[bigmoguls]

So I have new wheels and tires for HPDE. Getting "Track Addict" enabled with OBD2 Bluetooth connection.

Now I need the most effective upgrade...bigger balls! Before I need more HP or torque, I have to get through the corners faster. I am about .7g in the "fast" corners.

More seat time is required.

 

[dcharnet]

Right, more seat time and instruction.

And don't confuse skilled driving with big balls. Loud noise is not music.

 

[Boristhespyder]

With the myriad of car shows Netflix has spat out, (not a fan of hyperdrive) I wish they would make a special: The Randy Pobst show. In this show Randy takes the stock version of the car people have "re engineered" and you have to beat his best track lap with your car for prize money.

 

[lesmurray]

There is one upgrade I would recommend to go along with your driver training and that is the TPC Racing DSC module. It basically retunes your PASM to take full advantage of your shocks. Just something to think about.

 

[Soul Performance Products]

There is one upgrade I would recommend to go along with your driver training and that is the TPC Racing DSC module. It basically retunes your PASM to take full advantage of your shocks. Just something to think about.

This is a great recommendation! We're happy to take care of anyone with forum pricing on DSC V3 modules!

-Mike

 

[bigmoguls]

There is one upgrade I would recommend to go along with your driver training and that is the TPC Racing DSC module. It basically retunes your PASM to take full advantage of your shocks. Just something to think about.

@lesmurray do you have the DSC module in your car? I have been intrigued by it, but really want to know how effective it is at enhancing the track experience as well as the daily driver experience.

 

[Apex1]

I would google TPC DSC module in a 981 SC, you will be looking for a thread by lovetoturn on Planet 9. You can learn a lot from others who jump right in, which is what happened about 4 years ago. This guy is a physician, who took Mike Levitas's DSC hardware/software (and really made it work for his 981). The first item he did was to change the springs to x-73 and GT3 swaybars, along with the DSC unit. Mike helped him set up the 4 corners of G force loading tables ,including braking, acceleration, steering angles and the shock shaft speed on the screen for various track conditions. Please check out Tom's interview at the SEMA 2019 show and the DSC tutorial. To my knowledge, lovetoturn still is using the same setup of PASM shocks and X-73 springs after 4 years of service. Lovetoturn also upgraded his brakes to the ceramic 6 piston calipers in f and larger 4 calipers in the rear with GT2 brake ductings to help cool the rotors. He used GT3 LCA's in front to add more camber. He liked more rear camber than front, using -2.7f and-2.9 r. He also added wider forged 19 in wheels and 255/35/19f 295/35/19r rubber. Some of his posts are available in the Wheels/tires setup that worked section, post #200 and after. You can google his DSC work on P9 as well.

Its a slippery slope as you can see. The neat thing about his thread is he wanted to keep as much Porsche equipment on his car as possible preserving the daily driver aspect, yet still compete against very fast cars.

 

[lesmurray]

I've got the DSC Module on my 987.1 and it has totally changed how the car handles. It is otherwise stock suspension wise including (I assume) the original PASM struts @145k miles. The biggest difference I noticed when I changed is the car handles so much better. It's like I put stiffer sway bars on the car - flatter in the corners and more stable over the bumps.

Around town I can use either Sport or Standard mode as it drives almost the same. It's in the twisties where the DSC shines. The one thing on my car is that with the DSC I have to set the shock setting separate from the Sport Mode button as they no longer work together.

I've got a set of Damptronics waiting to go on my car. I'll most likely lower the car a little when I put them on. I haven't decided on LCAs yet but I will but on adjustable trailing arm links in the rear along with adjustable drop links front and rear. The only thing I have found deficit-wise to the handling for my style of driving is when driving in the canyons the rear gets a little jittery under heavy braking and there's a touch too much understeer for my liking.

 

[ledbette]

To my knowledge, lovetoturn still is using the same setup of PASM shocks and X-73 springs after 4 years of service.

Lovetoturn bought a 2021 GT4 and passed his Cayman S down to his son. I saw him at a DE last month at Eagles Canyon (Texas).

It's good to have a baseline with a good driver in your car, or similarly-equipped car, to know what the car is capable of, and where the driver needs to improve. Comparing video and data against their line, braking and acceleration really goes a long way to knowing what to work on.

IMHO - I'd spend a little money on data to improve the driver, before upgrades to improve the car.

I started with a phone and Track Addict, then moved to an AIM Solo DL, and now I've paired the AIM with a Garmin Catalyst.

You really need something with data quality like an AIM to compare driving lines, braking and acceleration. The phone GPS just doesn't have the accuracy. If you know better drivers running the same track in similarly-equipped cars, you can learn a lot by sharing data and learning what they do.

If it's just you out there, and you don't have anything to compare to, you don't get quite as much out of the data. That's where the Garmin comes in.

