I have struggled with my track confidence in the last year or two, after a few sub optimal skill moments and the fear to be honest of an uninsured off ending my car owning days, because if I were to total the 458, it would be gone and could not be replaced. Also, I genuinely have no natural skill so I have to work hard at it and you lose it if you don’t use it. Doing one or two sporadic track days and forgetting what you have learned is a way to disaster if you assume you are as good as you were the last day, 18 months ago.
I have managed to edge up to a 458 over many years of overspending on cars and maintenance of “equity”, as it were, so the M5 was a disaster because I lost €37k in 18 months but the F430 Spider was wonderful because I owned it for nearly five glorious years and sold it for more than I paid for it. I am not like the rich guys I keep meeting who just have tons of cars and ski lodges and boats and when asked, are you getting a Pista(ke), the answer is “of course”.
I explain all this because it gives backdrop to my recent gloriously expensive trip to Portimao to drive a rental 991 GT3 for three days. I wanted to regain my mojo as it were. I could have shipped my 458 there and I could have driven it for the ultimate buzz, but I have already ruined the outrageously expensive carbon ceramic brakes and it has been off the road because of a gearbox problem (thankfully under purchased at some expense, additional warranty – a long separate thread will follow at some stage). So I didn’t want to go to the trouble and cost of shipping, I wasn’t going to pound down a couple of thousand miles of motorway but I did want to go to Portimao. Which of course, is in Portugal, not a short hop.
Like many, I guess, I was captivated by the wonderful Chris Harris video in I think 2014 where he brought lots of great metal to Portimao, like the 918 and the McLaren P1 and other greats like the F12 – having driven one in Fiorano, the F12 would be just perfect for Portimao, and it’s clear that Chris H loved it there.
After I had been there, I watched a definitive guide to Portimao sent to me by FDub and it only made sense to me because I had actually walked some of the track and also driven it under tuition already. When you walk this track, there are some parts of it that seem daunting to even walk. Without this, the video would have made me think it was actually easy. I think the only other track I can think of with such elevation changes (apart from the Nurburgring, over 19 klms) is Laguna Seca, – the famous double corkscrew turn there is probably more challenging but when you walk over the turn they call Portimao you think, Jesus how do you drive this? You have to turn in and aim at a hut whose roof you can see in the knowledge that there is a hyooge compression dip just coming, off camber to your left. It’s a bit like Church in Anglesea on steroids. It is exhilarating. As is figuring out that you can not brake so much at the end of the main straight (which has this enormous pothole at the end that you have to drive into) and just slide through the next two turns while flet on the power. I did this once only and I felt like a king. That is what it is like to be a proper driver I’m sure, I kind of got a flavour for one moment only and honestly, it was worth going there for that moment only.
Compression is everywhere and the chassis loads are such that you need a car with stability and damping. I chickened out at 245/50 kph on the main straight, but the GT3 (oh yes, I need to write a little about this) was just rock solid beyond belief, unburstable. More on that in a minute.
One of the difficult things about this circuit, after you have a basic knowledge of where the lines and braking points are, is stringing it all together in between rocketing 488 Challenge racers and 675LTs and hordes of people who do this all the time and know what they are doing. So you have to think about the lines, the mirrors, the braking point, the turn in, the mirrors, the apex, the mirrors, the gear you are in, the mirrors, trail braking, the power on point, the mirrors and placing yourself so as to not be disadvantaged for getting the most out of the next turn, while avoiding massively faster stuff just barrelling through. There is only one rule on overtaking, watch your mirrors, do what you were doing so you are predictable, and it’s the overtaker’s fault if something goes wrong (overtaking both sides is fine) but when you have a €500k 488 Challenge and a €350k 675 LT going past on both sides at once into a difficult turn, you think – fu[kit it’s their problem .
There were a bunch of guys from a forum called S9S in the UK there with tons of McLarens and GT3’s and GT4’s. All very seasoned and (mostly) considerate drivers, nothing went wrong due to experience and everyone having skin in the game. They weren’t the most overtly in your face over the top friendly people, they all knew each other and were I guess a bit wary of strangers, and there were some 488 Challenge rich chaps who kept to themselves, but I wasn’t there to meet people and go on the piss (just as well), I was there to drive.
I honestly think it’s the best track I have ever driven. It combines elements of big long straight tracks like Spa with really really technical bits so that a well driven mere 500 bhp $hitter like my GT3 will do OK by comparison to something really classy except in the straights. My last lap was as a pax with Ron Simons driving and chasing a 488 Challenge. He was balls out everywhere (mostly on my lines just twice as fast) but the 488 just had more power and more grip – but there wasn’t all that much in it in my view. If it had been a GT3RS, there would have been even less.
I started by thinking, oh my god how can I drive this. I came away thinking, I know this circuit to a degree, but I’m not complacent, it is not as intimidating as you think, I can do a good lap time here. I can drive anything here and not disgrace myself. I can have fun and push my limits. I am a happy man. It is a man Spa.
I haven’t talked about the car. It was a 991.1 GT3 PDK on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2’s. I had wanted to drive the 991 GT3 again since I drove it in Vegas around that perfectly flat and mostly circular track outside the speedway. On that track, I found it mesmerising, just nuggety and wonderful and with a wonderful sound and wonderful handling and an unflappable chassis and just – engineered to be excellent and fun. Not as flamboyant as the 458, not as shouty, but just as much, well, fun.
So to Portimao and the wonderful GT3. Cars are like friends. Friends help you move furniture, real friends help you move bodies, and so it is with cars. Some cars you can have fun with, but they leave you all on your own when the trouble starts. The GT3 is a body moving friend. I lost it quite a bit after tuition and trying to push myself, particularly oddly enough in the slowest turn, which is one you have to seriously brake hard into if you got BOTH of the previous turns right, and the GT3 was so progressive and so stable when stuff started to go a little awol. It’s actually difficult to explain about the GT3, because you realise that it just does stuff, it does what you want, no matter how unreasonable, and it does it without drama, such that you don’t think about the car. Now that might make it sound boring (a Ferrari would be shouting at you about what it was doing), but it isn’t. Every now and then, and this is almost a personality thing, like it lives, it just gives you a little nudge to let you know it perfected that turn in for you or it just got its rear back in shape for you in the nick of time, or there is a what I can only describe as a delicious damper moment, or else some awesome awesome sound intrudes and you just have to listen even though you are mid corner with a 675LT pointed at your head. Criticisms? That rear wing is positioned to cover a 675LT in the rear view mirror. Also, it is ridiculously thirsty on track. Don’t even ask
I think the 488 GTB is a better track car. It is not a better road car. I think the 458 is a better road car (with 😀😀😀😀 ccb brakes) and not as good a track car. Not as good for someone with my skill levels anyway. If you could get a 458 GT3 it would be the most awesomest compromise between a road and a track car ever. I believe the next GT3 will be a turbo. I fear that it will 488’ise the GT3 like the 488 488’ed the 458. So the 991 GT3 may be one of the last best cars ever made. Peak car, gentlemen, we are past it. Peak car was the 458 Speciale and the 991 GT3 (perhaps the RS?). If I could have only one car for the rest of my life the 991 GT3 would be just awesome thanks.
Peak track is Portimao by the way.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XOUSXxowH6G8aBeN2
I can’t seem to get videos or linked photos to work this evening, will try harder with fly past videos and non upside down gopro stuff in due course.
Ming's $hitters 