VIR with FSR-PCA: May 2022
Minor changes, still working on the driver
After my first event at VIR, I came away knowing that it was the driver that needed worked on the most. So I signed up for a Porsche Club of America event with the First Settler’s Region at VIR at the beginning of May 2022.
I knew that I wanted to do more track events so it was time to move forward with a dedicated set of wheels/tires so I don’t destroy my stock all seasons. I picked up a set of 245/40R17 Falken RT660s and mounted them on a set of Apex SM-10 wheels. I have been through 4 sets of RT660s on my prior track car, and had no real gripes with them. I also had a wheel alignment done to make sure it was good to go as well.
At the advice of forums and Facebook pages, I also added the Audi RS3 brake deflectors (not pictured) prior to this event.
Did I mention that the RT660s run WIDE? The 245 RT660 is as wide or wider than most 255s for reference.
I installed the wheels/tires a couple days before the event, and lo and behold I had some rubbing… even at stock ride height. The tires rubbed the filler neck out back with -2.0 rear camber(just BARELY), and also contacted the front fender liner screw(no photos) under hard compression (was able to duplicate on an offramp with a bump). I finagled the filler neck by loosening it at the fuel filler door area, and shoving it as far inward as possible, while also pulling the fender liner and making a new hole to pull it tighter to the inside.
No photos of it, but the “fender screw mod” up front took care of the tiny bit of rubbing I had up front. A quick search on the MK7 forums or YouTube should yield the info if you need it.
So how did the event go?
It was a ton of fun! I did find that even with the RS3 deflectors added, I was now exceeding the limits of the DS2500s. The stickier tires likely had a lot to do with that as well since there is more grip to be had. During my first session on Saturday at one point my pedal went near the floor braking into T1... might have pooped a little bit. The brakes never went away completely - as the DS2500s do have a very gradual fall-off with temperature compared to some other compounds.
I got down to a new personal best time: 2:22.97. A lot of the improvement was likely the tires, though with the brakes going away I definitely wasn’t looking to ball up the car so took it easy the remainder of the weekend.
It’s also worth noting I opted to take an instructor for this event who helped me get up to speed as he had far more time at VIR under his belt. It was also at this event that I discovered that the free RaceRender version had a 3 min clip limit, so the video I took of my fastest lap had the last ~5 seconds cut off before crossing the finish line. I started the clip way too early and published without realizing. Oops. But that’s ok, still have a lot of driver development to do - and you won’t really learn much watching me at this point.
