Estoril Track Day - First real test of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

Only read on if you like cars, speed & adrenalin...

First track day in the 911, and what an experience. A day full of nerves, drama and unbridled excitement. We think Khrisna lost control of her bodily functions, but not surprising the speeds we were doing...

The best part about tracks like this (REAL racing tracks), is there is run off areas. Built for MotoGP and F1, it's VERY hard to crash at the speeds we do. Some do however find a way...

18/03 Track day Estoril! Up at 0800 to start preparations. Fill Bessy and hit the road. Only 20 minutes from Sintra, and we get in to the admin area with a heap of other car and bike nuts. Tickets, stickers, schedule all sorted we head into the track. Parking in the infield right near the fence overlooking the fast right kink in the mid straight. Cars flying past, very exciting. Fill up the 911 and go to drivers brief. Get a special 1 on 1 English version and we’re done. Get some advice off a 4S driver about tyre pressures and head down to the pits. A GT3 guy pumping up his tyres tells us a different pressure and we split the difference. End up with 1.9 and 2.1 Bar front/rear. Quick feed and a Red Bull and we are ready to roll! Khrish comes for the first bit and we plan to pit and swap passengers at the halfway mark of the 30 minute session. Lining up with a Carrera GT, 911 Turbo, GT3, 4S, Beemer M3 etc is pretty cool. A few old classics and Caterham style open wheelers too. Out onto pit lane and we are on the track at last! A real racetrack! Switch the car to sports plus and leave it in auto. Race tracks are so wide and smooth, and the corners flow so well, we are going pretty quick immediately. 3^rd corner and cold tyres we drift a little, and we are not even going that fast! Keeping up and even catching the guys in front, have to remember this is not a race… First lap done and getting faster. Again turn 3 is tighter than I expect but this time it loses traction and we spin! Have to drive backwards into oncoming cars to get turned around!. Purds calmly looks at me and says ‘what happened there then?’, cold tyres, that’s all babe… A little too fast if I must say. So now I know a limit of traction it’s time to work on lines and flow. After 4 more laps I am getting the hang of it and starting to put some fast laps in I reckon. Catching an Evo 10 and a WRX and again Purds reminds me it’s not a race. Catch them just as we hit the halfway point and head into the pits for a passenger change. Purds says she’s done and doesn’t want another go! Big call so early… Claudia gets in and we are off. Haven’t lost much temp from the now warm tyres and back on the pace. Back into the flow but 2 laps later I hear something flap for a second then come loose, sounds like rubber… Into the pits and check all 4 tyres, but it all looks ok. Back out and it feels fine so back on the gas for the rest of the session. Starting to get the S bend right, and clipping most of the apex’s and ripple strips on the exits. Feels really fast. Braking at the end of the straight is amazing. At 235kp/h you hit the skids with I think 200m to go and it just doesn’t feel like it’s going to pull up. But it does! It doesn’t skid or lock, and you can just throw it into the first corner in second and off again! Turn 5 is a flat out right kink in the middle of the track, and we are not lifting through there. 170 as we clip the inside paint and over 200 before hard braking for the double apex left. Catch a black Turbo before he pulls into the pits and pass a few others. 30 minutes is up and we head back to the pits. I’m sweating and my mouth is dry. Absolutely exhausted but buzzing! Back at the pit area I check the car over. Bad news. There is a strip of belt showing through the very inside of the rear rh tyre. This isn’t good… Claudia and I immediately start to ring around to try and find some tyre place open, that stocks massive 305/30ZR19. Good luck! After a few failed phone calls, we walk around the pits asking various Porsche owners and race teams if they know anyone. After an hour of this we are about to give up! Then I spot a race van sponsored by a tyre company. We wait for the team to get their driver away (a frustrating 20 minutes) then ask them. After an animated 20 minute discussion, all in Portuguese, we have the name of a place that is at least open, and we run back to the van. I don’t hold much hope so I start making lunch as Claudia calls them. You can tell by her voice and the hilarious stamping of her feet up and down that they must have some tyres there, but what sort and how much? She asks me what brand? The fronts are Pirelli so I ask for them. Ok, what model and N1 or N2? Seriously, they have these? Price is $400E, and this sounds too good to be true. Oh my god, we have 1.5 hours to the next session and they are 25 minute drive away. Lunch is devoured as we jump in the car and tensely (with a big strip missing from the tread) take off to Lisbon. SO NERVOUS just driving there…  Claudia and I are so excited and nervous we hardly speak. We then work out that the price is for one tyre… Still a lot cheaper than OZ, so I’m not too upset. We get to the place after an agonizingly slow drive on the dodgy tyre, and they get to work straight away…

