Martian’s 1st Struggle Session.

Without kneeling or bowing to one or the other, I was caught in the midst of a bit of a “struggle session” this week.

While most such sessions these days are between unwitting CIA assets DEIists and “wreckers” who may or may not have built everything good in this world, this more automotively-inclined episode centred less around pronouns and land acknowledgements, and more around rear-end instability under trail-braking.

The combatants? In one corner, a former F5000 driver (and owner of the race track I frequent) who just came back from competing in Pikes Peak Unlimited Division. In the other corner, Scam Altman’s current frontier model: GPT 5 Pro. And then yours truly in the middle, flinging my new ass-engined slot-car around, trying to keep the shiny side up, put down something resembling a time, and figure out if I actually even like the bloody thing that’d been the apple of my eye for nearly two decades. Objectivity would not be simple, but satisfaction was still the goal!

With 1`500km break-in now complete,i track alignment (sorta?) locked-in, cool clear track day booked, and something something in retrograde… it was go time, or so I hoped.

Showing up at SCR in the Martian, we started out with a few lead-follow laps for my retired gentleman friend in his 992.1 Turbo Cab,ii getting temps up, working a bit grip into the tires on the 14°C overcast day, we cruised around the 4km circuit as I kept a consistent distance ahead of my novice compadre. With 640hp under his right foot, I was sure to continually check my side mirrors (the rearview mirror is useless with the swan-necked spoiler in the way), his Gentian Blue bahn-stormer towing behind my Guards Red ‘ring-runner with decent pace. Nothing neck-snapping, but a healthy jog at least. And it wasn’t long before I was flat-foot-shiftingiii through the long straight – from 2nd all the way up to the tippity top of 4th,iv – pushing from parade lap on upwards.

What if the GT2RS meiotically divided?

After two 20-minute bouts of lead-follow, sun breaking through the chilled August clouds, the gentian gentleman hit the pits, leaving me to ratchet up the intensity and “pen test” the envelope of the new 992.2 GT3 platform, as well as put the new Nankang CR-S tires through their paces.v Cracking up to 9k RPM, though with ESC/TC still on to start, the car felt surprisingly rubbery in its finer responses, weirdly not unlike my old R35 before I upgraded the suspension to fully solid bushings? Hey, wasn’t this supposed to be a no-compromises track weapon? Hmm… Keen to see if it was just electrons keeping me from the brio I’d long imagined would be mine, I flicked ESC off, leaving TC on, and found that there was certainly more directness between input and output, but also substantially more looseness at the rear end, particularly when coming off the (fairly squidgy) stock brakes.vi This, to the point that initiating the highest speed rotation on the circuit at the end of the long straight,vii after going deep into the overheating brakes and coming up ever so slightly too abrupty, I even had my first “lawn mowing moment” as the rear-weight-biased 911 came pirouetting around, sending me convincingly sideways into the grass for a good few dozen metres. No harm no foul on this concrete-barrier-free track, but not since my Lotus Elise (aka Dreidel) did I have an “off” like that, and that was several years ago. Never in the perfectly balanced Cayman was I even close to such a “miss”! It wasn’t even (completely) my ham-fistedness either, since two other track-record-holding drivers in our group drove the car afterwards and corroborated the very loose rear-end around Turn 1.

So time to diagnose and correct, clearly. Was it some programmatic inconsistently in the rear-wheel-steering system, a lack of α-angle in the aesthetically-driven 21″ rear tires, or simply poor suspension set-up?viii Evidently more fine-tuning (and learning!) would be required, but I honestly don’t recall this “tail wagging the dog” behaviour being nearly as much of an issue in the (underwhelming) 991.2 GT3 RS nor in the (supremely-satisfying) 991.2 GT2RS I drove in Las Vegas in 2022, but those cars had somewhat less aggressive tires, seemingly properly set-up suspensions, and were on a track surface that was much warmer/stickier than this one. Blessedly, no magnesium hardware was any worse for the wear this time…

Although I went back out an hour later and set a new PB of 1:55ix without exactly taxing myself, I must frankly admit that the GT3 still didn’t exactly light my hair on fire, at least not quite as much as I’d hoped. Turn-in wasn’t as sharp as expected and the car definitely feels a full size bigger than the svelte GT4. I can’t even say the greatly anticipated engine sound was as intoxicating at full chat as I remembered the 992.1 GT3 being a few years ago. So either I was just in the perfect mood that day in 2023 (quite possible), the last-gen four-litre really was that much zingier a the top end (also possible), or the new quad-catted(!!) exhaust is just begging that much harder to be uncorked (by Dundon, natch). That being said, the squat-and-thrust shove out of Turns 3 and 10 was nothing less than impressive.

In communing afterwards with Chat, it also became apparent that my new factory-specced “track alignment” left quite a bit to be desired. It seems like there’s a fair bit more rear camber required (-2.8° target), not to mention a softening of the rear sway bar needed (M –> S). My ex-F5000 track host was inclined to blame the wheel size and resultingly smaller α-factors, suggesting that I look into 18″(!) wheels and smaller brakes as may be required to clear that size, but he also gets a Bryan-Johnson-hard from the ex-F1 13″ forged magnesium wheels (9 lbs per corner) of which he just purchased a dozen… so he’s a type.

Me? I’m running out of track season at this latitude, but glad to have popped this cherry in 2025. Let’s see if we can squeeze a little more “struggle” out of the girl yet this year. One or two more days would be ideal before the snow flies.

  1. It was actually pretty fun to break-in the new GT3 by exploring the rural areas within 100km of my house. In “having” to drive for at least 1-2 hours every day for 2 weeks, I ended up discovering quite a few little gems of tarmac. Lightly policed too. Our new house is much closer to our studio, office, gym, golf course, etc., which means that I’m mostly cycling or scootering around this summer (and for the next 10-20 summers), so driving is really becoming much more intentional. As a results it also seems harder to justify more than 3 cars in this current living arrangement, though the idea of a beautiful old 560 SEC with dark blue leather interior still appeals as a 4th, if the right one comes along. ↩
  2. He later described the day, his first track day in this car, as “better than sex.” I agreed not to mention this to his lovely wife of some 40 years. ↩
  3. Flat-foot-shifting is seriously cool tech. Big fan! Really makes PDK seem even that much more stupid for a car like this. ↩
  4. Hallelujah for the new S/T-derived 8% shorter gearing. Rather ideal for SCR! ↩
  5. Replacing the stock Michelin Cup 2 tires. ↩
  6. I’d actually intended to reuse the PFC 11 pads from my GT4 but the local dealer “couldn’t” reuse the brake bolts since they were “single use” and needed to order replacement parts from Germany and that would take 4 weeks. So I had Castrol SRF fluid, but the stock pads I was left with on this outing couldn’t take more than a couple laps of beating before giving up the ghost. Much room for improvement here! Not least of all in the service dept. ↩
  7. AKA “Turn 1”

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  8. This was the set-up that the local Porsche dealer recommended and could actually execute with stock parts, no shims, etc

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  9. If I was only half-trying and casually logging 1:55, that means a 1:52 is a perfectly reasonable mid-term target, maybe even 1:51 with the extra power from the upgraded Dundon exhaust, as well as properly cambered and corner-balanced suspension. ↩