Watkins Glen Aug 28 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Ad Sach · 08-30-2004, 04:16 AM

They were taking vanity photos in the esses at Watkins Glen when I was there for the NY Metro region PCA Driver's Education this weekend.

No that 911 shouldn't be that close, but I blew turn 1 after a late pass, so I he was on my tail through the esses and the back straight. Next lap at this point he was a bit farther behind

Pilot2519j · 08-30-2004, 06:52 PM

Ad,
What was the your top speed on the Glen?. Supposed you damaged the engine at the Glen what is your exposure vs. your warranty?
Did the tires take a beating from the high speed cornering and heavy braking? I would think they got pretty chewed up.

Pilot2519j · 08-30-2004, 06:54 PM

Ad,
Forgot to tell you, the picture is real cool. Even cooler knowing you dusted the 911 in the back. Score 986-1 and 911 -0, Yeah team!!!!

Ad Sach · 08-30-2004, 08:30 PM

Pilot,

I am a rookie driving in green. So dusting any of the other cars in our combined green/yellow group is nothing to brag about. (Ok- a little bragging, I actually caught and passed 2 different 996 Carrera 4S's on Sunday)

The fastest part of the track is the back straight right before you brake and I didn't feel comfortable looking down while braking for the 'bus stop' chicane. At the top of the Esses at the track out cone, I was glancing at my speedometer and consistently showing 114 or 115. I saw 117 once. Even at 115 in 4th gear at the begining of the back straight I never made the shift into 5th gear as the road is still uphill. I did redline in 4th once or twice, which would be about 125 MPH.

This is only my 3rd track(and 6th track day) but it is now my favorite. It has it all; Smooth. Clean. Technically challenging. Long (less traffic). Hills. Multiple passing zones. Historical(It's THE GLEN!) A great track!

Warranty - running street tires there is no question that I am covered by Porsche warranty. If I were driving on R-compound tires, Porsche might not cover an engine oil starvation or wheel bearing problem - but then they might. I don't need R-compound tires to have fun, though most of the cars in the advanced run groups were on Pilot Sport Cups.

Porsche would probably deny a warrantee claim if there were excessive amounts of high engine over-revs. But that is a problem with shifting into the wrong gear that could happen anywhere - not just the track. Watkins Glen is actually not a place you are likely to shift into the wrong gear. I was only shifting 2 or 4 times per lap, and only between 3rd gear and 4th gear.

My tires didn't seem to take that much of a beating. I did increase the wear on the outer 1/4 inch of tread, but I don't get to use that part of the tire on streets and freeways anyway, so it evens out

This was a great weekend, but I was dissapointed that the folks from NY Metro didn't drive more carefully. There were LOTS of car incidents - at least 3 disabled cars per day out of a field of about 250. I guess if you have a subway you take more risks with your car.

I had a great time - thanks for letting me tell a bit of my story.

BTW - I never really 'got it' for the two downhill/uphill sweepers at the end of the back straight and the toe-of-the-boot. If anyone can think of a way to explain it to me, I would appreciate it. Every once in a while it would feel good and my instructor would say I got it, but I couldn't come up with a consistent way to drive these turns. I guess I'll have to go back again to figure it out

08-31-2004, 06:19 AM

great picture... boxster looks nice with the 911 trying to keep up

Boxstergirl77 · 08-31-2004, 08:16 AM

I love waktins glen. I got my 97 up to 125 on streets on the back straight. I was going out of the turn at 110 mph. I will show some of my pictures. I past a 996 and a few other cars

I did go through my break pads and i had to bleed my breaks once. It was a two day event. After that run I am now in yellow. I finally moved up. Now after doing so good I want to get race tires so I will really stick. I was driving my Boxster to it's top. It drove wonderful. It looks like we both got our cars to the same speed. I never knew what my car could do until that weekend. I am going back next june for a 4 day event. Maybe I will see you there

This weekend I am going to another drivers ed in indiana.

donv · 09-18-2004, 01:38 PM

I did my first DE ever at the Glen last year. I loved it... had a great instructor that helped me keep improving throughout the two days. My similar photo is my computer's desktop background... attached here.

I seem to remember hitting 12x-13x MPH on the long sweeping curves/straight approaching the BusStop - my instructor would be leaning over and watching the speedo and pushing me to improve on each lap. It got to the point that the accelerator was pegged to the floor from entering the first curve off the main straight until just before the BusStop.

When I first started, I could not see any possibility of holding speed through the BusStop but by the first afternoon that was a "no drama" spot too.

Ad, I had a similar experience with the boot and if we're thinking of the same corners (plunging downhill CCW followed by sharp uphill CW turn into a short straight) then I'm with you. I got to where I could drive them OK, but I never "got it" there like other parts of the track - it was really easy to end up plowing through the CW turn uphill. A guy in my event ended up trashing his car rear-first against the rail at the bottom of that hill...

And I managed to have a 4-wheels off at the end of that short straight right after that spot... luckily nothing but grass was encountered there

!

Despite it being a green run group, I did have fun passing our more expensive siblings (we seemed to be able to carry more speed through of the corners), FWIW.