Interesting EVO article on 993 handling

[jackal2513]

I've spun mine a lot, though, fingers crossed I generally catch it these days. I find them very communicative and generally quite feasible to recover. Biggest problem is usually unwinding the lock fast enough after you have caught a slide.

Fairly soon after getting the car I did Don Palmer's Limit Handling day and it was excellent, well worth the money.

Also highly recommended are Andy Walsh's Carlimits days. I've done one of his activity days and wasn't overly keen, but I gather the "proper" days are better.

How are you enjoying the elise ?

I would say that my old 340r was snappier than my 993 and you had to be quicker getting the lock on, but then some of that would have been to do with the 340r's cut slicks.

 

[Tertius]

I've spun mine a lot, though, fingers crossed I generally catch it these days. I find them very communicative and generally quite feasible to recover. Biggest problem is usually unwinding the lock fast enough after you have caught a slide.

Fairly soon after getting the car I did Don Palmer's Limit Handling day and it was excellent, well worth the money.

Also highly recommended are Andy Walsh's Carlimits days. I've done one of his activity days and wasn't overly keen, but I gather the "proper" days are better.

How are you enjoying the elise ?

I would say that my old 340r was snappier than my 993 and you had to be quicker getting the lock on, but then some of that would have been to do with the 340r's cut slicks.

I really like it - lots of fun and very engaging and immediate. Obviously much more raw than the 993 but thats perfect for its intended use. Though I'm not entirely looking forward to the drag out to the 'ring in April ...

I would also agree the Elise feels much more on the edge than the 993, and if it goes it'll be much harder to catch. I've only had one (slide type) moment in the Elise so far, which was on my first track day at Silverstone ... the back end got away at Luffield (long slow RHer) I did get it back but it was a long way out of shape before I did ...

There's no doubt that the 993 is far the more complete car, but really you shouldn't try to compare them.

@ldt - yup, still got the 993, quite a bit of interest but not actually sold yet.

 

[WideBoy]

Like Jackal my car does not understeer, certainly not at even 'spirited' road speeds. Have tried pushing on at roundabouts to see when it will lose the front but havent found it yet. Had first rear end slip at speed yesterday. For those who know the A24/J9 M25 roundabout, heading North take Chessington turn off roundabout mid-3rd gear and floor it as you bear left off roundabout, rear stepped sideways but corrected itself as I was way too slow and only realised as it corrected rather than as it started. It was damp/drizzly. Personally I have been amazed at how planted the car feels considering the generally bad press for 911s spinning off through hedges due to weight behind rear axle etc. I am experimenting with damping settings on KWs which are a tad stiff for day to day road use at present (but great if you want to press on). Currently at 1.25 turns from full hard so have plenty of adjustment left to soften off to a more normal road compliant setting.

 

[jackal2513]

For those who know the A24/J9 M25 roundabout,

know it very well.. just driven through it actually

its part of my general 'test route' area and I think ive taken every car i've owned through those 2 roundabouts

spun my lotus elan there back in 1991 :grin:

the car they said was impossible to spin :hand:

luckily it was in the dead of night so no one around

 

[Cameltoe & Heel]

I daren't push my care to it's performance envelope on the road and I don't take it on track so hey. :dont know:

 

[Pickled Piper]

P.S. The EVO article is a bit old now, according to the DVLA that car (or just its reg) no longer exist!!

http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/

Could have been exported to Ireland for example.. I must check and see what it says if I put in my old UK reg number.

From memory the article is about four years old. Evo ran the car as one of their long termers with monthly running reports.

Very likely the plate has been changed to a non dation one.

pp

 

[wizard993]

the two key driver inputs in a 911 are the brakes and what you do with the steering wheel.

Personally I don't like the back-end hanging out as it's just too much like hard work keeping it under control.

My favourite way to control a 911 is really hard on the brakes approaching a bend then keeping the car on a nice controlled trail-brake and using gentle inputs on the wheel. It's a bit unnerving to start with and you need to commit fully but once mastered it will change the way your 911 handles/goes around a bend.

When you load-up the front of a 911 it does two things:

1) Spreads the weight from the back to the front by loading up the front to make the car steer/handle in a more neutral manner.

The above removes the significant pendulum affect and makes the rear-end more easily caught/controlled as approx 25% of the usual weight over the rear is getting pushed forward under braking to the front tyres.

Panic and mis-understanding(usually mid-bend) in a 911 is the main reason for an off. After a few really scary moments and lot's of practice I can now just about banish the worries of a sudden breakaway by using the cars superb brakes to work against it's achilles heel, combined with gentle but steering inputs going into, through and out of a corner to offset it's desire to punt me off backwards.

....jump on the brakes(power off), progressive trail brake reduction through the bend then off the brakes and power on again when the car is facing forward works for me :thumb: