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Porsche Cayman 981 Black Edition

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rex:
Quite some time since I last wrote anything over here... And a lot of things happened since then.
I hope everyone is well!

Next week should have been the Porsche oversteer training... All flights to Germany are cancelled and the training is also cancelled. I think this is the first year in 11 years I haven't had a trackday since June... But I guess this is understandable. In Romania, the authorities took Corona very serious - some might say too serious (not me though) and I couldn't even drive the Porsche for 2 months - partially because of the ban to travel unless for a serious motive and partially because the Romanian version of MOT (carried out each 2 years) expired and that was not a good enough reason to go out and get it done.

In the meanwhile, the car had a proper wash to get rid of the winter salt and grime. I do this every year when switching to summer tires and I hope to keep the car rust free for a long long while. Those big calipers look very sexy  :smiley:



I like the BBS CH-R wheels, but I prefer the OEM Carrera Classic ones better.



The August Nurburging Porsche training is still on and I am very excited about it. I hope the world will be safe enough for them not to cancel.
All the best!

rex:
Hello everyone!
Yesterday I returned from this years Nurburgring adventure and, after some rest - as I drove, in total 4221 km (2622 miles) and approx 51 hours during the past 6 days, out of which about 850km (528 miles) - I would like to share with you what exactly happened...
There are many thoughts, photos and videos I want to share so it is going to take more then one post. This post is about general impressions. So, without further ado, here we go  :jumpmove:

This has been my first Porsche Track Experience event and I have so say, Porsche has not let me down. It was a wonderfully organized event and, even if expensive, well worth the money.
The event took place over 2 days, the first day the instructors would show you the racing lines and the second day you could choose either to do the same as in the previous day, or have the instructor drive behind you or free driving.
The auxiliaries - food, beverage, gifts were top notch. The instructors as well.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that we had the Nordschleife and the GP Track combined - this doesn't happen very often and I was nice to learn the GP track as well.
All the cars attending were Porsche's (it is not mandatory though) and 80% of them were GT3RS and GT3. The were either some rentals (like 992 TurboS, 992 Carrera S, 718 Cayman) or some older 911's or some non GT 991's or a handful of 981 GT4's. Here are some of the cars in the lineup:



The event consisted of about 13 groups - I think about 3 groups were English speaking and the rest German.
I was a part of group 10, with 3 other cars - all 991.2 GT3RS. We had 2 instructors (Chezito Mendez and Renate Sanders) both driving 992 Turbo S's. And there was I, with the 275hp stock 981 Cayman  :stupid:. I would say we were evenly matched  :innocent:. One of my colleagues was at Nurburgring for the first time so, at least I wasn't the slowest :).



During the first hours one "defect" the car has, has become a big issue but also a blessing in disguise. The seats (OEM base ones) over little to no side support, so I nicknamed them the "bench" as you slide from one side to the other. Because of this, by knees were constantly banging the audio speakers on the left and the central tunnel on the right. I had some knee caps with me, just in case, and after the injury started to get serious I took a break from the training and went to the hotel to get my knee caps.



One of the instructors went ahead with the remaining of the cars and the other was (Renate) waited for me. So, for the next 2 days I had a personal instructor  :jumping:. A gentlemen also joined us for a few laps in his, very beautiful, 991.2 GT3 Touring but had some issues (personally) and did not join the second day. He was also having problems with the manual gearbox as we was not always in the correct gear (and the NA engines don't work very well outside of a specific power band). As such he was maybe 30 sec to 1 minute slower then me.

Anyway, the first day of training ended without something notable to say... No great laps or laptimes as the instructor was very fast in some parts of the track but also slowing down to much for me on others.



After the training I attended the Touristenfahrten driving session on the Nordschleife & GP Track and I have to say it was a mess... So many cars all over the place that I am seriously considering ever doing another Touristenfahrten... As it is very difficult for me to get to the track, I think I will do some trackdays/trainings only.
Next up, the second day and some photos (after I get some from the officials) and videos (after I edit them and overlay the GPS data). Stay tuned!

rex:
And the story goes on...
The program of the event was, as follows:
- some theory about grip, lines, rules - very minimal and nothing new.
- 1st day you have to follow the instructor
- 2nd day you can either follow the instructor, have the instructor follow you, or have free laps, without any instructor.

