Ownership Verified: The "RS" stands for "Really Slow"

Hopefully, I'll be able to drive my own car next time.
++ It was great to meet you in person either way, though. :)

I instructed at a one-day event at Harris Hill Road yesterday, but my driving was cut short right after lunch when one of my rear tires spontaneously failed. I was sliding up the hill at turn 10 and the inside inch or so of tread just peeled off the tire like an orange rind and started flapping against the wheel well. It sounded like a total disaster, but the tire held air and I actually drove it the 180 miles home to Houston last night. Needless to say, I've already got a new set on order. I got over 15,000 miles out of these RE11s, including a few track days, so I'm not heartbroken. It's just one of the weirder failures I've seen with a tire (pics):

re11-1.jpg
re11-2.jpg
re11-3.jpg
 
Shouldn't that be considered a tire malfunction and be covered under the tire's warrenty? Or if you take the tires on a track does that void it?
 
Shouldn't that be considered a tire malfunction and be covered under the tire's warrenty? Or if you take the tires on a track does that void it?

doesn't matter what you do with them, pretty sure that the warrenty will be voided when you've driven over 15 000miles on them ;)
 
Yesh, I'm glad it made it home okay. Also, 11k miles on the track in *that* car is impressive.

You do know that a car just like this one finished 13th overall from a total of 204 entered cars at this year's Nurburgring 24h? It was even driven from the Porsche factory to the race and back. :) That just says the RS is a damn impressive car full-stop.
 
Shouldn't that be considered a tire malfunction and be covered under the tire's warrenty? Or if you take the tires on a track does that void it?
That depends significantly on the condition of the tire. If the tire had 1,000 miles on it and wasn't showing any signs of abuse, yeah, sure. But with the treadwear rating of this tire, it's expected to last maybe 9,000 to 11,000 miles of street driving, so 15,000 miles is well past the, "It should have worn out anyway" point. Additionally, they'll be able to look at the tread wear and know the tire was exposed to significant heat, lateral forces, and slip angle, all of which would mean no warranty coverage.

Some have gotten warranty coverage for a tire that stripped like this, even if it happened on track. But in all of the cases I know about, the tire had less than 5,000 miles on it, and the remaining tread showed signs of bubbling - a manufacturing defect. This is more likely to be caused by a combination of heat and lateral G forces than a manufacturing defect.

You do know that a car just like this one finished 13th overall from a total of 204 entered cars at this year's Nurburgring 24h? It was even driven from the Porsche factory to the race and back. :) That just says the RS is a damn impressive car full-stop.
Not quite. That was a 997.2, not this 997.1. There are some differences, and some that would matter for that kind of race. Also, it's been 3,494 miles in this car on track, not 11,000. :)
 
Now go, and remake that with your car, please. ;)

 
I love living in Texas. The 2011 track season is well under-way already, I just had my second event of the year this past weekend at Motorsport Ranch Houston. Sporting a new helmet, too...

2011msrh.jpg

need better pic of the helmet !_!
 
Seriously. Badass helmet.

Helmet needs a moocow, though.
 
Ha! I like the toy versions of your cars.
 
Equiraptor and I were out at H2R this past weekend to drive in the Porsche Club DE (Saturday) and then make a nuisance of ourselves during the Viper Round Up on Sunday. A plane-full of my FlightAware cow-orkers flew out to spectate on Sunday, and caught some aerial video of me driving out on the track all by myself on Sunday afternoon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0B9KIiUtus#t=2m30s

Good times.
 
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Published car weights are usually super-optimisic, so I've always been curious what my RS really weighs. At the NASA time trial event this past weekend I had a chance to get my car up on the scales and see what the real numbers are. According to the owner's manual, the RS is 44 lbs (20kg) lighter than the regular GT3 and should weigh in at 3,031 lbs (1,375 kg). I'm betting that the minimal spec (perspex window, carbon bucket seats) and not my spec (glass all around and normal sport seats). It might even be a "dry" weight (no oil, no windshield wiper fluid, etc.)

With me in the car (145 lbs) and 3/4 tank of fuel (80 lbs) the car weighed 3,339 lbs (1,514 kg). Subtract my ass and the fuel and that leaves us at 3,114 lbs (1,412 kg). That's 83 lbs over the published weight which really isn't that far off.




Front (L/R): 665 / 616
Rear (L/R): 1,056 / 1,002

So with me in the car that's 38% front, 62% rear weight balance (the way it should be, woot).
 
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This was done with the track wheels and tires. Add about 7 pounds (per wheel+tire) to the front, and 12 pounds (per wheel+tire) to the rear for OEM tires and wheels. This is approximate, using weights from tire rack instead of actual scale-measurements of the wheel+tire combination, but using N-rated Pilot Sport tires in the OEM size for the OEM setup.
 
I've decided that FlightAware Motorsports needs to add a MINI Cooper S to it's ranks. Luckily, I just happen to know of one such MINI Cooper S!

Man, love those orange wheels. When I get proper tires, I'm planning on running Lime Rock Park.
 
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