The Purely Porsche Team were recently at our first track day of 2023 at Donnington Park Circuit. If you haven’t had a chance to read our first article, we like to follow the progress of the Purely Porsche 996 Turbo which is an absolute track weapon. The Guards Red Porsche has been kitted out with a roll-cage, Recaro racing seats, Surface Transformer Ceramic Brakes and something else I always forget … oh yeah, 1,000hp! This series follows the progress of our much loved Porsche on the track, and all of the up’s and down’s that come with it.

Two of the team went to Donnington, myself (Jack), and Joel. Between us, only one had been to Donnington Park before, so it was a new track for us to learn. We were particularly looking forward to it, as a friend of ours, who uses the Purely Porsche site to advertise, owns a 996 GT2 and was desperate to see how it compared to the upgraded 996 Turbo. We all met in the morning eager to begin our first track day of the year. However, that excitement was washed away with the rain when we arrived on track, as it was extremely heavy. We were forced to sit in our cars, miserable and wet, to wait for it to hopefully clear. After 30 minutes, we nearly decided to give up and go home. We both looked on our phones; the Android weather app told us it would be heavy rain all day and the iPhone’s weather app said it would end in 1-hour. Remaining optimistic we decided to trust the iPhone, and thankfully it was correct! Not long after, the rain stopped and clouds cleared, the familiar alarm went for the sighting laps to begin and we were smiling again.

It would be safe to assume we didn’t wait around and got straight onto the track for the sighting lap. Donnington Park Circuit is a track routed in history as it is the oldest UK motorsport circuit that is still in operation, since 1933. It was host to the first ever Grand Prix motorcycle race and the first World Superbike race. Donnington Park has also hosted Formula One and many other motorsports racing, next month it will be hosting the GT Cup Championship. The circuit layout we tracked on was the National Circuit, which is just shy of 2 miles (1.98m), which we discovered has a great combination of straights and technical corners/chicanes. One particular section, known as the “Craner Curves” requires quite a lot of bravery, as the bend takes you downhill and at the end of the curve then ascends up to the “Old Hairpin” as show on the map and image below. It took quite a few laps to pick up the courage to go through at the speed which some of the locals fly round.

We did a fair few laps on track, but didn’t yet get much opportunity to test the 996 Turbo vs the 996 GT2. It was difficult as the early part of the day there were lots of other people on the track and it was still very wet, so for our cars safety we weren’t pushing it and took this time to get used to the circuit.. We decided to come into the pits to make some adjustments to the tyre pressures. Whilst stopped we saw the red flags and saw others pitting, so knew that someone would have come off the track, which is quite common. To pass the time, we went for a walk and got a coffee. As we walked back, Joel noticed the red flag was gone and people were going back out, so decided to get back out on track whilst I decided to hold back and get photos and videos for our social media. Whilst I was doing this, I saw our friend who wasn’t looking too happy, I went over to talk to him and found out that the red flag was for him, as he lost it on one corner. Sadly, it was a corner directly walled with barriers and his GT2 was ruined. Absolutely gutted for him, and he said it was the end of the GT2 and he’d be selling it after this. Unfortunately, this is one of the risks on track days, and when Joel returned back off track was absolutely gutted to hear the news.

The previous article I wrote for our Spa track day came with a few dramas for the 1,000hp Turbo. However, thankfully we had no mechanical or otherwise issues with the car this time around. Considering we were tracking in the rain and wet, it was overall a fantastic day for the Porsche. It was a shame we didn’t get to test it vs a GT2, however there was other great cars out there to compare it with. Mainly, a BMW M4 with a few engine, exhaust and suspension upgrades. They M4 was driven by someone familiar on the track, who was very fast on corners, however said to us how amazing the Turbo was when pulling on the straights. Overall, a great day and met lots of amazing drivers. Cannot wait for our next track day in a month’s time!

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Author:

Jack Borsos – Purely Porsche