As I had one instructor only for myself I thought it would be stupid of me not to benefit from her experience and her advises.
The day didn't start very well as the rear brake pad warning message went on after only a few miles. So I lost about one hour and a half changing the pads at the Porsche Dealership in Nurburgring (Manthey Racing) - I was scheduled for a service and pads change the following day but they were very nice and changed the brakes on the spot to allow me to take part in the Porsche Experience Program without loosing to much time. Also my instructor had lunch earlier and I skipped lunch to maximize the track time.
The track was also closed for about 30 minutes due to a very nice 997.2 GT3RS which had an encounter with the side rail in one of the sessions - the driver seemed fine.

About the day, I have to say I enjoyed it a lot! I started pushing my limits more and more, the instructor was very helpful and I learned a lot from her.
As you will see in the video below, we both had a walkie talkie / radio and we could communicate both ways. As I wanted to concentrate on the laps my instructor would do the talking during the lap and I would use the radio after the completion of the lap. The audio was quite good because the radio was connected to my AUX input in the car.

Anyway, here is a lap with more things to see...



And a few works about that particular lap:
- this trip was the first time I've been on the GP track and I can say I'm not yet comfortable with it. As you see, I could use more of the track and more of the curbs.
- when I usually see cars in my back mirror, I know they are faster then I am and I immediately signal right and move to the right side. In this case, that was not quite OK since the GT3RS's were slower than I was on the last part of the track. You will see the instructor also comment on this.
- during my previous day and also the laps before the above one, the instructor told me I am very fast in the last part. She told me that I "drive like a professional racing driver the last part of the circuit" (after Hohe Acht) and she previously joked about me passing other German plate 991's - GTS, GT3, GT3RS, etc by saying "the further you are from Nurburgring the better you are". In the video above you will hear her say that again...
I am not yet sure if she was serious or not (I think she might have been a bit serious ), but, of course, her statements filled me with joy and pride. And they also made me concentrate more and take more chances in some areas (areas where I feel I still can do better).

Also, as a general feedback, I understood more about the cars' weight transfer when doing different things and I think I should generally have an earlier turn-in to keep the car balanced.
Next up, the best lap and/or photos.

P.S. Oh... I forgot something... This training was the "Master" level one - the third level in Porsche trainings. This implies people have 2 other trainings previously (Precision & Performance). But I think they should also judge people on skill / laptimes / etc. Because I don't think it's normal to have so much disparity in performance... I could keep up with the GT3RS's but I was way faster than other cars (GT3's, GTS's, etc) and that should not be the case.

rex:
And here is the video with the best lap:



As in the usual way, a few word about it:
- since I go from a stand still at the Bilstein Bridge and since I also do the GP track, the BTG time is estimated as follows: I take the previous journey's Bridge to T13 (L4 Apex) time and I add the time from T13 (L4 Apex) to Gantry. This is how I got to 8:21.
- there are a lot of corners where I am faster than I've ever been: Flugplatz, Fuchsröhre, Kesselchen or Stefan-Bellof-S - to name only the biggest improvements.
- but there still are a lot of areas where I can improve the lines or the apex speed by 1-2 kph/mph. So there still is a reason to go to Nurburgring  :grin:.
- I am also not exactly where I hoped I would be regarding using the maximal grip provided by the tires (the G-meter should be, when braking and then turning in, moving on the circle arc  formed between the 1G braking forces and 1G lateral forces). I did understand more of what I am doing right/wrong during this trip, so I hope to improve upon this during my next track days.

As always, comments and feedback are welcomed!
The instructor was very kind with the "Perfect" at the end of the video, but I truly want to know what I can do better.

Cheers!

rex:
One more thing to discuss about the Nurburgring trip - the service at Manthey Racing - but, before that, some photos of the car "in action" - just received from the organizers:











Thanks for watching!

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