Fun and Games or is it?

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The Porsche 917 had been ready for a few days. I was happy that we could go do the shakedown test at the track. My boss called me in and said that he booked a slot for the next day. We got everything together and loaded so we could leave for the track early the next day. Let the fun and games begin.

The next morning we hooked up the car trailer and left for the track. We got to the track and it was fairly misty. I got a phone call from my boss saying that he is running late. He said that I could take the car around the track and just check that the car is behaving. Luckily I remembered to bring my race kit with. I strapped myself into the seat of the 917. It is a weird feeling sitting in the 917. It is more like laying down than sitting. Because the car is so low down on the ground and the roof of the car isn’t very high you just could not sit up straight in the car.

The first outing

I was a bit worried about the damp track, but because this was only a shakedown test I wasn’t going to run under full power. Usually, I take the first lap even slower, I first have to calm down and breathe normally. I told Riaan that was with me at the track, that if the car goes quiet he must come and look for me. Pulling out of the pits I started hyperventilating. This carried on for the complete first lap out until I calmed down. The Porsche was an absolute beast.

The next lap I started to give it a bit of gas, just to get some heat in the tires and to see that the cooling system is working properly. I found that going down the back straight of the track the coolant temp would spike to 125 deg C and when I am braking for the turn it would drop down to 80 deg C. Wasn’t too stressed about that, as the cooling system recovered well.

I came down the main straight towards turn one, I wasn’t pushing the car hard yet. Starting to turn I just felt the back end slid out sideways. I tried to correct the car with the steering and it helped a bit. The car just kept on skidding and I braked hard as I was approaching the wall. The wheels just locked up solid and the car was just getting closer and closer to the wall. I went through the loose sand, and that slowed down the car and I came to a standstill after a knock against the wall.

What have I done, did I break it again?

I switched the engine off and just sat there for a minute or two. You will not believe what went through my thoughts. It the nose of the car all messed up? What am I going to tell my boss when he gets there? I got out of the car and I saw Riaan driving towards me in his car. After a quick look, I could not see anything that is broken. We tied a rope onto the towing eye on the Porsche on the back and pulled the car out of the loose and with Riaan’s car.

The only damage to the car was a small patch of paint that scraped off. We said we are going to call that Clinton’s mark. I drove the car to the pits so we could have a good look if there weren’t any other issues. When we were done the track had dried out nicely. My boss arrived and he took the Porsche out for a good few laps. The car was running really well.

My turn again.

My boss came in off the track and said I could take the Porsche out again. The tires were nice and sticky and I knew the car would sit really well on the track. I did my first lap again just to get the feeling of the car. After the first lap, I started driving in anger. This was the best feeling ever. All that adrenaline pumping through my system. The faster you go the faster you want to go. I did about 4 laps and I was feeling comfortable in the car. Well, as comfortable as you could get in the car driving while laying down.

I came down the back straight doing approximately 250 km/h and started to downshift and brake for the turn. Shifting from 5th to 4th was fine but as I tried to shift from 4th to 3rd there was no engine braking and the car didn’t what to shift down. I had to brake really hard and I locked up all 4 wheels. I could see the smoke pumping out the wheel arches. As I entered the turn I let the brakes go as I didn’t want to let the car step out from the brakes.

It felt like my face was going to be ripped off my skull as I went through the turn. The car freed all the way to the entrance of the pit lane and it stopped there. I tried to pull away with the car but there was no drive.

Back to the drawing board

We loaded the car up and took it back to work so I can try and find out what is going on with this car. There were a few things that I wanted to address before we could attempt to come back to the track again.

This was a really fun day but it was also very stressful.

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