Most common cause for Green group crashes?

[Charles Freeborn]

No worries - we've all been where you are at some point. What tends to happen in the first year of HPDE is overthinking. The modern world with youtube, online, etc doesn't help - i.e. information overload. What helps the most, and what we're all advocating is to just get out and do it. A lot. The good news for us Porsche drivers is that our cars were at their very core built from racing experience and are incredibly durable when they're bone stock. I constantly hear people at DE's driving modern Mini's or other "sports" cars that have chewed up brakes, bearings, etc in one day. Depending on the track, a well maintained stock 911 can go the whole season on one set of pads. So what we're all saying is don't worry about the car - it's built to take it. Just get out as often as you can and get some miles under you. When you begin to rub up against the limits of your car (took me 3 years), then start thinking about upgrades. Brakes will be the first thing - a higher temp pad, and possibly some cooling. This is a good set up:
http://www.***************/catalogsearch/result/?q=brake+ducts
But bear in mind when doing upgrades that the original engineers had decades of data to draw on and have created a wonderfully balanced package. By switching out single components you'll often upset that balance and have a worse handling car. Perfect example is heavier torsion bars with otherwise original sways, shocks. A Porsche is a system.

[KTL]

Agreed with Charles. Driver needs the most maintenance/upgrading compared to the car. However, one thing I noticed about the car early on, which really struck me as impressive, is that when you have the car well sorted with top condition brakes (THE most important part of the car IMO- if you can't stop, you're fuched), good condition suspension, reasonably healthy engine, good tires, these cars can take a beating and be no worse for wear. I'd drive the car to the track, drive it hard, and on the ride home I was amazed that the car didn't feel beat up. Aside from the tires being a bit lumpy from picking up rubber, the transmission didn't feel funky, the brakes felt fine, the steering & suspension were OK, engine ran fine, etc. No new strange noises, squeaks or ratttles. I was sort of amazed the car could withstand that kind of workout and have it feeling the same way as you arrived with it

Then I drove with a close friend of mine and saw how he just beat the crap of the car. Not necessarily abusively, but REALLY hard. I thought to myself, wow, look at the beating his car takes and he too just keeps on driving it with only basic maintenance on it. These things are pretty tough little cars so maybe that'll put your mind at ease (but certainly don't be complacent) about what things to address and when

That said, nothing lasts forever. As the years roll on we'll start to see things break that haven't typically been an issue before.

[euro911sc]

'Green' crashes I have only seen 2 in the 20 years of running and it wasn't in the PCA. The PCA is the strictest and highest quality track organization that I have the pleasure of running with. That being said they get a lot of flack for 'holding' people back and not letting them advance. Ergo the good safety record.

I have been driving with non-PCA clubs for the last 5 years now and some of them, frankly, scare me. If I were a novice I would not be a happy novice. Poor quality instruction and the tendency of the instructors to pass the students to solo so they don't have to ride with them anymore and can go sit in the tent. Or no instructors at all with green students let loose on track to figure it out on their own.

The few green accidents I have seen were simply folks pushing their skills (or lack of skills) beyond the limit of their ability to recover from their mistakes. Even instructors make errors in judgement resulting in crashes. We are there to push our personal envelopes...