Need help taming this thing...

[MikenOH]

If you get off the course or catch a couple of cones , don't give up--finish the course and you will continue to learn on the drive.

One other thing the instructors pased along that made sense--admittedly these guys were experts. Don't necessarily take the first run slow as a tour of the course, but go through it with gusto. The rational with the big guys is that if you only get 7 or 8 runs, you're essentially throwing one away by taking" the tour". I tried their suggestions and think if you do the course walk right and get the track image in your head, you can use that first run as more than recon..

finally, don't be afraid to tinker with air pressures; i finally learned this a few years back and it does make a difference. Get a good gauge, some chalk and see how far over the side wall is rolling. The boxster has tremendous balance and with experience, you'll learn to steer with the throttle.

[Perfectlap]

oh yeah and....

1-don't shuffle the wheel. Big rookie error.
Keep your hands and fingers in that little indent in the 9 and 3 o'clock postion on the 3 spoke wheel. Get used to the hand over hand position where your thumbs touch your opposite arm's elbow when turning. On a very long turn, hairpin,etc. release the wheel with your bottom hand to free up more movement from 12 o'clock dead center. Look at all the quick drivers, their hands stay put on the wheel, no shuffling. Like their thumb and index finger were glued to the wheel.

(p.s. I think Porsche did an EXCELLENT job on the 3 spoke design of this wheel)
The Alcantara version must be even better, Thicker in diameter.

2-Also, keep your back straight. DONT drop/lean your shoulders when the car is turning, you should be steering with your shoulders not your writsts. This was a lesson taught by a famous karting dude Mike Wilson.

3- tilt your head in the direction you are going as soon as you exit a corner. This is a huge subconscious aid. You tilt your head to the left before a left hand turn and you'll find your hand's start to set up the turn instinctively. Once the instinct takes over your head tilting will allow your eyes to start mapping the course well ahead of where you are. This applies in other sports too like mountain biking and on fast descents in road cycling.

4-LAY INTO THE BRAKE. I mean get use to really stomping it. You'll learn where 'the limit' is before a turn. The more I drive these Porsche brakes the more I realize how WAY too conservative I was being. Later you'll get a feeling for braking points and the amount of time you should be on the brake before you jump back on throttle. Stretching out the braking start and end point is the area where you will lose most of your time. A really fast driver is on and off of the brakes in as little time as possible. A second longer than necessary on the brakes (a blink of an eye really!) before a corner entry for each turn and over a lap your down 4 seconds.
Learning to brake agresively will give you tremendous confidence which can save your neck like it saved mine on a couple of occasions in real world driving. An extra 2 seconds of reaction time can prevent 50+% of most motor vehicle accidents. With this car you have those 2 second to avoid touching another car. That Paicifica loaner I was driving yesterday...different story.

tip:
in the warm months during Autocross/track even for every day driving I use Batting gloves, I like the Under Armor ones with spandex. They are cheap $25 and have great grip and keep sweat off the wheel (sweat is really bad for that expensive leather). Girls make fun of me but what do they know they drive with one hand and keep their the other ontop of the shifter

p.s.
EVO is a bargain! Yeah allot fo money for Autocross but for $400? you'll learn everything that those $4,000 skip barber schools will teach you and still won't sink in. No one learns in one day. Autocross is the best bang for the buck by a mile. For $-50 you can get an instructor to ride with you on every lap and give you all of his feedback. Just make sure the instructor is quick.

another thing that i find with the S is that i run on a short turn track and find it quite hard to gear the box in short turn ending in second when realistically i should be between second and third gear (unfortunatelly it does not exist) i found 3rd too low and 2nd too high which makes your braking (late) acceleration very important, coming in bend too slow (braking too early) will get you to gear low and you end up with too much traction coming out of the bend and end up arse over head, its all about good braking/ entry / exit line.

happy racing

You are also probably dealing with not just worn tires, but the nature of the PS is that if it gets really hot, it can get wicked slippery. PS's are probably not the best tire for autocross.


They are an excellent tire, but just not for this use.

this is a dream she knows about sport tyres too !!

whahooooooo!

more like a nightmare, really.

[BentleyJava]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

p.s.
EVO is a bargain! Yeah allot fo money for Autocross but for $400? you'll learn everything that those $4,000 skip barber schools will teach you and still won't sink in. No one learns in one day. Autocross is the best bang for the buck by a mile. For $-50 you can get an instructor to ride with you on every lap and give you all of his feedback. Just make sure the instructor is quick.

Agree with everything you said, but don't knock the Skip Barber schools unless/until you've tried it. Best money I ever spent was on a 3 day racing school there. Gave me a great deal of knowledge for track and autox.

When you get out of a real racing car, any road car feels slooow and soggy.

[Sammy]

I went to an autocross yesterday and my first impression of the F1's is quite good. With the new rubber the car was a completely different animal. Instead of losing the back end and spinning the car I found myself pushing the front end a little. I ran 36 psi in the fronts and 38 psi in the rears and it felt really good. The bad part was that I lost to a S2000, but the good news is the pushing can be easily corrected by getting my head out of my rear and using the brakes a little more before the corner...