PCA on how to address the problem. Oil starvation was contributing to frequent M9X engine failures and forcing 70-hour proactive rebuild intervals. Our ability to show in the data why it was happening, demonstrate how to solve it, and validate the results afterward is what ultimately led to our engines being approved for all M96 and M97 spec racing classes for the 2026 season.

Prep is about done and getting my first inspection tomorrow! Before I drop her down off the Quickjacks any suggestions for the setting on my PSS10's. Seeing lots of F/R suggestions about 2 clicks apart like 7/9 F/R and most suggest a bit higher on the on the rear than the front. Also I just got 2 new front tires and I am wondering of they will be a little "slick" until they get a little wear on them. I am 90 min from the track so they will get some wear but do I need to put a few more miles on them to get them ready? As always, thanks for the advice!

Front tires will not be slick...the rears contol the car. U will understand the first time u add or remove throttle at high rpm. Be smooth your inputs and have fun. Dont know bilstiens but i do run my ohlins 2 clicks softer in the back. Honestly its your 1st time out...u wont know if there is a set up issue because these cars r so good it takes driving at the upper limits to feal the faults.

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PSS9/10 setting will depend alot on the tire sizes you run front and rear. Same can be said with sway bars and whether its a C4S vs C2. I run PSS9s w/ Tarret GT3 Sway bars, Guard LSD on my 996.2 C2 with 225x40x18 and 285x30x18. PSS9s - I run the stiffest setting in the rear and half stiff on the front. Tarret SB - I run the stiffest in the rear and softest in the front. My settings are a little stiff on the street but perfect for the track. Provides great rotation of the car but extremely stable and balanced at speed with the Bilsteins. A few things to think about. 1. The C2 comes from the factory with a healthy amount of understeer. The C4S even more so. So the goal most of us have for the track is to eliminate the understeer but not to facilitate oversteer. 2. To eliminate understeer you stiffen the rear and soften the front using coilovers and sway bars. 3. The other way to improve understeer is to widen the front tires, but this can create more instability in the back end with a 996 if you dont properly balance the front and rear suspension settings. As an example, with running wider than standard sized tires up front, you man need to soften the rear setting a notch or two. As a novice running standard 8 & 10, I would stick with 225x40 and 285x30, or of you are running GT3 size wheels 8.5 & 11, you can run 235x40 and 295x30. Sure, you can run 225x40 and 295x30 as well on 8 & 10. But I would stay away from 235x40 and 285x30 as a combo so you dont have a squirrely back end from too much rubber up front and not enough rubber to counter balance in the rear. Hope it helps.

I think people tend to run adjustable shocks too stiff, possibly to compensate for low spring rates. My opinion is to run the shocks as soft as possible. As long as there is no bouncing after bumps the shocks are stiff enough. Trying to stiffen the shocks to limit body roll because of low spring rates or too small sway bars gets to a point where the suspension motion is too slow for the tires to stay on the pavement and the car kind of skitters along.

In my case, my indy (Eurosport) set up the PSS9s for the track with the Tarett Sway bars, all with the goal of being able to do double duty on the street and track. From a background standpoint, Eurosport runs a huge PCA club racing & DE shop and has been setting up cars for 30 years. So they know how to set up the Bilstein PSS platform extremely well. We never needed to change the springs from what was placed on them from the Bilstein factory. They were that good at the time and still are today to handle double duty on the street and track with adjustability. No question, they have been wanting to put a set of MCS 3 ways on my car, and for years before that a set of JRZ 3 ways since the late 2000s for more adjustability. But I never needed it. This set-up allowed me to run in the fastest run group since the late 2000s balanced and under control at speed. But imho, the factory Bilstein PSS package really is damn good straight from the box. My only recomendation is to get the Tarett GT3 sway bars and Tarett drop links. Hope it helps. Add: one more point to make. Take your time in finding the right adjustments. Start with whats recomended by Bilstein for your C4s as a starting point. Then you can tweak it and make adjustments. If you have an Indy that knows what they are doing, then you will be golden. Enjoy!

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ASTM D3041? Used for oil temperature calculations? I don't think so.

Dont forget, you can always go a bit slower in the big sweepers to help your car! Its not a race so your pace can be your pace.

Thanks again to all for your input and suggestions. I had a great instructor and even rode along in his 996T which was a heightened experience for sure. I am told that AMP is a rather technical track comparatively speaking and to me it seemed like a giant autocross. Straights aren't that long and most end with abrupt corners. A very long sweeping LH curve left me dealing with trust issues but she held tight at 70. I feel like there is a speed in there when all hell will break loose but I wasn't comfortable finding out where that is. I was thinking after that day that PSM/AWD probably would have saved me but will have to explore that next time.. My getting passed/passing ratio was at least 10/1 and point by was a lot easier than I thought it would be, however my left arm was a bit sore the next day! It was also challenging managing my shifts on these sharp transitions but got better at it as the day went on. BIG difference starting acceleration in 2nd compared to 3rd but braking that hard before the curve sometimes left me shifting a bit late. Heel-Toe is not a skill I have mastered yet.. All in all a fun and very enlightening experience. My biggest take away from a setup perspective was that I need to beef up the brakes as I have the turbo calipers a rotors but I think beefier pads and made for track fluid will be installed before my next try. Bilstein's were on 2 F&R and I thought everything felt good. Back to AutoX this weekend so I will see if the track experience was helpful in honing my driving skills overall. Cheers!

Race pads and race fluid really help wirh condidence. Im glad u had a good time and it only gets better so stick wirh it and soon u will be getting more passes then giving.