TWS weekend report

[rushign23]

First DE in new Z06. Conditions were rather
cool-- 60's Sat and 40's Sun--with patches
of drizzle for a couple sessions. Just finished the brake-in miles on the way
up. Had the car aligned with -1.2 camber
in front and -1.0 camber in rear. The only
other change from stock was a brake fluid
flush with ATE Super blue.

I was surprised how quickly I got up to speed in driving the Z. Coming from my
911 I thought I would need more
adjustment time. Bottom ine, this car is
really easy to drive fast. It had
very good turn-in with basically neutral
balance through the corners--this car
understeered less than my 911 did. I did
have to be more restrained in squeezing
the throttle as I tracked out of corners.
This car is very manageable when
letting the rear end step out--you really
don't need to apply much throttle to
correct, simple steering inputs easily
corrected things. I did notice a fair bit
of body roll through the corners--more
than I would have thought with the fairly
stiff stock suspension--T1 bars are on
my list for this...

I did have some brake fade. I'm sure it
was the remaining stock fluid that boiled
leaving behind a few air pockets. Overall
the brakes were good considering I was
running stock pads. The rotors were
looking a bit purple after the weekend--
I'm going to get the DRM ducts for
overall brake reliability/life.

The oil temperatures were hitting almost
280 degrees on the very cool Sunday.
Running in the late spring and summer
may force me to get the oil coiler
upgrades. If the ambient temperatures
are 50 degrees warmer, does this mean
my oil temp's will be 50 degrees warmer
(put me at 330 degrees!!)? Hopefully not
a one to one relationship there...

My steering wheel got knocked about
10 degrees off of center. Car tracks
straight, no uneven tire wear, and handled
fine in both right and left corners.
I hear of C5's being notorious for getting
out of alignment--what's the fix, if any?

Tire wear was decent. I started at about
35/33 lbs cold, got up to about 43/42 lbs
hot. My rears showed some more
significant side wear--the arrows were
starting to be scrubbed off on the
goodyears--I'll be bumping camber up
to like -1.5 for next event I think.

One thing I definitely noticed was the
lack of proper spacing of gears. I ran
the whole track in 3rd and 4th gear.
But on the two long straights where I
shifted up into 4th, the pull dropped off.
I then noticed that I was just red lining
4th @ 142 down the main stretch. This
car needs fourth and fifth gear to be
lower. We have 6th for cruising on the
highway, so atleast they could have
4th and 5th more usable like 1-3 are.

Overall, the car was great. I'm looking
forward to much more seat time in the
year to come. So far, not looking back at
the 911 with regret...

[Driv200mph]

Hey, I plan to head to TWS this year soon again! I haven't been there in awhile. Still in the Porsche Club, I don't look back either racing the Z06 and passing the 6 figure turbos, but I still keep my 911 as it's irreplaceable! I was actually planning on attending the Ft. Worth "Motorsports Ranch" event Feb 7th. I have just ordered Super Blue for the first time. You said you probably had air in the lines, but was wondering if you had checked with anyone before you used it. I have used it in the past with my Porsches and it works great! Just wanted to double check about using it in the Z06. Any thoughts besides getting it back from dealer and bleeding it more myself? Andy.