Kg11

My wife and I have done several autocrosses with the Cayman (and a couple of track days) and the car is so easy to start rotating in a corner. I am pretty familiar with trail braking and throttle, having come from a mountain bike and ski race background. Techniques are very similar in cornering; turn an arc into an L if possible and minimize speed loss. Anyways, we haven't done any formal autocross training, just driving at the events. It always seems that mid corner, I get the car starting to rotate by trail braking and then managing the throttle, but here and there power cuts and I then just push the car sideways until the throttle re-engages and my line corrects.

A friend pointed out that I hadn't disengaged my stability control and therefore are going far more slowly than I should be. Is this what is causing me to rotate partway and then push sideways? Does the car think I am about to snap oversteer? I am not hard on the throttle, but at least once a lap, it completely or mostly cuts out.

How much time does this cost someone on a typical autocross course?

Kitc2246

Do you have Sport Chrono or added Sport/Sport+ (09-12)? If you do putting the car in Sport+ will make PSM less intrusive. Your description indicates PSM believes bad things are about to happen. Turn it off and make some runs, but be prepared to catch the rear end coming around.

Kg11

I ran in sport mode, 981. I have a Cobb tune so I figured sport and sport plus are the same.

Kitc2246

Stick or PDK? With or without Sport Chrono? There is nothing in the Cobb (PDK) tune literature indicating it makes PSM less intrusive? As I understand it only Sport+ makes PSM less intrusive. I seldom Xcross so hopefully someone with more experience will comment, but I can definitely tell PSM is less intrusive in Sport+ on the track. When I do Xcross with PSM off I can easily lose the rear end with too much throttle or too soon.

2013 BS PDK Sport Chrono, PASM, PSE, PTV
2009 Boxster PDK Sport/Sport+ (sold)

Kg11

Manual all the way.

Yabo

How much time it will lose you is pretty dependent on your driving. Personally, I probably lose 2+ seconds on a 50-60 second course when I forget to turn it off for a run (I get really mad when I hit the first hard turn and find out!). If you are as smooth as is best for autocross you may not actually hit stability control that often (particularly if you have sport chrono (sport + mode). I enjoy the fun of controlling the slide myself and less nanny's helping my race... after all I did get a manual transmission!

2XIPA

In PDK S+ it slows me down by 0.50 to 0.75 seconds on a 40-50 second course. l may use it depending on how wet and cold it is.