Gerald Quek

Hello rennlisters, I'm here to share my thoughts on my first Porsche. The hype is real. Now, let's get started.

2020/7/29: Picked up the GT4 from Vienna, Virginia and took it back to Boston, MA. ( 600 miles )

Every 100 miles, I raised the RPM by 1,000.
I've been looking for forums and driver's manual and there's no information on break-in period.

Track review:

i) 2 weeks and 700 miles later, I arrived at Thompson Speedway, Connecticut. Jumping from a FR vehicle to a MR is totally different. Very sketchy at first, since I trail brake a lot. The car gets a lot of understeer, especially on mid corner. The tire wasn't overheated, tpms reads 34 psi front and 39 psi rear.

After a day of tracking and getting know about the cars limit, I turned off all traction control and stability control. This car requires a lot of footwork when it comes to holding the throttle around corners.
Too much throttle: understeer.
Let off the throttle: lift off oversteer
The key of driving the GT4 very fast on track is: Let go your gas/brake before you turn in. Trail braking will cause spin out more easily because it's so light at the back.

The car has a very weird brake feeling. It felt like the deeper you step on the brake pedal, another piston from the caliper will be engaged? It felt like there's 2 mode of braking.
Brakes did not fade nor car were overheated. Very, very, very fxxxxxg impressed especially it's 110℉ all day.

Managed to run 1:19 average on Thompson Speedway.

ii) Brought the GT4 with around 2000 miles to Palmer Motorsports Park. If you live in New England area, you'll know this is a more serious racetrack with 190ft of elevation change. If you're familiar with the track,
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​​​​Big straight going into T1 reaching almost 140mph is thrilling, especially when you trust the brake so much.
Going into T2 and T3 averaging an entering speed of 95mph and exit speed of 105mph felt like the front is about to leave the ground. ( I think the rear wing produced too much down force )

T4, T5 ( the corkscrew ): The car either understeer or wants to oversteer due to the road camber. My favourite part of this car is I can use 2nd gear all the way until the top of the hill and switch it to 3rd. A lot of people complain about long 2nd gear. I personally liked it a lot.

T6: Downhill bear to the right, tap the brakes before turns and hold the throttle around the corner and brake late going into T7.

T8: The most sketchy part of the track with GT4. Upon reaching at the speed of 80mph and turn to the left, I can feel the steering wheel gets really, really light. Tires are about to leave the ground type of deal. I personally think the car is lack of front down force.

T9: Big downhill U turn averaging from 55mph-58mph.
T10 T11: My 2 favorites part where the car really carry a lot of speed and entering a double apex left turn. No understeer issues over here.

​​​​T12: Exit from the turn and there's a slight uphill right going into T13 and T14. Doesn't have the ***** (yet) to flat out on T13 but I'll see what happen next.

Averaging 1:49 in Palmer Motorsports Park.

Here comes the Daily drive review:

The car at first, before break in period, sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I really am not satisfied with the stock exhaust. I am now on my 3,500 miles and guys and girls, you do not need an aftermarket exhaust.
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Side by side comparison with my friend's 991.2 GT3RS Weissach with Akrapovic titanium exhaust.

Both car did a warm startup: The GT4 with stock exhaust sounds way more louder then the GT3RS. Both cars did not open up the exhaust valves. Someone on YouTube said the exhaust now has "carbon build ups" from all the miles and it's going to sound better. I don't know how this works, or he just made this up like a blinker fluid.

The GT4 gets a very burbled exhaust note while starting up.
When driving in the city and tried to flex a little, I'll do a little pull on traffic light. THIS CAR SKETCHES ME OUT BECAUSE THE GEARBOX WILL GRIND!

Listening to 1st-2nd gear grind is like squeak comes from chalk. (But different pitch) Yes, the gear do not like to go into 2nd gear when shifted around 5k-6k rpm. I guess Porsche engineers does not want us to shift early? Full send until 8000rpm? LOL

Pros:
Love the torque from 4000rpm all the way to redline.
Looks like Baby GT3 from the front and 918.

Cons:
2nd gear grind
8000rpm redline

Cheers!

@GeraldTheAsian
@BostonAsianCarClub

Founder of Boston Asian Car Club






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skafia

Looking good! So there's no information in the manual re: a break-in period?

Gerald Quek

Nope. Some people doesn't break in the car and some people does. I think it's just personal preference. Breaking in the car doesn't mean breaking the seal on the mechanical part, it also means driver break in.

911F1

The manual says don't exceed 4000 rpm for 2000 miles.
I'm going off of this guide that came up in this thread.

https://rennlist.com/forums/718-gts-...718-gt4-3.html

Break in schedule (in miles):
up to 300......5000rpms
up to 420......5500rpm
up to 540......6000rpm
up to 660......6500rpm
up to 780......7000rpm
up to 900......7500rpm
Redline after about 1000 miles.

handful

Nice review Gerald, in what other cars do you have track experience?

honghong322

Thanks for the review and I've seen your car around Boston! I'm looking to order one very shorty and your description about driving around daily is great! I'm incredibly worried about the low front lip especially with all of the bumps and bad roads around there (even though I'm rarely going to take it into the city)

Racer20

My M3 does this. For a second the pedal effort lightens up and it feels like the brakes are going to fade but if you just push through it the brakes have a lot more in them. You just have to push through and trust them, and they modulate and stop very well. I've never heard anyone else describe this and when I explain it to others they don't know what I'm talking about.

hf1

This gear grinding is starting to become a widespread and serious concern. Can't believe Porsche could not detect this before launching the cars. In my cars I use 1st gear just to start moving from rest -- rarely rev above 4k in it, if ever,

lovetoturn

Interesting he says not to trail brake into the corners. I have a modified Cayman S and I trail brake all the time. Gets you into the corner faster and deeper, and as you release the brake and turn in, you get some free rotation. The more you stand it on its nose in slower corners, the more it will rotate for you. Guess it depends on how you have the car set up. I guess I will begin to learn about this after I get mine in a few months.

hf1

I've driven many cars on the track and there hasn't been one that I couldn't trail brake. OP probably just needs time to get used to a different car.

Archimedes

I’m amazed that someone at Porsche could type that with a straight face.

InTgr8r

I agree, these cars trail brake great.
That's one of the ways you control mid corner understeer.

DFW01TT

Thanks for your detailed impressions.

Gerald Quek

I own 3 miatas. LOL

Gerald Quek

The front splitter does look very, very low. But I've managed to keep it unscraped. Remember, go really really slow when you don't know if you're going to scrape the lip.