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| 996 FAQ |
1. Drivers Education Event Prep
Here's an excellent introduction to D.E. preparation, from Mike Blaszczak (Beki M.) mikeblas@microsoft.com :
How do I prepare my car for a Drivers' Ed event?
Driver's education events, whether they're sponsored by the Porsche Club, another marque's club, or a full-featured driving school, are a terrific way to learn more about driving and begin to understand your 996. A well-run event is a very safe place!
If you're starting new with the club, you'll probably be invited to a ground school that teaches you some of the basic things you'll need to know about the track and the rules the club will enforce at the track day. At an introductory driver's school, this will all be covered in the classroom at the event.
No matter what kind of event you're attending, don't ever hesitate to ask any questions you have. The people there are experienced instructors, and have tremendous experience with the cars. Make sure you learn as much as you can from them!
When you go to the event, you'll want to do a few things to your car to make sure you have as much fun at the event as possible.
Making your car Ready
First, give your car a bath. If you don't have much time, at least clean the windows carefully. At speed, it's important to be able to see clearly. What seems like a trivial bit of glare on the highway can be a dangerous distraction at speed.
Next, empty your car out. Take everything out of the inside of your car. At the track, you'll really be throwing the car around. Anything that isn't tied-down is going to roll, flop, or fly around the interior. Noises from something loose in the back seat or trunk are terribly distracting. And nobody wants to get off a very fast straightaway and into a slow turn to find that there's a cellular phone, a coffe mug, and a dozen golf balls stuck under the brake pedal! Some clubs will even have you remove your floor mats.
Now that your car is empty, think of everything you'll want to take with you to the track. A notebook and a pen are essential. Having a small camera might be fun. You'll be working hard in the car, and probably won't want to run your air conditioner while you're out there, so a few bottles of water or your favorite soft drink are essential. Bring a jacket, as some clubs have you run with the window open so you can signal other drivers or hear verbal instructions. You might need a logbook, and you'll probably want to have any paperwork you need to sign-up for the event--like your technical inspection and membership card.
I like to take a big, plastic storage tub. You can buy one almost anywhere; at a department store like K-Mart or Target, or at a home improvement warehouse store.
I can put all my gear into the tub and leave it lying around in the paddock area while I'm out on the track. Even if it rains, my stuffs stays dry. And my tub marks my spot in the pits. Some folks take a fold-open cabana to the track; it'll provide shade and shelter if the weather really gets nasty. You might bring a lawn chair and a cooler for your drinks and lunch, too. A tarp to cover up the stuff you've brought, in the event of rain, is a good idea, as well.
Make sure you pack anything you might need to save your day. I keep a towel, a jacket, and a spare set of contact lenses. Tape, spare change, and gas money are other important things to take.
Track Maintenance
You'll want to make sure that your car isn't going to fall apart at the track--few things are more embarrassing! The club will do an inspection to make sure that everything looks good. Most clubs check the battery to make sure it's bolted-down properly and not about to break loose from where it's mounted. If you're going to leave your spare tire in your trunk while you're running at the track, make sure it's bolted down correctly--and that the jack is put away tightly. Again, you don't want these things roaming around your trunk as you throw the car around the track.
You should make sure your wheels are on tightly. For 996 cars, you should have the lugnuts on with about 95 foot-pounds of torque. [Ed: My manual suggests 110 nm - check your manual to make sure of the recommendation for your car.] Anything less will allow the wheel to have free play under stress, and anything more risks deforming the mounting surfaces of the wheel and ruining the bolts.
Check your fluids, too. Be sure that you have proper levels of coolant and brake fluid and hydraulic fluid, but also be sure that you've got all the filler caps on tight. Try to go to the track with a full tank so that you can enjoy the day without having to leave to find a gas station.
Make sure you have enough tire tread and brake pads to be safe. Do you wipers work well? Do you have enough wiper fluid? Are any body parts loose? Does it appear that any fasteners are missing?
