Got to test a FR-S on the Race Track on Saturday

[gbhstrat]

Thought I would share my experience in an FR-S over the weekend. I normally do not do much Forum stuff and I am new to this Forum because I just ordered a BRZ as a daily driver. I am a Porsche Club driving instructor for the PNWR and on Saturday I did a Turn 2 lapping day (not a Porsche club event) at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton Washington. It’s a brand new 2.5 mile road course designed by the same person that designed Thunder Hill and it’s a great road course. By coincidence there was a national off road Rally (Ken Block and the rest of the Rally teams) sharing the complex as a pit and staging area and the Scion Rally team was near me. When a new FR-S showed up and parked near my pit area, I walked over and introduced myself and mentioned that I just ordered a Subaru BRZ in the exact same color (white). The FR-S belonged to the Toyota/Scion event manager and they were using it for PR at the event. I made him an offer that he gets a ride in my race prepped 996 (911) twin turbo and in exchange, I would take him for a drive in his FR-s for a 30 minute session on the track. He agreed! He loved the ride in my car and I drove nice and smooth to prove I would be good to the FR-S. My car is totally set up for the track so it’s a blast. It’s closer to a GT2 than a 996 Turbo but I will stick to the topic of the FR-S. When the next run session came up we got our helmets on and off we went! I have helmet intercoms so I was talking him through all the turns and making sure I gave him feedback about the car as I drove. It was an automatic and not a manual but I adjusted quickly to the paddle shifters. It shifted very nicely and relatively quickly for not being a double clutch car and I could keep my hands on the wheel at all times so that was nice. Having to look down to see what gear I am in is a drawback to tracking an automatic along with just not needing the additional skills like heal toe braking that come with tracking a manual transmission (this could be viewed as a bonus instead) but I still enjoyed driving the automatic as a fun change a pace. It allowed me to hold each gear right to red line and I even bounced it off the limiter one or two times. After a lap or so I memorize what gear I needed to be in on each section of the track, got some heat in the tires (it did have an aftermarket set of 19 inch performance street tires) and I started to get the feel of the car and how far I could push it. Acceleration was what I expected. It’s similar to many of the cars I get to jump into like S2000s, Mini’s and some older Porsches etc. On a track the momentum out of corners is everything so I tried to use every inch of the track and get on the gas as early as possible to keep the exit speeds up. We caught an older BMW M3 with a less experienced driver and we made a go of it. He could out accelerate us but we would catch him in the corners. I think if the FR-S had R compounds I might have been able to pass him.
These are my take aways from driving the FR-S: Fun to drive, good driver seat position and seat support is good for not being a racing seat. Car goes where you point it and the body lean is very minimal in hard cornering. It did remind me of the Cayman-S I drove just a few weeks ago at the same track but I would not go as far as saying the FR-S/BRZ can hang with a Cayman S on the track. I have seen some of the comparisons and yes, the FRS is good, but it’s not a Cayman S. The steering and fun to drive factor is very close. The quality of the interior and the acceleration is not the same. But for the money, the FR-S/BRZ is great! Traction control is very non intrusive. It came on several times during hard cornering but it did not shut down the car like some of the new cars out there (for example, the GT 500 Mustang shuts you down hard when TC comes on). The FR-S could use 100 more HP to be a track car for someone who is a track rat like me, but it would still be a fun track car if you put on R compounds , dialed in some camber and stayed in a slower run group. I will not be tracking my BRZ because I promised my wife I would not “ruin” another car with track modifications. I also teach drivers skills/auto cross so I will be looking forward to taking the BRZ to those events where I expect it will do great!
Hope this was good a read for those that took the time – thanks

[hippari]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, man!

Originally Posted by gbhstrat

I will not be tracking my BRZ because I promised my wife I would not “ruin” another car with track modifications.

We'll see how long that lasts, though.

[Sigh-on-Rice]

That was a nice read.

[Strive-2-B-A-Driver]

That was great! I agree that even 20-30 more hp or shorter gearing could do amazing things with this car, the chassis feels more than eager to take on extra power

[Texas BRZ]

Great wall of text!

(Other than that, it was a very informative read for as hard as I tried) :happy0180:

[gbhstrat]

I have found that after owning sevel high performance cars and tracking them extensively, the forums are great for some things like fixes and DYIs but for some things, nothing beats personal experience. For example, most of the Porsche Turbo forums are full of threads about creating high HP cars. In reality, from my experience, for the track the suspension and brakes are far more important than HP (once you are at a good power to weight ratio). Too much HP can actually hurt you. Car suspension set up, tires, camber, brake pad compound etc are what we mostly play around with. In addition a cars “fun to drive factor” like the FR-S/BRZ, come from the cars ability to allow you to drive the car close to the edge with the feeddback that you are still in control. A friend of mine owns a Ford GT40 kit car with a huge motor, really light weight with a really stiff suspension. The car will go from fun to spin in an instant making the driving experience terrible because you can’t drive the car on the edge. He does not bring it to the track any longer and prefers to drive his Mustang challenge cup car that has far less HP, but is fun to drive. A lot of other Instructors drive slower cars like Mini's and older Porsches just because they are fun to drive fast, but they are not fast when compared to the Z06, M3, GT3's, etc.

When I drive a student’s car on the track, the things I look for in the car that make me like or dislike are car are:
In order or importance to me:
1) Seating position and the seats ability to hold me in a corner (so I can feel the car and not the steering wheel). With 6 or 5 point belts if a high HP car.
2) Steering and cornering ability. Will it push (understeer) if I accelerate too hard in the middle of a corner? Will it come around nicely if I lightly lift in a corner (oversteer)? Does the car want to naturally oversteer (not safe) or understeer (safe) so I can caution the student about what not to do.
3) Braking ability and feel
4) Acceleration
5) Tires ability to manage the heat build-up. Do they get too greasy at temp and require the student to slow down to keep the car in control.