Before you dismiss this as “too technical”, you have to watch the video. Porsche rigged up a test system for it’s engine that looks like it’d be more at home at your local carnival than at the Porsche factory (think tilt-a-whirl). The video is short and it’s worth watching.
In a nutshell, Porsche has put the 911 dry-sump lubrication system on steroids. It now has four separate scavenge pumps to suck the oil out of the engine. So no matter where the oil is thrown inside the engine, it can be sucked out efficiently and made ready for the pressure pump to reuse. They even saw a 3 hp gain by going to this system. You can read more about it in the nice little summary post CarAndDriver.com put up a few months ago.
The dry sump improvement is perfect for this car. The C6 Z06 started using one and it is such a cool feature on any car driven on the track. I don’t think anyone else would benefit from one except on a “track” car.
On another note…my last track day in the Fall of ’08 was with the Porsche club. There were two GT3’s there that day, driving in the advanced/instructor class. I was talking to one of the owners (a perfect black GT3 beat). This is where I learned that the GT3 was all hardcore. No active handling, no traction control, no nanny’s helping you get out of a jam. It was all driver. That is scary…at least I would be scared of having a car with that kind of hp/weight/$$ going 150mph down the backstraight.
The time before this that I was with the Porsche club a beautiful black 996 911 Turbo found a tire wall and completely took out the drivers side of his car from the headlight to the taillight. It was sad. I had talked to him earlier in the day and he was a super nice guy driving in the advanced class. This was before the track redux and when the infamous “porsche bump” was still there at the beginning of the back straight causing much pain for a lot of good drivers who neglected to pay it respect.
The dry sump…good idea. New GT3…what a beast!
That is pretty cool. Technology is amazing.
That is cool! I mean no engine gets thrown around at those angles and for the sump to work in those conditions…..peace of mind for someone on the track with theirs!
Yeah, nice to know that your engine will still be getting plenty of oil when you are readlining it while it’s on its hood. Very good layman’s explanation of what a dry-sump does too.
redlining – not readlining.
lol thats so funny that you said “dont dismiss this as being too technical” because that was precisely my first thought when i opened it…
ANYway, it pretty interesting. I most liked the audio.