You should check these things yourself, at home, so that you won't be turned away from the event. The more time you have to fix any problems, the better chance you'll have of making the track day.
Setting-up Your Car
Even on your first day, the two most important settings on your car are the alignment and your tire pressure. If you've not had an alignment for a while, get one before you go to the track. Have the shop set your car to factory specs. You'll be sure not to ruin any of your tires at the track this way--nothing chews through that expensive rubber faster than a bad alignment! And by having your first trip to the track on known, neutral alignment settings, you'll have a solid reference point for making changes later.
Tire pressures are a very interesting issue. [Ed: See also the section above on tires and tire pressures.] On your first visit to the track, it's a great idea to stick to the factory recommend pressures for your tires. For a 996 running 18-inch turbo-look wheels, you'll want 36 pounds in the front and 44 pounds in the rear. If you've got 17-inch wheels, Porsche suggests starting at 36 psi all around.
You might even exceed these settings slightly. After adding a few pounds all the way around, you'll find that the car breaks loose very easily. On your first few trips to the track, you can use an extra-hard settings to quickly learn where the cars limits are. But never exceed the maximum recommended cold pressures on the tire sidewall.
After a few trips to the track, you'll probably want to experiment with tire pressures that are slightly lower than recommended by Porsche because they'll improve your handling. I'm happy running my C4 (which has 18-inch wheels) with 32 pounds in front and 36 pounds in back. Some run slightly lower pressures. Either way, take notes. Buy a nice tire gague and take a pump to the track; concentrate on what the changes really mean to the car and how it handles. Write down the settings you used and what you noticed about the car. Within a few sessions, you'll learn what pressures are optimal for your driving style and your track.
Whatever settings try to you use on your 996, you'll always want to make sure that you have more pressure in the rear than you do in the front. Setting equal pressure all around, or setting more pressure in the front, results in conditions so suboptimal that they're actually quite unsafe. [Ed: Agreed, which makes Porsche's recommendation of 36 all round for 17" wheels rather strange. Must be something to do with the difference in tire size or a street set up or something...]
Throughout the day, make sure you check your tires. If you pick up a nick or a puncutre, you'll want to find it in the pits and not deep into a fast corner. If the wear bars are coming up, or if you notice a bulge in any surface of your tire, stop driving the track and get the tire examined at your favorite shop or the dealer.
Protecting Your Head
Almost all clubs ask you to wear a helmet in the car. Even if you're belted in, a bad crash can bobble your head against the glass or steering wheel. You should check with your school or club for specifics--or to see if you can borrow a helmet for the day before you commit to buying one. But you should be able to buy any helment that has a rating sticker from the Snell Memorial Foundation. They're a group that tests motorcycle and car helmets, and they approve helmets that meet standards even more stringent than DOT helmets. Snell updates their standards every few years; approvals were issued in 1990, and 1995. The board recently re-upped their standards, and the newest helmets available are now bearing a 1998 sticker.
You'll find the sticker inside the helmet--it may be obscured by part of the head liner, so ask the salesman or just poke around in there. A helmet with a blue "M90" sticker was approved for the Motorcycle version of the 1990 standard--a helmet with a yellow "SA95" sticker meets the standards for autosports in 1995. Again, the minimum requirement varies from club to club--so check with your hosts. But most clubs allow you to use a motorcycle helmet; the only differences between it and a car helmet are that the car helmet will have a fire resistant liner, and the motorcycle helmet may have a slightly wider field of view from the face hole.
The salespeople you work with will be happy to give you specific advice about your helmet sizing. If the helmet moves easily on your head, it's probably a little too loose. If the helmet pinches in just the few minutes you wear it at the store, you can imagine that it will be uncomfortable to wear all day.
Optional Equipment
After you get to the track and run a few times, you'll find that you might want some more goodies. Certainly, I wouldn't invest in any of these extras until I was sure I liked driving at the track.
