What went wrong here?

[Tucker2]

Honestly.....where you are at now....go to your local indoor/outdoor carting place and spend some money. Learn about what it feels like to loose and gain control in a very safe environment. It's a place where you can drive *as fast as you can* and not cost yourself and arm and a leg if something goes wrong. You need to learn the fundamentals of car control. You're driving a Porsche. Respect that.

My own '02 BS is having issues with cold weather where the PSM goes to sleep until the car is warm. I thought the warning light was a bunch of BS. I was wrong. Came around a nice fun corner in the wet last weekend and gunned it and I lost the car. It took me *spinning* the wheel...not a correction...but full on spinning the wheel once in each direction until I managed to get her under control....right as I came into view to a police car. Oye. Lesson 1032 learned in life.

Learn car control. It's a biggie.

[rfuerst911sc]

Join your local PCA or SCCA and run as many autocross events as you can. Great way to learn car control, improve as a driver and meet some great folks. Usually at the PCA events there are instructors that can REALLY help you learn your cars limits. Don't take this the wrong way but just your asking on this forum what happened tells me you are NOT ready to go out on a road course at high speed. Get as many AX's under your belt at relatively slow speed and learn your car, suspension, brakes and tires plus yourself ! Then go out and get on a road course. Ultimately the goal is to have fun, be safe, become a better driver and above all return home in one piece

[Frodo]

Don't know how chilly it gets in Oakdale, CA, this time of year, but if you're riding on summer performance tires, temperature can definitely be a factor as well. When shopping for tires on tirerack.com, with these tires you'll typically note the warning: "Like all summer tires, it is not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice."

I learned this lesson the hard way going out to grab some take-out. It was cool, low-40s or high 30s, which generally hadn't been a problem for me---I knew to take it a bit easier under such circumstances. This time, however, it started to rain gently shortly after I left home. Cold + Wet + summer performance tires is a REALLY bad combo!

[scottvd]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Join your local PCA or SCCA and run as many autocross events as you can. Great way to learn car control, improve as a driver and meet some great folks. Usually at the PCA events there are instructors that can REALLY help you learn your cars limits. Don't take this the wrong way but just your asking on this forum what happened tells me you are NOT ready to go out on a road course at high speed. Get as many AX's under your belt at relatively slow speed and learn your car, suspension, brakes and tires plus yourself ! Then go out and get on a road course. Ultimately the goal is to have fun, be safe, become a better driver and above all return home in one piece

^ ya I need the 101 course for sure. Been reading through the "What I learned on the track" sticky, that's helpful too. An acquaintance of mine is really involved with SCCA - he just told me about it yesterday and said I should join. Thx for the input! (:

Don't know how chilly it gets in Oakdale, CA, this time of year, but if you're riding on summer performance tires, temperature can definitely be a factor as well. When shopping for tires on tirerack.com, with these tires you'll typically note the warning: "Like all summer tires, it is not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice."

For sure - thanks - good thing to keep in mind. Temperatures are about 35 at night and 65 during day right now, dry. I'm not even sure what tires I have on, PO said they were same as the "stock" tires that came with the car. Thx again.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by scottvd

^ ya I need the 101 course for sure. Been reading through the "What I learned on the track" sticky, that's helpful too. An acquaintance of mine is really involved with SCCA - he just told me about it yesterday and said I should join. Thx for the input! (:

Autocross is much more useful in terms of real world driving. The mix of layouts is limited due to the size of lots and after about a dozen events you've pretty much seen everything you're going to see: six pin, four pin, three pin, left, right, slalom, Chicago box, haripin, no pin... you get the point.
While on a road course you're learning to be smooth with long pauses (straights) in between. With autocross you're trying to get from A to B as quickly as possible while upsetting the balance of the car as little as possible...as Randy Pobst (professional driver who is a big autocrosser) once said "its basically connecting a series of power slides". Sometimes smoother is better sometimes its not because you don't have a long straight to make up deficit. But the point is that most real-world situations where you need to save your hide will more closely resemble something you've done a hundred times in autocross than nailing the esses at your local track. And because of the number of turns and corners are so much higher in autocross you learn to manage the brake with much more practice. One of the great things about autocrossing the Boxster is that you see that this isn't a "just a cheap Porsche" but perhaps the best braking paired with the most neutral handling you can get out of any road car no matter the price. When people talk down this car right away I know they don't know much about actual driving. Most of the time they just know plenty about buying cars.

The next best thing is to do some karting. Find an "arrive and drive" place near you. This will help you "see the course", I think driving is more about what you do with your eyes than what you do with hands and feets. Everything follows from the eyes. Plus you'll get more seat time than in autocross or that once in a while track day. I was karting before I could ride a bicycle. Those were the days, someone else paying for your fun...