Porsche 911 GT3-R Gen1 - why am I slow in it? :)

I've been driving the Gen1 GT3 cars a bit lately as the GT3 World Tour championship uses them. The Nissan gels with me the best and that's what I've been doing the championship with.

I just can't seem to make the Porsche on the Audi work for me though - despite them topping the Time Trial charts for plenty of other people. The McLaren 720S would probably be my next-best after the Nissan.

Is there some sort of characteristic about the Porsche especially that I'm missing? Does it perhaps have a very small operating 'window' like the Red Bull F1 car?

 

have you made some setup changes? how do you set up the Nissan and how do you set up the Porsche? do you like stronger diff (6+ clutches)? how are your ARBs?

 

When I'm testing out new cars I just compare the default setups as I figure that's the fairest baseline. I have considered that the 911 may have something funny about its default setup, and that's part of the reason I'm asking about it.

I haven't played around too much with the diffs in any car when I make adjustments although I do tend to tweak ARBs when I'm consistent enough on a car/track to find the shortcomings. With the 911 and the Audi I'm finding I lose the back a lot compared to the 720s and the GT-R, so potentially softening the rears to lose some of the liveliness could help there.

 

If this is happening under some throttle-on situations coming out of a corner, i find dropping the diff to 4 clutches can help... I think of the clutches as being a measure of basically how much the car will 'turn' more when the steering wheel is turned and I push the throttle.

I recently added paddle shifters to my 'big' wheel (330) which I think is realistic for the SuperV8s - and that is a perfect example to understand diff behaviour (it's super fun!)

Specifically, those cars have a locked diff (they call it a 'spool' - not sure why) which in a sense is like infinite clutches. As you come out the corner, if you're not turning enough, just do a bit of throttle and the car will get the idea! It should be useful and helpful for understanding what's going on with the diff as I think it's a very underappreciated aspect of sim racing (ACC for example has very little ability to alter the diff). - i felt I had a good understanding before but once I started trying that car (SuperV8) I really got it!

Hope this helps a bit, let us know what you conclude if you do any testing!

 

During what part of the corner does this happen?

 

Thanks for the advice! That is useful, I might play around with it a bit and see if I can make more sense of the car

Just FYI - V8 Supercars IRL use a sequential box with shift cut for upshifts, and no auto-blip on downshifts, and shifting is done with a lever rather than paddles (but I understand we don't all have room for a lever). You are correct that the rear axle is locked, I believe it's a throwback to the Group A days of the 80's and early 90's and it's one of the few things that hasn't advanced with technology

 

Hmm hard to say, I'll have to spend a bit more time in it and pay attention to where I'm losing it. I was having a crack at Cascais as it's the next race in the Championship and I think I lost it mid-corner at Orelha (right-hander heading a bit downhill).

I'm also not 100% sure where exactly I'm losing time, I'll need to pay attention to my sectors. I have a feeling the Porsche needs different braking distance - possibly it's a bit lighter than the Nissan?

 

Ah - I didn't mean to teach my granny to suck eggs - but thank you. I have the Fanatec H-pattern which has that lever option so I will try that, but i never got on with it as a sequential shifter the way I love it as a H-pattern.

 

Try to brake more in a straight line and not trail brake. GT3s in AMS2 do not like it for some reason

 

You could be onto something there, except that the GT-R absolutely loves trailbraking which could be why I'm so much faster in it. That's going to be a tough habit to break! I wonder if it's more to do with the engine braking settings which have been mentioned elsewhere as set too strong in the default setups - I'll play around a bit today

 

You can Trail brake no issues with Porsche , but it does obviously have a very different weight distribution so it likes maintenance throttle as you ease off the brakes.

 

@Kuku @Racinglegend1234 @wegreenall

Solved it - By default engine braking (In the 911) is set to 4. I maxed it out at 10 (minimum engine braking) and all the 'volatility' of the default setup was gone and it was actually a lot of fun to drive. Was within 300ms of my Nissan record at Brands Hatch after only 2 laps.

I worked out this had to be the issue because every time I had the fast right-hander at Hawthorn Bend (and a few others), the car would keep wanting to oversteer to the right in mid-late corner (when I'm transitioning from trailbraking back onto the throttle).

Now I'll have to go back to Bathurst and see how I go as that's my main proving ground

 

Just did a few laps of Bathurst and I'm already within 600ms of my Nissan time (as opposed to 2 seconds). My first sector is actually faster, and top of the mountain only 200ms slower so looks like most of my gains at this point are in the last part of the lap, but I can definitely find improvements. And my Nissan record was a cracker of a lap (for me), everything was on point.

I'm just pleased I've worked out why I couldn't make the 911 work for me

 

Interesting little note: The Nissan by default is set to 1 (out of 5) for engine braking but I don't really notice much if any difference. I would probably notice if I switched back.

 

I forgot about engine braking! Nice one. I think recently there was a post by someone claiming engine braking was the solution to all their problems (in-game and in real life, by the way they were going on about it). Glad you found a solution. This may however mean that upping the engine braking number (a reminder for any reading, this lowers the amount of engine braking) on the Nissan makes it better...