Thursday, 18 May 2006

How To Corner A Porsche 911?















  1. If you want to just have fun you don't need to trail brake. If you want to get better lap times you must trail brake. A Porsche DE instructor will likely not tell you this since it puts the car more on edge than you may want to do. But if you really want to hit a fast lap time, trail braking is needed. Both from a standpoint of extending the length of the straight you are coming off of as well as rotating the car. Look at for an analysis of trail braking including an example of how much time can be saved in a single corner.

  2. Thanks. Nice site and an excellent analysis!

  3. I've been following the "How to drive your 911 properly" series of articles in "911 & Porsche World" magazine written by Mark Hales. In part 4 in the June 2006 issue there's an interesting paragraph relating to cornering a 996 GT3...

    "As delivered, though, the emphasis is on stability at the back - and that makes it more important than ever to get the front end pointed in. You do that by transferring weight to the nose as you brake, then pinning it there as you ease the wheel into the turn before squeezing on the power progressively from the apex twoards the exit of the turn. That nabs the possible effect of weight at the rear, which would swing the tail by squatting more on the back and lifting some from the front tyres." (p45)

    In other words, trail braking. Point. Shoot.

  4. We need more porsches -- those 911s

  5. As an aside, there's a fantastic engine mod for 993's by Ninemeister. It's a top end rebuild using a custom head with redesigned ports that will take the engine from 285hp to 350hp!! Lots of discussion on rennlist but it sounds awesome. Cost is quite steep at £10,000 but if you had to do a rebuild anyway....