Back at quarter to and getting ready while talking to Lena and Hugo. Khrish has decided to change the settings on the GoPro so that isn’t working… Awesome. Out on track for the second session. Claudia to start this one and we are off and fast pretty much straight away. The new rears are grippier immediately, even though they are not scrubbed in! Turn in some really good laps and catch and overtake the Carrera GT and the silver GT3! Nice! Into the pits to pick up Hugo. Out on the track I get a bit carried away having a guy in the car, and miss a few apexes. Need to concentrate… Hugo is clearly not ready for the corner speeds and braking distances possible in this thing, so I brake extra late into turn one. Then an alarm comes up, ‘Service limit reached on brake pads’. Hmmm. Still on full attack for another few laps and then the brakes just give up. The onboard computer switches the engine to safe mode and we limp back to the pits. At least we got most of the session in but not sure what’s going on with this alarm business. We let the car cool down as the wheels are even too hot to touch, I reckon the disks would have been glowing hot, and check it a few times to see if the fault has gone. No such luck. The transmission appears to be back to normal though so I clean all the cross drill holes out with a rat tail file (as they are full of brake pad, oops) and hope for the best! Last session and Claudia has sorted the GoPro’s out. Looks like there are not too many cars left in this class, and at least one (Silver GT3) has binned it bad. Poor guy… We hit the track and round up the Evo and some open wheelers. One of the track day Caymans has stopped and is getting a tow. Oops… Lap times are still good but just using Sport setting and braking a little earlier, hoping to make them last the whole session. Switch Clauds with Hugo after about 4 laps and back into it. Purdy has somehow gotten a lift into the infield and keeps popping up around the track taking photos as we go through the corners etc. Hugo and I even see her getting a fast lift on a scooter by a marshal! This she reckons was her highlight of the day. That’s it, we’re getting a scooter! Change with Hugo and Claudia a few more times and the car is still working fine. Running low on light and fuel and the chequered flag comes out for the last time. What a day! All 5 of us are pretty stoked and have had an awesome time. We pack up as quick as we can in the fading light and fill the water tanks and empty the grey water. Back to Sintra and park up for the night. Then there is a beep out the front. The guys are in the car and ready for dinner! Back to Sushi in the city and we make it in there by 2130. I’m sure the little Chinese lady nearly fainted when she sees us five come through the door! This time though I restrain Claudia a little and she only orders half the shop… Lena and Hugo are first time Sushi and chopstick virgins, but seem to like it. Hugo especially eats everything and gets the hang of the sticks pretty quick! Gyozo dumplings and tuna Sushimi coming out my ears. Again! Finally home and the massive day ends at about 1300. Bed at last!





Birds eye view of Estoril. Ayrton Senna won his first F1 race here in 1985.

Race Control

Corner 9 - Gancho

 

Just on dusk, last ones out there.

0-100 in 4.5 seconds, 300km/h top speed. Porsche - There is no substitute...

Hitting about 245km/h here, the MotoGP bikes are hitting 320...

From 245km/h to about 40 in 150 metres. The G forces are incredible. This is where most passengers were freaking out... Braking later and later all day, eventually cooked the brakes in the second session.

 

 

Blasting an old 'Rex down the straight.

I dont know who was more excited...

Chasing over $1 million worth of supercar. The one in front is the legendary Porsche Carrera GT. Took ten laps, but caught them both before one spun off, and the other crashed hard...

Braking hard into turn 6, the Parabolica Interior



Pit crew Purdy getting some FAST snaps...

Crazy Claudia, not scared, not for one minute... Cool chick.

'Lena, loves Porsche & Valentino Rossi!

A race car in a luxury suit.



This guy DID find the fence. How on the track I don't know. Looks very similar to the damage to ours after the 'Ring. Poor bugger...

Passenger change. Hard when you only have 1 spare helmet!

 

19/03 Depart Sintra after happy goodbyes with our new friends. Head to shops for some basic supplies. Trailer is still banging when we accelerate and brake so we decide to have a look at it all. Get the 911 off to have a look and it runs out of petrol! We nearly have a fight but sense prevails and I take Bessy and the jerry can to get some juice. Car going and we try and put it on the trailer forwards. It seems to fit ok and there also seems to be better weight distribution. Shall try it this way. Head off on the highway, but the trailer is still not fixed. Great… Arrive in Evora late in the day and make our way through city of cobbled old streets to a dodgy looking parking area. 4 other vans here and a Belgian guy says he’s been staying here no problems.. We set up and make dinner. Tired…