Carpokes Porsche Forum

@blueline

Thanks for the pointers.

My setup does allow for an external mic, but I didn't have that set up by the time RADE came around. I'm going down a similar road to yours - lapel mic through an extension, experimenting with placement. I'll have to try something similar to what you have in the cabin away from wind noise.

Yours sounds pretty great! Quite a bit better than my current placement inside the rear bumper near the exhaust. I get terrible clipping with the mic back there.

Back at it, first track day of the season with PCA Chicago at Blackhawk Farms over the weekend. Here's a bit of my last session:



Great day - started damp and cold, which was good because I had a lot of rust and wasn't used to the car. The last session was warm, dry, and sunny. Blackhawk was just repaved and it is GRIPPY and smooth.

One of my fellow novices and her instructor wanted to follow me for a few laps of the last session because they really liked the line I was driving, then we swapped places for a bit. It was great playing a little lead/follow and to have a little clear air with less traffic at the end of the day.

Bonus mini image gallery: https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/17a1 ... 82fcac99d7
My friend brought his WRX TR for his first ever track day, so a lot of photos of his car. He'll be back.

Road America over Memorial Day is next.

Here is a lap at Barber Motorsports Park at the Alabama PCA HPDE on April 19th in my 86 944 turbo. This was my 4th track day in the novice group. At the end of the day my instructor was ready to sign me off to move up to the solo group. I declined as I would like to have a couple more days with an instructor coaching. Planning to go to a November event to practice some more.

Lee

Thanks for posting the lap Lee.

Your lap and driving looked smooth which is so important. Your lines look good too although there are a couple of places where time and experience will allow you to be even better positioned.

Nicely done! Glad you are having fun!!

zooklm1 wrote: Thu May 07, 2026 9:55 am Here is a lap at Barber Motorsports Park...

Nice lap! Barber looks like a blast.

Never hurts to have an instructor if they're available - I'm in the same boat as you and still feel better having someone ride with me for at least a couple of sessions in a day, especially if it's been a while since I've been on that particular track.

Yesterday was a PCA "Zone" event at Salinas, which meant we did things a little different. Basically, we ran the course in one layout in the morning, then it was sort of reversed (as much as possible given the venue limitations) for the afternoon. And overall rankings were based on the best run from each session.



The pavement did not have a lot of grip, so plenty of slides from everyone. I experienced a lot of oversteer. Someone else in my class compensated by substantially increasing the front tire pressure- to something like 36f/30r. I should have copied him as he finished 1 sec ahead of me

Overall I do find the car pretty tail happy, so I should probably look into possible alignment changes, as there isn't much else I can do without getting bumped out of my class. Happy to hear any suggestions!

Just a wild guess, but maybe try getting the camber square? All four corners close to the same -2.0 (or more if you can get there).

Good runs!

blueline wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2026 9:12 pm Just a wild guess, but maybe try getting the camber square? All four corners close to the same -2.0 (or more if you can get there).

Good runs!

Thanks! The camber is maxed out front and rear, and I’m not sure what would happen with less rear camber. I think the only things I have to play with are camber (within the current range), toe, and tire pressure. Unless I can find a thicker non-adjustable front sway bar. I need to do some research and get a better understanding of how all this stuff works. And maybe look into DIY alignment options so I can run more comparisons.

Caysters can be a little tail happy but the first question I would ask is what tires are you running (brand )? For autocrossing most of the folks with SCCA are running Yokohama A052s or Bridgestone RE71RZs for maximum stiction. That includes with most newer models going with a set of 19 inch wheels to still allow staying in the stock Class. A 10.5 wheel in the rear is fine , but the hassle of getting an 8.5 inch wheel up front means that Apex wheels is not an option. If you are only doing PCA events consider looking into SCCA ones simply because it will give you a ton more opportunities.
Bringing up the tire manufacturers because folks are finding the new 305/19 size RE71RZs fit in the rear hooking up better and getting rid of alot of the oversteer issues.

WillyDaP wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 9:56 am Caysters can be a little tail happy but the first question I would ask is what tires are you running (brand )? For autocrossing most of the folks with SCCA are running Yokohama A052s or Bridgestone RE71RZs for maximum stiction. That includes with most newer models going with a set of 19 inch wheels to still allow staying in the stock Class. A 10.5 wheel in the rear is fine , but the hassle of getting an 8.5 inch wheel up front means that Apex wheels is not an option. If you are only doing PCA events consider looking into SCCA ones simply because it will give you a ton more opportunities.
Bringing up the tire manufacturers because folks are finding the new 305/19 size RE71RZs fit in the rear hooking up better and getting rid of alot of the oversteer issues.

Thanks for the feedback. I think maybe we've discussed tires before. Right now I'm running Conti ECS02 in 245/40R18 front, 275/40R18 rear on 9x18f and 10x18r Apex wheels.

For my PCA class I can't go any wider. And the choices for 200TW are quite limited in size 275/40R18 (Nankang CR-S, Yoko A052/AD09, Hankook RS-4). Since the season is 60% done I'm not switching tires now; next year I will get something stickier.

There are definitely more options for the rear in 275/35R18. On many of our courses I am already hitting the rev limiter in 2nd, and a shorter rear will make that even more common. Plus I like the way the bigger sidewall looks.

Lots to think about!