The Garmin Catalyst is great for fine-tuning your driving. If you try different lines and braking, it can help you put it all together to turn a more consistent lap. The best part about it is that it helps you examine your consistency with video coupled with data, and gives you things to work on immediately after getting off the track (and even when you're still on the track with the advanced coaching audio).

After your session, it'll give you three things to work on. It will perform an analysis of what you did in particular corners that improved your time (brake 5 feet later, brake lighter, apex earlier, enter at 3mph higher speed), and will show you video of your optimal line. With a touch of a button, you can also see your entry for a particular corner on every lap of the session.

The one thing it can't do is tell you how to improve by doing something you haven't tried. It only uses your personal performance. So, you need to spend at least a session trying different things and let the Garmin help you figure out what worked and what didn't, and how to put it all together.

Note: The Garmin doesn't replace the AIM (yet) for data analysis. You can't look at the squiggly lines. You only see what the Garmin wants you to see. There is no way to export the data, only the video.

I've been DE'ing about 5 years in my 981 and purchased a 1995 BMW M3 racecar about 18 months ago. It's rocking a whopping 213 WHP max (w/restrictor plate). However, I can now turn a faster lap in that car, albeit with slicks, than I can in my 981 BS on street tires. It wasn't so when I first bought that car, but seat time made a huge improvement.

The co-owner of my racecar can still turn a couple seconds faster in the BMW than my 2:10 lap time at ECR. He's been racing for ~20 years and is one of the top drivers in NASA Texas. I'm lucky being able to share the car with him and learn from his data. We swap off in the car, and I run the AIM and Garmin for both of us. After a session, I'll compare our data so I can see what he's doing to turn a faster lap. He carries ridiculous speed through corners, and that's where he gets most of the time, but I can see what the car is capable of and start pressing those limits a little farther.

 

[Apex1]

These last three posts are together some of the best reading material in the past few years regarding how to setup and use data to improve your car and driving style I have seen on P9. Les, I would bite the bullet on the LCA's, Joshua, at arcflash, may disagree, but the Tarett Cups LCA have really worked well the past 3 years. no complaints. The only tricky part is/was the front camber. I really wanted -3.0 without camber plates, just using the OEM top adjustments and the LCA's. I'm afraid that was asking too much of the geometry of the LCA's. I feel it would work better with camber plates on top of the shock base using as much negative as possible and then finish the camber with the LCA's shims.

What I am experiencing is running a lot of front LCA shims, widen the track too much as my wheels with a 46 mm offset cause the tire shoulders to be slightly outside of the wheel arch lips. The tires do not rub, it just looks like they could. Also, running 9 inch wheels in front, the sweet spot for the tires not rubbing is smaller both inside and outside. Before the Tarett Cup LCA's were installed, my front tires would hit the inner liner in front on almost lock to lock. This actually happened sometime as the liners show the tire rub, maybe a rebound effect from braking. With the Cup LCA's, the solid center puck, allows almost no forward or aft movement, I do not have adjustable trailing links, rather I am using the solid puck adjustment on the LCA's to change wheelbase/castor settings.

Also, when lowering the rear, you must use an adjustable toe link to allow for more negative toe during the suspension arc, This additional length of the toe arm prevents positive toe during the suspension change from droop to bump. I personally like the look of Elephants adjustable toe link with adjustable bump steer shims.

 

[bigmoguls]

Lovetoturn bought a 2021 GT4 and passed his Cayman S down to his son. I saw him at a DE last month at Eagles Canyon (Texas).

It's good to have a baseline with a good driver in your car, or similarly-equipped car, to know what the car is capable of, and where the driver needs to improve. Comparing video and data against their line, braking and acceleration really goes a long way to knowing what to work on.

IMHO - I'd spend a little money on data to improve the driver, before upgrades to improve the car.

I started with a phone and Track Addict, then moved to an AIM Solo DL, and now I've paired the AIM with a Garmin Catalyst.

You really need something with data quality like an AIM to compare driving lines, braking and acceleration. The phone GPS just doesn't have the accuracy. If you know better drivers running the same track in similarly-equipped cars, you can learn a lot by sharing data and learning what they do.

If it's just you out there, and you don't have anything to compare to, you don't get quite as much out of the data. That's where the Garmin comes in.

The Garmin Catalyst is great for fine-tuning your driving. If you try different lines and braking, it can help you put it all together to turn a more consistent lap. The best part about it is that it helps you examine your consistency with video coupled with data, and gives you things to work on immediately after getting off the track (and even when you're still on the track with the advanced coaching audio).

After your session, it'll give you three things to work on. It will perform an analysis of what you did in particular corners that improved your time (brake 5 feet later, brake lighter, apex earlier, enter at 3mph higher speed), and will show you video of your optimal line. With a touch of a button, you can also see your entry for a particular corner on every lap of the session.

