Hampton Downs track day

Very timely review, Lucio! I read it while enjoying the GT4's first track day, at Hampton Downs - an hour south of Auckland.

Further reflections on the car:

• My impression of the GT4 being understeery arose over the months as I learned to carry more and more speed on corner entry. The GT4 rewards you for keeping the speed up initially, and works best if you feed the power back very gently when unlocking the steering on exit. I had to unlearn the 911's "slow in, faster-from-the-apex" style which worked so well with the porky Turbo. But as I dared bigger speeds, I found that the GT4 has an underlay of understeer. Resetting the antiroll bars did help a fair bit, yet I was still pushing too much in the two morning sessions today. I need more patience on entry and learn to keep the on the edge of grip, using the throttle.
• Yaw stability is a bit tricky. You'll see in the movie that the main straight drops down into a 90-degree right-hander. This is close to the perfect storm for manual shifting. The transition from full throttle (220km/h) to full braking while shifting down and turning into a diving right, one hand on the wheel while shifting, makes the car wiggle a fair bit . I found it hairy. On the other hand, the car is happy taking a lot of abuse on trail braking. Recorded 1.50 g each side today.
• Fully agree with your analysis on the engine. It's a good beefy engine with punch above 5,000rpm, but a bit gruff and with far less sparkle than the Metzger. Did yWalter Rohrl describe the engine in the upcoming 2017 GT3 as "ein Wunder"? Will be interesting to watch.
• Gear ratios. Hmmm. I actually think they're a good compromise for a manual gear box. You'll see in the movie that there are two spots on this track where you could theoretically shift up to third gear; it would be a no-brainer to select 3rd with DSG. In the GT4 however, it's probably not worth destabilising the car (and losing time) with 2 shifts for the 2 seconds you'll spend in higher gear. I mostly went up to the limiter for the 1-1.5 seconds. I assume the car doesn't mind doing that - let me know if that's the wrong assumption!
• I finally understand all the talk about tyres. The Dunlop Sport Maxx Race are good but they are not semi-slicks. They will go a bit mushy after two laps, and stabilise there. You'll see that the GT4 was evenly matched with the Honda (semi-slicks) on the long 180-degree right-hander. No miracles there. 
• Several drivers approached me and commented about the noise of the GT4 at full bore on the straight. Reportedly it's spectacular. I didn't get a video, so I'll take their word for it!. 
• There was a couple of very nice GT3s in the racing group. One of them with slicks, racing exhaust, new intakes. Wow. That thing sounded like no 911 I've heard. And it was very well driven, at the very limit of grip all around. About 3 seconds faster than the GT4 driven by me.  I've started working on Chris regarding co-ownership of a proper track car, like a GT3 with the right setup. In a few years maybe.
• Finally, I am very happy with the Necksgen neck support. It's far less intrusive than the HANS I had tried (which doesn't work well with the 918 buckets) and provides more lateral support in case of roll or side impact. 

Here's the video. The driving bits to improve are fairly obvious, which is why I'm going to go again very soon.

Interestingly, you'll see a 997 GTS on the track. He and I have had good battles the whole day. The GT4 is approx 1.5-2 seconds faster per lap.