After all the fun we've had throwing Volkswagens and Audis in the ring together, a Porsche comparison was bound to happen. The 996 Twin Turbo is much like other turbocharged, Motronic-managed cars in that it is fairly easy to get basic power increases with software only. But with a 3.6-liter engine built for boost, all-wheel drive and a sports car body, it is the biggest hammer in Europe's go-fast shop. When half the entries of this shootout came to european car self-organized and ready to rumble, the 996 Twin Turbo shootout happened sooner. We're told it all started when someone logged onto a forum at www.6speedonline.com and said his car was faster than someone else's. Fightin' words, those are.
For those readers who caught our S4 shootout in the January issue, this was basically the same program, including exactly the same scoring system. Four tests, 25 points each. Points are awarded based on a car's performance relative to the best and worst performances, so no matter how close the field really is, it will spread out in our scoring system. Only cars, tracks and our driver were changed. The RSVP list peaked at 13 cars, but only nine came to the party. A few last-minute efforts just didn't come together.
Michelin supported this event with many thousands of dollars of tires, attempting to provide Pilot Sport Cup or Pilot Sport 2 tires for all the competitors. Only two sets of the latter were available in 19-in. sizes in the world. One was on Hartmann Motorsports' car, and one had been previously sent to a company that didn't make the event. Pilot Sport Cup tires aren't, and probably never will be, made in 19-in. sizes.
We decided that the tight, almost autocross-like Streets of Willow Springs wouldn't give these dogs room to run and changed to Buttonwillow Raceway Park, running configuration #23 clockwise. It has several healthy straights and includes the track's two most distinctive features: the long, fast Riverside sweeper and Lost Hill. Additionally, the long straight bypassing Lost Hill allows 80-to-0-mph braking and 1/4-mile numbers to be obtained all in one place.
We were fortunate to get noted sports-car racer Cort Wagner as our designated driver. Each team could use its own driver or choose to put Cort behind the wheel-and why not? A list of his achievements includes winning the GT class championship in the ALMS the last 2 years in a Ferrari and in 2000 in a Porsche. In 1999, Wagner had a career year, winning GT Class in the ALMS as well a becoming the USRRC's GT3 Class Champion, and being named winner of the Porsche Cup, the world's most successful racer of Porsche cars for the year. And we've just learned that he will return as driver of a factory-backed Porsche in 2004.
Dyno
We again turned to GIAC and its four-wheel Mustang chassis dyno. The dyno uses a combination of inertia (inescapable due to the mass of the rollers) and electrical resistance loading. The time required for a pass and the resistance offered by the dyno are determined by Mustang's software, partly using factors entered by the operator. We entered the numbers used by GIAC for all 996 Twin Turbos and left them alone. Torque output reacted by the electrical load units is measured with load cells on lever arms. Unlike most four-wheel dynos, the Mustang's front and rear rollers are mechanically linked, so they always turn the same speed. There was no problem managing front-to-rear torque split, and PSM stayed happy on all the cars. As before, Garrett and Andrew did the hard labor of strapping down the cars safely but left the operation of the dyno to european car. Having tuned several of the cars in the shootout, GIAC was concerned that competitors might claim bias had entered the results due to the choice of venue.