The one thing it can't do is tell you how to improve by doing something you haven't tried. It only uses your personal performance. So, you need to spend at least a session trying different things and let the Garmin help you figure out what worked and what didn't, and how to put it all together.

Note: The Garmin doesn't replace the AIM (yet) for data analysis. You can't look at the squiggly lines. You only see what the Garmin wants you to see. There is no way to export the data, only the video.

I've been DE'ing about 5 years in my 981 and purchased a 1995 BMW M3 racecar about 18 months ago. It's rocking a whopping 213 WHP max (w/restrictor plate). However, I can now turn a faster lap in that car, albeit with slicks, than I can in my 981 BS on street tires. It wasn't so when I first bought that car, but seat time made a huge improvement.

The co-owner of my racecar can still turn a couple seconds faster in the BMW than my 2:10 lap time at ECR. He's been racing for ~20 years and is one of the top drivers in NASA Texas. I'm lucky being able to share the car with him and learn from his data. We swap off in the car, and I run the AIM and Garmin for both of us. After a session, I'll compare our data so I can see what he's doing to turn a faster lap. He carries ridiculous speed through corners, and that's where he gets most of the time, but I can see what the car is capable of and start pressing those limits a little farther.

Thanks for the advice and information. I've tracked the car twice, both at Grandsport Speedway, but opposite directions. I've used the Sport chrono recording, but that is only 1 second granularity so it won't get the job done.

What other stuff do you have to go with the Aim? Such as antennas, obd connection...

At this time, I am so far removed from the capabilities of the car in terms of cornering speed that changes to the car would likely be detrimental to my progress. I do have extra camber dialed in front and rear as well as 245/19 and 275/19 rubber on 19" wheels. Before I change anything else on the car, I want the telemetry to help me enter the corners faster, get through the corners faster, and back to full throttle sooner. I need to close the gap between my capability and the car's capability. I don't have a need to be fastest car on track, but I want to get at least 95% of the car's performance out of it. Then see where to go.

 

[ledbette]

You'd be surprised about how fast your car is when you learn to drive it. As I was coming up in HPDE, I passed many GT3s, GT4s and vettes with a lot more horsepower because I could drive better than they could. That was pretty much the case from novice through intermediate run groups. Once I got up to the advanced run group and everyone is fairly well-skilled, the horsepower takes over and those cars separate themselves.

The 981 Sport Chrono timing is pretty much useless. Track Addict is much better. I believe they improved the timing capability in the 718/992, but it's still not a substitute for a good data system.

The Garmin Catalyst is the new guy on the block. It's a pricey investment, but many find it well-worth it. If you got addicted the first time out like I did, you might think about getting one of these rather than the AIM. It is a great way to get quick feedback of data and video melded together without having to take the time to download and dig into the data and/or sync the video, which can be quite time-consuming.

IMHO the AIM Solo is a PITA to sync with video from a GoPro, so much so that I rarely use it. That makes it difficult to use as a beginner, because you really want to see what you were seeing out the front window while looking at the data. I think they improved this on the Solo 2, but I can't speak to that. AIM really wants you to purchase their SmartyCam to sync data with video. A SmartyCam itself is really pricey - more than the Garmin.

I generally find that I didn't look at my AIM data enough at the track because it takes a lot of time, and I like to socialize between sessions. With the Garmin, you grab the device off the mount and boom - instant feedback with data and video. You can also have the Garmin process a data overlay onto the video to show your friends how much fun you were having over the weekend.

As far as the AIM goes, there are two variants of the AIM Solo - the regular Solo and the Solo DL. They look almost identical and are packaged in a small module about 4x3" with a small display and embedded GPS receiver and inertial sensors. You can attach it with an suction cup mount to the inside of your windshield.

The DL version can be connected to the OBD connector to communicate with your ECU via CANbus. This will allow the system to log extra information like accelerator pedal position, throttle position (981 is throttle-by-wire, so your pedal position and throttle position are not 1:1), RPM, wheel speeds, brake pressure, steering angle, etc. You can find these to be very informative to see what inputs you are giving the car that resulted in the outputs you are seeing in the speed and driving line traces (acceleration, deceleration, turn-in, braking points, etc). You can also see things like how often you are coasting, in wide-open throttle, or how you are applying the brakes, how smooth are your steering wheel inputs, etc.

The Solo 2 is the most recent version of the device. The data capabilities of the Solo 2 DL are more flexible with the original Solo DL, but I'm not sure what other advantages the Solo 2 provides over the original.

I personally have the original AIM Solo DL that I picked up from eBay, and it works fine for my needs. There are several other data systems out there, and the analysis capabilities are a varied among the units. The AIM Solo is a good entry-level step-up from a smart phone, but if you're willing to drop a little more money, get the Garmin.