If you spend more money on your helmet, you're either buying comfort or fancy graphics. Try to borrow a helmet for your first few trips before you're sure you like the events. If you want to spend more money on a replica lid that looks like your favorite driver's, or one that's lighter and cooler, do so after you're sure you like the sport.
When you go to the track, you'll want to learn about the information that the car conveys to you. In order to listen to the car, you'll want to wear comfortable clothing. Long pants are a great idea; jeans are just fine. The car can get pretty warm (or quite cold, if you run with your window open on a rainy day) so you should try to layer your clothing.
A racing suit is an option, and can protect you from fire in a crash. But they're not necessarily very comfortable and can cost lots of money. On the other hand, gloves and boots can protect your hands and give you excellent feel for the pedals--and are lots less expensive than a suit.
Check Your Head
The most important piece of equipment you take to the track is inside your helmet.
Going to the track with the right attitude and outlook is by far and away the most important thing you can do to prepare for the track. There's a lot to think about, and there's a lot of things that you'll learn.
If you're going to the track just to go fast, you've probably got the wrong idea. The track is a place to learn to handle your car. That means you'll need to be smoother on the controls; easy on and off the brakes. You'll learn to shift and match engine speed more effectively and quickly than before. You'll learn to squeeze on and off the throttle to control the car. No good driver ever says that you need to "drop anchor" or "pop the clutch" or "spin the wheel" or "floor it".
While you're driving, have respect for others. Don't race people into turns or through passing zones. Even if your car is powerful enough to pull away on the straight, you should let better drivers around you if they can get away from you in the turns. Make sure you understand the rules that the club or school enforces for entering or leaving the track, or for signalling passing to the other drivers. Learn where the corner workers are, and where signal flags will appear.
I find it most productive to go to the track with the idea of focusing on one aspect of my driving, or on one part of the track. On your first visit, you'll want to learn the ropes--become comfortable with the instructors and the rules of the road. That's enough to learn the first time, and your familiarity with the track is an important safety concern! On subsequent visits, pick an aspect of your driving: learn the line and disregard your shifting and acceleration. Or, work on your shifting and acceleration and realize you might not be able to focus on the perfect line every time. Once you get comfortable with both the car and the optimal line for your track, try to really focus on a corner or two and optimize the way you drive those turns.
Don't become overwhelmed by the whole experience. If some aspect of your driving isn't working, walk away from it and focus on something new for a little while.
Remember that the track is a serious place. You're going fast enough to do some expensive damage to your car, and maybe even hurt yourself. If you approach your learning with patience and maturity, you'll go much further than someone who's all out at the onset. But more importantly, you're not going to solve any other problems while you're at the track. If something's going wrong at work, or there's problems at home, or you're tired from partying the night before, you probably should cancel your track day. Put those distractions away; don't take your cellular phone if it's too much of a temptation. A few seconds of inattentiveness will put you yards behind your car and what you're doing--and you'll probably find that your day ends on a flatbed.
Don't ever hesitate to ask questions. Your school or club will provide instructors who've proven their abilities with all sorts of cars. If you have questions about your car's setup, about techniques to use on the track, or need advice about equipment, never hesitate to ask an instructor for their input. Their knowledge and experience is one of the greatest benefits of being at your school or club event!
Above all, have fun. Learning to drive your car is a fun and demanding experience. There are few more thrilling pastimes for a Porsche owner."
There are two harness bar set ups that leap to my mind - Speedware and Brey Krause. Both bolt into the 996 using existing mounting points - no drilling is supposedly necessary. I used the Speedware bar and, after some struggling with the instructions, got it in with few problems. A nice product. My only gripe, other than the weak instructions, is that the kit raises the car seat very slightly due to the mounting hardware for the lap belts. I've got used to it now and other than drilling, can't see an alternative. This could be a serious problem for someone tall and wearing a helmet. We hope to have proper installation instructions and tips for this here in the near future. The B-K kit looks great and their reputation is excellent. It was just a little pricey and completely blocks the rear seats.